Sketches New and Old


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can say the same for the rest of the speakers.  
JOHN CHINAMAN IN NEW YORK  
As I passed along by one of those monster American tea stores in New  
York, I found a Chinaman sitting before it acting in the capacity of a  
sign. Everybody that passed by gave him a steady stare as long as their  
heads would twist over their shoulders without dislocating their necks,  
and a group had stopped to stare deliberately.  
Is it not a shame that we, who prate so much about civilization and  
humanity, are content to degrade a fellow-being to such an office as  
this? Is it not time for reflection when we find ourselves willing to  
see in such a being matter for frivolous curiosity instead of regret and  
grave reflection? Here was a poor creature whom hard fortune had exiled  
from his natural home beyond the seas, and whose troubles ought to have  
touched these idle strangers that thronged about him; but did it?  
Apparently not. Men calling themselves the superior race, the race of  
culture and of gentle blood, scanned his quaint Chinese hat, with peaked  
roof and ball on top, and his long queue dangling down his back; his  
short silken blouse, curiously frogged and figured (and, like the rest of  
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Quick Jump
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