DETROIT, JULY 80, 1892. THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement. JULY. How fast the days and summers fly Bringing the rich month of July When farmers work their best. Balmy breezes blowing sweet Over the waving golden wheat, With little time to rest. Robin says his merriest tune Over the clover fields in bloom At four each summer morn, Wakes us to work when days are warm, To reap the wheat and fill the barn, And cultivate the corn. Some in their camps may rest so free. And some splash in the summer sea, And rest each weary head. While farmers work with might and speed There's sixty millions here to feed With fruit and daily bread. YPSILANTI. WM. LAM 'c‘lE. v~--——-- rm“ FROM THE GOLDEN STATE Finding so much of summer’s beauty and charm in midwinter here, the visitor is less interested in those enter- tainments we usually seek during the bleak. barren months of our northern winter. Yet there is occasionally something of special interest to a stranger, and when every one at the hotel said I should not miss seeing the Chinese celebration of their New Year’s day, Jan. 29. I felt it incumbent upon me to visit Chinatown on that occasion. Rather anovel, sharp wel- come we received, too. The pig-tailed indiv1duals love a boom. We got an extra Fourth of July over there. There are about two thousand Chinese here. Their quarters are in no way attractive: 10w buildings, close. and dirty looking. All colors in lanterns, papers and cheap decorations were: flying. Their joss house was open and some of the altar decorations were rich and elegant, though these re- ligious offerings and emblems are in- explicable to us. The chief factor in the celebration seemed to be fire- crackers, which were the sharpest ever burst. Wherever we went they dew. and the trail of their ashes was over us all. Shops were open, though nothing was of much interest in them. The numerous Japanese stores distributed among our own- business blocks carry a variety of curious and beautiful articles. In Chinatown everything seemed insignificant. Pails of tea with cups to drink out of sat crowd on the counters, free to all. There were some very good looking young men. many old. wizened~faced, evil-eyed ones, seeming scarcely human. There are narrow dark halls all over, irom which fantastically dressed Celestiais emerged in every direction. The little boys are cute with flowing garments and bright colors braided in their hair. Their women are sometimes to be seen. but the life 01' most Chinese women in America is degraded to the most bestialslavery3 and they are securely guarded. i: being almost impossible for one to escape from the dens where they are confined. There is abouse of refuge at San Francisco for these poor creatures. and occasionally one is rescued from the horrible life. she is forced tclivc by these men who believe woman has no soul. They are so gross and ignorant they not infrequently try to purchase an American girl. One of them buying fruit ataranche. at- tracted by the bright young daughter of a wealthy gentleman there. oiiered two hundred dollars for the girl, seizing her arm as she passed near him. He received a lesson he will not soon for— get. As we walked along. our attention was called to a closed, curtained house where we were told the Cclestials were practicing for the evening concert. A regular Thomas orchestra! Such cat- like. ear-splitting, bawling notes never passed for other than feline entertain- ment. I had supposed. Their theatres l have not had the courage to attend. They select some famous character among their people and play for six months sometimes on that. delineating his life in all its details. The. play- goer pays seventy~five cents for the first. two hours, after that. as the even- ing advances, the price diminishes, till after midnight we can enter for a trifle: the play closes about two o’clock. These peculiar people have one cus- tom at New Year’s which is very com- mendable. Al- accounts are settled among them. and they begin the open- -m.-- “—0 - ..-... c. ing year with a clean page. Each is obliged to pay his debt, if possible: any- thing he possesses must be sold to cancel obligations. If it is impossible for him to meet a debt, the books are destroyed, and in any case the year be- gins anew to him. The Chinese are not only the laundry men of this country, but its vegetable huckster‘. In fact they work in every capacity as servants, as cooks and on the ranches, and they work hard. They make large profits from raising wage. tables, renting land near the city at twenty—five or thirty dollars per acre for the year. They net I am told one. hundred dollars or more per acre from cabbage sold to shippers at seventeen cents per hundred, and caulill were at thirty cents per dozen. Beside, they raise three crops of vegets ables during the year. There are no harder workers, and they are not spoiled by our public school systeml (lo the train one day, I heard a man saying he had always looked upon our system of public education as a nuisance and detriment to the country. The children were educated and the result was they didn’t want to till the soil. They must go to town and would earn. their living by sharp practices rather than industry. The Chinaman suc- ceeds both by sharp practice and in- dustry. They are pleasant and oblig- ing, and curious as Yanke; 5. One day I was reading on the veranda when our vegetable John came along. They all greet every one around the house by a hearty “Hello!” At “Pat 1 was in- clined to return such familiarity with some chilliness. but 500‘ l accepted it as part of the informal, free and easy manners of the “wild and wooly west ” in general. After his usual. greeting, John had to stop to ask me what I had. l told him a book; I was reading it. Then he wanted to know what it was about. As it happened to treat 0f the Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms, I could not make the subject very clear to my simple questioner. it happened one morning another pedrller got the start of John—they have their round of customers when he came along and found it out he scolded and chattered and cacklcd in great rage. His out- break sounded likc nothingr in human articulation I ever heard. If vegetable and strawberries grow here every month in the year as they say, one does not find them even at the best hotels. Not till March did we see much but cabbage and cauliflower; peas and asparagus come in April quite plentifully, and strawberries at twenty" five cents per box.‘ By the last of April you can get four boxes for the same. and vegetables are very reasonable in 21.“. gm ,,_ h": :.~.