AMONG THE CHINESE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 54, 4 March 1879, Page 4

AMONG THE CHINESE.

(Sydney Morning Herald.) Knowing that there is a very prevalent idea, notwithstanding statements to the contrary, that Chinese live on the cheapest and poorest food we are anxious to find some of them at dinner. It ia not the dinner hour at the time we visit the merchant, but we hear of apU»ee where we are likely to find jwhat we want, and forthwith we bend oar steps to a oabinetmaking establishment, and discover the Chinese workmen in the midst of tbeir mid-day meal. Bound two tables set in tbe middle of the workshop are seated two lots of Chinamen, numbering ia all about

twenty. Each has a small basin of rico in his left hand, while in his right, held between the fore fiager and "the thumb, are two chopsticks which serve him for both fork and spoon. Knife he does not require, for his food does not need cutting. Not because he eats nothing but rice, but because the cookery of the Chinese — in the workshops at all events — provides most thiogs in a minced coudition, which is a great assistance to mastication and also to digestion. Now ccc what they have for dinner here. That large tiu basin hanging above them and over the table contains rice as white and clear and well boiled, as, perhaps, it is possible for rice to be, and each man ladles from the dish sufficient rice to fill his basin, which he then takes to a saucepan near at hand, standing on the floor, and containing what appears to be a weak broth, and moistens the rice with a small ladleful of the liquid. This done, he seats himself at the table again, takes up hia chopslicke, aud prepares to eat. Bat he has scarcely tasted his rice by putting the edge of the basin to his mouth and dexterously shoveling iv a quantity by means of the chopsticks than his wooden fork darts down upon a plate of chopped meat, or chopped meat and vegetables, or chopped vegetables alone, all of which are before him, and ell of which are so clean aud inviting, notwithstanding the rude manner in which they are served, that the sight sharpens your appetite for your own lunch amazingly. Picking up a piece of meat or a pieca of vegetable between the two chopsticks, exactly in the manner a bird would pick it up with its bill, the Chinaman conveys it to bis basin, and deposits it on his rice, and then having been made more palatable by being raixeJ with the rice and the brotb, a touch (or something like a fillip) of the chopsticks Bends the eavoury morsel into his mouth. In this manner the Chinese workman dines, finishing his meal with, parhaps, a few preserves— a plate of which is sometimes placed upon the table — and always with a basin of weak tea, wbich is his constant drink. Now, watch them as they finish their dinner. There is no lying about, no idling, no lighting of pipes, each man takes his basin to the teapot and has a drink of tea, and away he goes to his work again, one with less appetite than the rest is busily sharpening the knife of a plane some minuiea before the rest have risen from tbe table, and all are at their places in the workshop and at work in less time than it would take many a European tradesman to cut his tobacco and fill his pipe. See how they work. That fellow planing the top of a table is using both hands to bis plane, and driving it across the grain of the wood straight from bis cbeßt, by which plan he is able to apply about twice tbe force to his work that a European tradesmen can apply by working his plane from his side. And that Chinaman at his bench. He has learned the use of his limbs so thoroughly, that he is as valuable as a man, with three arms and tbree hands. His bench is an inclined atool, and seated across tbe higher part he is chisejling some piece of cabinetwork which lies before him. A European workman would need to put the wood in a vice, but tbe Chinamen knows no necessity for that, and while his bauds are occupied with the hammer and chisel, bis left foot is withdrawn from bia shoe end raised to the bench, his toes corniDg down upon the piec9 of wood ha ia working at and holding it with so firm a grip that the blows do not move it in the least. Them is i.nolher workman ia the same way, aud another sharpening n chisol on v alone which he holJa in its place by ineaiis of his ioe.3. O/ie more feature of a Chinese furuiture workshop, aod our visit comes to an eu I. Some very lurge lops of co:l&r s'Jjjgesia a a*wpi> near nt hand somewhere-, Bud there at one side of tbn yard it is, but rather out of sight, au.! uot likely to attract attention were it not for tba m-a?ureJ hisaitiij of the e^w. Curious to set; what sort fa picture a Chinese ia a siwpit presents wo walk across tao yard, and as the saw ceases to mov-, are rather atsrih-d lo hcav ia gruff umee from what appears to be the top-sawytr "Very wat'm to-day, eir." Ami the»\ while wa aro wondering thai a Ctiinaroan Bhould make such r.n o^BervaJion, up cornea a m«n (torn ihu pit, and as he seats birn-jjlf upoa the half-iawn cedcr log by tha shle of his m<ue, we see two perspiring European?, one mopping his ruauiug forehead, and the other cleaning tbe bow! of his pipe with the blade of his pocket-kuifc. What does that mean, we ask ? Why, it means, we ere told, that the Chinese njver do the hard work, but get it dona by employing Europeans to do it. Inside a doorway, over which is a small, square signboard, in Chinese, I and by the aide of which is a window that looks like the window of an untidy cookshop, are the rooms, the furniture, and the materials, which form, under one roof, what appear to be a Chinese restaurant, a doctor's dispensary, an opium Bhop, a gnmbJing-place, a lodging house, and tho home of a Chinese family. Juat inside the doorway, on tbe right, is the cookshop, or kitchen, where the Chinese cook, with a square face and a bald head, and wearing tbe usual baker's apron, ia kneeding some dough by means of a wooden lever inBtead of his hands ; and beyond the cookehop is a patch of darkness in which tbe glimmer of an opium lamp makes a staring Chinaman, sitting upon a bed, do more distinct than a shadow. A «hort, but deeply-indented staircase, leadß to a long length of dark little

