Sketches New and Old


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aware that the Constitution has made America an asylum for the poor and  
the oppressed of all nations, and that, therefore, the poor and oppressed  
who fly to our shelter must not be charged a disabling admission fee,  
made a law that every Chinaman, upon landing, must be vaccinated upon the  
wharf, and pay to the state's appointed officer ten dollars for the  
service, when there are plenty of doctors in San Francisco who would be  
glad enough to do it for him for fifty cents.  
It was in this way that the boy found out that a Chinaman had no rights  
that any man was bound to respect; that he had no sorrows that any man  
was bound to pity; that neither his life nor his liberty was worth the  
purchase of a penny when a white man needed a scapegoat; that nobody  
loved Chinamen, nobody befriended them, nobody spared them suffering when  
it was convenient to inflict it; everybody, individuals, communities, the  
majesty of the state itself, joined in hating, abusing, and persecuting  
these humble strangers.  
And, therefore, what could have been more natural than for this  
sunny-hearted-boy, tripping along to Sunday-school, with his mind teeming  
with freshly learned incentives to high and virtuous action, to say to  
himself:  
"Ah, there goes a Chinaman! God will not love me if I do not stone him."  
And for this he was arrested and put in the city jail.  
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138 139 140 141 142

Quick Jump
1 101 201 302 402