pleasantly combining salvation with business. If a Chinese missionary

were to come disseminating his eternal truths among us, we would laugh

at him first and bombard him with cabbages afterward. We would do this

because we are civilized and enlightened. We would make him understand

that he couldn't peddle his eternal truths in this market. China is one

of the few countries where perfect religious freedom prevails. It is one

of the few countries where no disabilities are inflicted on a man for

his religion's sake, in the matter of holding office and embezzling the

public funds. A Jesuit priest was formerly the Vice-President of the

Board of Public Works, an exceedingly high position, and the present

Viceroy of two important provinces is a Mohammedan. There are a

great many Mohammedans in China. The last clause of article 4 was not

absolutely necessary, perhaps. Still, it was well enough to have it

in. When the lower classes in California learn that they are forever

debarred from mutilating living Chinamen, their first impulse will

naturally be to "take it out" of the dead ones. But disappointment shall

be their portion. A Chinaman's "tail" is protected by law in California;

for if he lost his queue he would be a dishonored Chinaman forever, and

would forever be an exile. He could not think of returning to his native

land to offer his countrymen the absurd spectacle of a man without a

tail to his head. The Chinese regard their dead with a reverence which

amounts to worship. All Chinamen who die in foreign lands are shipped

home to China for permanent burial. Even the contracts which consign

the wretched Coolies to slavery at $5 a month salary and two suits of

clothes a year stipulate that if he dies in Cuba, the Sandwich Islands,

or any other foreign land, his body must be sent home. There are vast

The Treaty With China