cabins, each with Us opium lump and smoking apparatus, and some with apathetic or exhausted oceupanfs, who are either preparing the opium pipe for a smoke, or sleeping off the effects of the opium fumes. The doctor, ia bis crib, which seetna to contain little else than whity. brown paper packages., says "Opium no good, no good," but grinning as he saya it, walks info a room where there is a reclining Chinaman, and causes him to go through the whole process of opium smoking for our information. Wo learn afterwards from a more reliable source than the doctor, — that the sale of opium through the whole colony every month is about 26 cases, in each of which is about 471 bor 481 bof the drug ; that it is sold at about 60s the pound ; that about 150 or 160 of the Chinese in the colony are regular smokers — others, of course, may smoke occasionally ; and that opium sellers make little profit, because the opium trade is hampered by a heavy duty. A long passage, on one side of which the sleeping-rooms of the house look like a disreputable set of ship's cabins, ends in one place in a kind of kitchen, and an extremely small yard, not particularly dirty, and not particularly clean, and in another place at a short flight of steps, which lead to a couple of rooms larger than[aoy we have seeu in the other parts of the house, and occupied by the Chinese family. On« of the rooms is crowded in an extraordinary manner with a mixture of Chinese and European furniture, pictures and ornaments ; end judging from the remains of food on a side table, evidently is a dining room as well as a parlor. Here you see the proprietor and his wife and children. We meet the proprietor, however, long before we see his wife, for, aware of the fact that visitors have entered the house, he approaches us immediately we ascend the stairs, and ia a most friendly way professes himself in bis few words of English very glad to see us. Why he should smile so mucb, however, and why he should bustle about so briskly that his pigtail jerks about his back something like a whip, we cannot at the moment understand ; and while we are wondering what be means, up comes a pretty and interesting Chinese girl of about twelve or thirteen yeare, with an offering of cigars. We accept gracefully, and are

soon in for another present, — this time from the mistress of;, the establishment, and she produoes a couple of eilk handkerchiefs, which, it seems, we are bound to take, or greatly offend by a refusal. Then she busies heraelf to put wine on the table, and we must perforce taste of this Chinese vintage, but while doing so, the idee occurs to us that nil this apparent kindness and expreßßiou of friendship is not due to a desire to be hospitable, but that some of it is prompted by a conviction that the establishment is not one that will recommend itself to an observing visitor, and that it is wise, therefore to propitiate him.