4 
INTRODUCTORY. 
In many quartz-mines and stamp-mills throughout the West, Chinese 
labor is employed for certain inferior purposes, such as dumping cars, 
surface excavation, etc. But in most cases there is little gained by it, 
as these positions could probably be filled as well and as cheaply by 
boys, old men, etc., from non-celestial climes. The best region for as 
certaining the real qualities of this race as miners is, so far as 1 know, 
that of the southern mines of California. In Merced, Mariposa, and 
Tuolumne Counties, for instance, where the decadence of placer mining 
has removed a great part of the skilled white labor, many Chinese have 
been employed for years in quartz-mining. Even before the construc 
tion of the Pacific Railroad, there were Chinese miners in the stupes of 
the Mariposa, Josephine, and Pine-Tree; and in these noted mines they 
are still employed to a greater or less extent. I have seen in the Mari 
posa whole shifts of brawny pig tail wearers, some of whom had fol 
lowed the business for ten, twelve, or fifteen years. 
Putting together the results of experience in all quarters, I arrive at 
the following conclusions: 
1. Neither praise nor condemnation can be sweepingly bestowed upon 
Chinese miners as a class. They show individual character, just as 
other people do. Calling them all “John,” and treating them all 
alike, is a measure of ignorance, fatal to successful management. Even 
the characteristics which they appear to possess in common, whether 
good or bad, would, I think, disappear if they were less rigorously ex 
cluded from the rest of the world. 
2. It is troublesome, on some accounts, to run a mine manned entirely 
by Chinese. They put little faith in the promises of employers, and are 
pretty certain to stop work if not promptly paid. Even after long ex 
perience of fair dealing, they do not seem to acquire confidence in this 
respect; and they remain to-day, as they always have been, the most 
reasonable in the matter of wages, arid the most unreasonably exact in 
the matter of payment, of all our laborers. No doubt this distrust is 
due partly to the difference of race, partly to the injustice and dishon 
esty with which they have been treated ; but, whatever be the cause, 
the fact is palpable, and not unfrequently seriously injurious to mining 
enterprises in remote districts, where the money does not always arrive 
just in time for pay-day, and where the miners, once lost, cannot be im 
mediately replaced. 
Another obstacle to the exclusive employment of Chinese is the fre 
quency of their religious festivals and holidays. On these occasions, 
according to the reports of employers in Mariposa County, they leave 
the mines en masse, and cannot be induced to work, for sometimes a 
week together. 
3. Chinese skilled miners are quite equal to those of any other race. 
In some instances they surpass white men employed in the same mines. 
The number of those who have had sufficient experience to give them 
equal advantages in the comparison is of course small. Apparently,