MISS MALONEY ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 199, 23 November 1871, Page 7

MISS MALONEY ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Och ! don't be talkin'. Is it howld on, ye say ? An' didn't I howld on till the heart of me was clane broken entirely, and me wastin' that thin you could clutch me wid yer two hands ? To think o' me toilin' like a nager for the six year I've been in Ameriky — bad luck to the day I iver left the owld counthry ! — to be bate by the likes o' them ! (faix an' I'll sit down when I'm ready, so I will Ann Ryan, an ye'd better be listenin' than drawin' your remarks.) An' is it mysel 1 , with five good characters from respectable places, would be herdin' with the haything ? The saints forgive me, but I'd be buried alive sooner'n put up wid it a day longer. Sure an' I was the granehorn not to be lavin' at onet when the missus kirn into me kitchen wid her/perlaver about the new waiterman which was brought out from Californy. " He'll be here the night," says she, " and, Kitty, its meself looks to you to be kind and patient wid him, for he's a furriner," says she, a kind o' lookin' off. " Sure an' its little I'll hinder not interfere with him nor any other, mum," says I, a kind o' Btiff, for I minded me how these French waiters wid their paper collars and brass rings on their fingers, isn't company for no gurrii brought up decint and honest. Och! sorra a bit I knew what was comin' till the missus walked into me kitchen smilin', and says kind o' schared : " Here's 3?ing Wing, Kitty ; an' you'll have too much sinseto mind his bein 1 a little strange." Wid that shoots the doore, and I, misthrustiug if I was tidied up cufficient for me fine buy, wid his paper collar,, looks up and — Howly fathers ! may I never brathe another breath, but there stud a rale haythin Cliiueser a-grinnin' like he'd j vat come oft' a tay-box. If you'll belave me, the cray ture was that yeller it 'ud sicken you to see him;" and sorra stitch was on him but a black night-gown over his trowsers, and the front of his head shaved clancr nor a copper biler, and a, black tail a-bauging down from it behind, with his two feet stook into tbe heathinestest shoes you ever set eyes on. Oeh ? but I was upstairs afore you could turn about, a givin' the missus warnin' an' only stopt wid her by her raisin' me wages two dollars, and playdin' wid me how it was a Christian's duty to bear wid haythins and taitch 'em all in our power — the saints save us ! Well, the ways and trials I had wid that Chineser, Ann Ryan, I couldn't be tellin'. Not a blissed thing cud Ido but he'd be looken' on wid his eyes cocked up'ard like two pooinp-handles, an' he widdout a speck or smitch o1o 1 whisbkers on him, an' his finger-nails full a yard long. But it's dyin' you'd be to see the missus a'larnin' and, he grinnm' an' waggin' his pig-tail (which was pierced out long wid some black stoof, the haythin chate !) and gettin' into her ways wonderful quick. I don't deny, imitatiu' that sharp you'd be shurprised, and ketchin' an' Copyin' things the best of us will do a-hurried wid work, yet don't want comin' to the knowledge of the family — bad luck to him!

Is it ate wid him ? Arrah, an would I be sittiu' wid a haythin an' he a-atin' wid druji-sticks — yes, an' atin' dogs and cats, unknownst to me, I warrant you, which it is the custom of them Chiueser, till the thought made me that sick I could die. An' didn't that crayther proffer to help me a wake ago come Toosday, an' me a foldin' down me clane clothes for the ironiu' an' fill his haythin mouth wid water, an' afore I could hinder squirrit it through his teeth stret over the best linen table-cloth, and fold it un tight, as innercent now as a baby, the dirrity baste ! But the worrest of it all waß the copym' he'd been doin' till ye'd be distracted. It's yersel' know the tiuder feet that on me since ever I've bin in this counthyr. Well, owing to that, I fell into a way o' slippin' me shoes off when I'd be setting down to pale the praities or the likes o' that ; and, do ye mind, that haythin would do the same thing after me whiniver the missus set him to parin' apples or tormaterses. The saints in Heaven couldn't have made him believe he cud kape the shoes on him when he'd be paylin, anything.

Did I lave for that! Faix an' I didn't. Didn't he get me into trouble wid my missus, the haythin ? You're aware yersel' how the boondles comin' in from the grocery often contains more 'n '11 go into anything decinly. So, for that matter, I'd now and then take out a sup o' sugar, or flour, or tay, an' wrap it in paper, an' put in me bit of a box tucked under the , ironin' blanket, the how it cuddent be bodderin' any one. Well, what shud it be, but this blessed Sathurday morn the missis was a spakin' pleasant and | respectful wid me in me kitchen when the grocer-boy comes in an' stands i fornenst her wid hh boondless, an' she motions like to Ping Wiug (which I never could call him by that name nor any other, but just haythin) — she motions to him, she does, for to take the boondles an' empty out the sugar an' what not where they belongs. If you belave me, / nn, Ryan, what did thai blatherin 1 Chineeer do but take out a, sup o' sugar, an' a handful o' tay, an' a bit of chaze, right afore the missus, wrap them into bits o1o 1 paper, an' I spacheless wid shurprise, and he the next minute up wid the ironin' blankit an' pulling out me box, wid a show o' beiu' sly to put them in. Oeh,

the Lord forgive me, but I clutched it, and the missus sayin' " O Kitty I" in a way that 'ud curdle your blood. " He's a haythin nager," says I. " I've found you out," says ahe. *' I'll arrist him," says I. " It's you who ought to be arrested," says she. " You won't," says I. " I will," says she. And so it went on till she give me such ease as I cuddent take from no lady ; an' I gave her warnin' an' left that instant, an 1 she a-pointin' to the doore.