MISS MALONEY ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 2468, 22 December 1871, Page 3

MISS MALONEY ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Och ! don't be talkin." Is it howld on ye say? An' didn't I howld on till the heart of me was claac broke entirely, aud me vrastin* that thin you could clutch me wid yer two hands ? To think o' me toilm like a nager for the sis year I've been in Amenky—bad luek to the day I ivei' left the owld eounthry!— to be bate by the like 3 O fheniijfaix an I'll sit do*a when I'm ready, so l TT'H, Ann Byan, an' ye'd better be lisf.enin' than drawing yer remarks.) An' is it meself, with five good characters from respectable places, would be herdin' wid the haythins ? The saints forgive me, but I'd •be buried alive sooner'n put up wid it a day longer. Sure an' I was the granehorn not to be lavin' at onst when missus kirn, into me kitclien wid her perlaver about the new waiterinan which was brought out froai Californy. -'He'll be here the night," says she, " and ELitty it's meself looks to you to be kind aud patient wid him, for he's a furriner," says she, a kindo' lookin' off. " Sure an' it's little I'll hinder nor interfere wid him nor any other, mum, says I, a kind o' stiff , , for I minded me how these French waiters, wid their paper collars and brass rings on their fingers, isn't company for no gurril brought up dacint and honest. Och ! sorra a bit I knew what was coinin' till the missus walked into me kitchen smilin'

and says kind o' schared : " Here's Fing Wing, Kitty ; an' you'll have too much sinse to mind his beiu' a little stbrange." Wid that she shoots the doore, and I misthrusting if I was tidied up sufficient for me fine buy, ■wid his paper collar, looks up and—Howly fathers ! may I niver brathe another breath, but there stud a haythin Ciiineser a grinnfn' like ho'd just come olf a tay-box ! if you'll belare me, the erayture was that yeller it 'ud sicken you to see him; and sorra stitch was on him but a black night-gown over his trousers, aud the front of his head t-haved claner nor a copper biler, and a black tail a-hangin' down from it behind, wid liis two feet stook into the heathinestest shoes you erer set eyes on. Och ! but I was up-stairs before you could turn about, a giyjn' the missus warnin' an' only stopo wid her by her raisin' me wages two dollars, and playdin' wid me how it was a Christian's duty to bear wid heathins and taitch 'em all in our power—the saints save us ! Well, the ways and trials I had wid that Ciiineser, Ann JKyan, I couldn't be tellin'. Mot a blissed thing cud Ido but he'd be lookin' on wid his eyes cocked up'ard like two poomp-haddles, an' he widout a. speck or smitzh o' whiskers on him, and his finger-nails full a yard long, but it's dyin' you'd be to see the missus a'larnin , , an' he a griunin' an' waggiu' his pig tail (which was pieced out long wid some black stoof, the haythin chate !) an' gettin' into her ways wonderful quick. I don't deny imitatin' that sharp you'd be shurprised, and ketchin' en' copyin' things the best of us will do a hurried wid work, yet don't want comin' to ilie knowledge of the family—bad luck to him ! Is it ate_ wid him ? ArraU, an' would I be sittin' wid a haythin an' he a-atin , wid drum-sticks— yes, an" atin' dogs an' cats unknownst to me, I warrant you, which it is the custom of the Ciiineser, till the thought made mo that sick 1 could die. An didn't the erayture proffer to help me a wake ago "come Toosday, and me a foldiii' down me clane clothes for the ironin' an' illl his haythiu mouth with wather, an' afore I could hinder squirrit it through his teeth stret over the best linen table-eloth, and fold it up tight, as innercent as a baby, the dirrity baste! But the worrest of it all was the copyin' lie'd be doin' till ye'd be dishthracted. It's yourself know the tinder feet that's on me since ever I've bin in this countliry. Well, owing to that, I fell into a way o' slippin' me shoe!) olf when I'd be settling down to pale the praties or the likes o' that; an', do JO mind, that haythin would do the same thing afther me whiniver the missus sen him to parin' apples or (omartorses. The saints iu Heaven couldn't hare made him belave lie cud kape the shoes on him when he'd be paylin' any thin'. Pid 1 Live for that ? Faix an' I aidn\. Didn't he get me into thruble wid my missus, the haythin? You're awareyerself how the boondles comiu' in from the grocery often contains more '11 '11 go into anything daciutly. L-o, for thai matter, I'd now and then take out a sup o' sugar, or flour, or tay, an' wrap it in paper, an' put it in uie bit of a box, tucked under the ironin'

blanket, tho how it cuddent be bodderin' auy one. Well, what shud it be, but this blessed ISathurday morn tlic missus was spakin' pleasant and respectful wid me in me kitchen when the grocer-boy comes in an' stands fornenst her wid his boondles, an' sho motions like to Ping Wing (which I never could call him by that name nor auy other but just haythin)—she motions to him, she does, for to take this boondles an' empty out the sugar an' what not where they belongs. If you'll belave me, Ann Hyan, what did that blatherin' Chinese? do but take out a sup o' sugar an' a handful o' tay, and a bit o' chaze, right afore the missus, wrap them into bits o' paper, an' I spacheless with, shurprise, and he the next minute up wid the ironin' blankit and pulling out me bos, wid a show o' beiu' sly to put them in. Oeh, the Lord forgive me, but I clutched it, an' the missus sayin' " t> Kitty !" in a way that 'ud curddle your blood. " He's a haythin nager," says I. " I've found out," says she. " I'll arrist him," say I. " It's you who ought to be arristed," says she. " You won t," says I. "I will," sajs she. And so it went till she give me such sags as I cuddent. take from no lady ; an' I gave her warnin' an' lelt that instant, aa" she a-pointin' to the doore.