LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5651, 27 December 1879, Page 6

LATEST AMERICAN GOSSIP.

[FliOM OUR OWN" CORRESPONDENT.] San Francisco, November 24. THE CHINESE CURSE. Tns continued inpour of the Mongolian race is justly causing considerable anxiety, and unless the new Legislature does something to alleviate the conditions there will be trouble of no measured kind. It would not surprise me to wake up some morning and find the streets deluged in blood. The Chinese are becoming more detestable every day ; so much has been said, and so many unperformed threats hurled at them, that th-y seem to take it for granted they are free to a:t as they please, and they are becoming overbearing and tyrannical in the extreme. I can speak feelingly on my own account. A few instances ivill show how much in their hateful power we are. Three month;? ago I lost some clothes through my copper-c doured laundrymau, so I naturally refused to pay his bill until he produced them, and at once dismissed him, hearing no more of him or my lost linen. Two weeks ago, a decent-looking Mongol came recorai mended as a good washinan. I gave him about 40 dollars' worth of things, which, however, he never brought back. I had him arrested for robbery, but the judge oE the Criminal Court, or rather the "Hoodlum" Court, named Fcrral, dismissed the ease, preferring rather to take the oath of a dirty Chinaman, wiio set up for his d-fence that he had a lien on the clothes for the debt of his friend, who, he claimed, was a partner, than the statement of a white lady. After that, by another process of law, I got part of the clothes, which were taken possession of by the Sheriff, to be returned to me at the expiration of five days. They were returned ceitainly, minus what wese taken while in the Sheriff's offiie. But, of course, there is no retires* ; the Court gives the verdict for the Chinaman every time, and thus the Chinamen defy you. If you fail to pay your washman, even though he lose your clothes, his low will enable him, in the course of mouths maybe, to introduce another of his craft who kieps your linen until you pay the whole amount, past and present, and to get back your elothts you must pay fome 20 dollars fees. The Chinese servants have raised th-dr wages enormously. Why not, when they are so petted aud indulged? And the impudence they give is refreshing. For instance, I said to my boy the other day. "Sing, wash the kitchea floor." I won't." "Why not?" 41 1 don't feel like it; you waut tloor washoe, you go wash." "Put on a clean apron to wait at table, Sing." "I w«-n*t, you no likee, you wait yourself." Of c urse I ha 1 to turn him out, aud yet he had lived with us a year. They arc becoming such a scourge that I feel confident bloodsh.d will be the end of the matter, and nothing else will exterminate them. An editor siid to me yesterday, "If the new Legislature does not h-dp us, [ will let Ke irney alone for ever, to do as he will."i And this editor is a man of peace. A Ch namm now-adays thinks nothing of calling his mistress a "dam fool," or saying "You go devd." Four years ago they were a quiet, well-disposed set of domestics, but they are altered so as to be hardly recognisable. Weil, they are our guests, and we must put up with them, I suppose, out of courtesy.

MR. OWEN'S PRESENT. Mr. Owen is the renowned octogenarian comedian who is at present drawing large houses, and delighting tlio public at the pretty little standard Theatre, BusU-strcet. The old gentleman, who lives at the Palace Hotel, was taking an afternoon nap the other day somewhere about three in the afternoon, when he heard, through his partially dreamy state, a loud knocking at: the door. "Couie in," he sing out. No response, but he heard a rustle as of a silken garment, sweeping quii-kly down the e >rridor ; so Mr. Owen got up half asleep and opened the door. The rustle of the receding garments was faintly heard, but, Jo, on the mat, smiling up in his faeej lay a blue-eyed baby about three mouths old. Mr. Owen took the baby into his arms, and at ouce found a uoto pinned to its dress which read thus: —"My dear sir, —I have seen your performance of Higgins, iu ' Dr. Clyde,' and consider it one of the fino.*t impersonations I ever witnessed. The only way in which I can cviucc my gratitude to you is by offering you one of the loveliest infants I could select from the Orphan Asylum. Take it aud cherish it, and may God bless and prosper you.—Ax Unknown Admihkh." Poor Mr. Owen stood aghast, feeling inclined to throw his present down, but a little velvet hand knocked him lightly ou the chin, and the big blue eyes smiled up in his face, causing tears to well up in the eyes of the comediau, who at oneo rcsolvod to tak-i hia present with becoming grace, and calling up a lady he knew, immediately provided his bantling with a new outfit, and set to work to feed aud attend to his newly I adopted boy. It may not be believed, but : the dear old gentleman actually attends to the baby, and takes it down to the theatre at night with him. As Mr. Owen is very rich, we may conclude that it is a pretty good thing for the baby. LENDING HER BLOOD. A very curious case has recently occurred in the shape of an experiment ou trausfnsing blood. A few weeks ago, an aged coloured woman called upon a well-known doctor, imploring him to come quickly to her i husband who was dying. The Esculapius 1 made all baste to attend, and found the man in an almost dying state. He being somewhat of an invalid through rheumatism, his wife kept the wolf from the door by washing. It appears she had been out following her avocation for three days, upon her return she found her poor old mau almost starved. He had been nnable to move from the bed, and no one had been near him to render aid. The wife immediately procured beefsteak and other things, and staffed h ; m to such a degree that his stomach rebelled, being weak, and he, consequently, vomited everything, even to the lightest diet. Restoratives failed, and he was slowly sinking, when the doctor, who wished to makcan experimont, proposed transfusing a portion of the wife's blood into his arm. She agreed, and the operation wa3 performed. Two ounces of the fluid passed from the wife to the husband, &nd in quite a short time he was euableJ to take nourishment, slowly regaining health a few days ago. The old man called in the same doctor to the wife, ■who was sick and unable to keep food on her stomach. The doctor prescribed, but without effect. "It's no use, doctor," she said, " it's that blood of mine I lent the old miu. I must have it back." The doctor was c\ismayed, and protested against it, but the woman insisted. In vain did hr medical adviser assure her of the danger of the operation. Nothing would suiiice—Shy-lock-like, she demanded back her blood. With the consent of both parties, the doctor, under protest, returned to the wife the sanguinary liquid, after which she immediately became better and ate some food. Was it imagination ? I don't know ; only this is true, that she is now all right again. A STRIKE.

The cabinetmakers struck three weeks ago, and are holding out bravely. Their present wages are two dollars per diem, upon which they deuiaud a rise of 25 per cent, per day. They threaten, if their terms are uot conceded to, to establish a furniture manufacturing couipinj, which their Union would control—the whole body being members of the Trades Union. Both masters and men remain firm, neither will budge an inch. Moimvhile, funds are there to relieve any distress, the married menreceiving nine dollars per week, the single men six dollars. I'hese funds come from the union. The masters have tried to raise the price of furniture to enable them to p.iy higher wages, but the people object ; therefore, there is no telling how the matter will end eventually. The cabinetmakers are the worst paid workmen in the city. A slcilful workman can make not mora than eight dollars per week, in consequence of which they prefer going around jobbing. Even the Chinese refused to take the employment up under the present system (piece-work), as it would not pay them, who live on—well, you may say, nothing. What ! Nothing? Well, hardly anything. The system of piece - work consists in pay. ing each workman by the dozen for bedsteads, tables, bureaus, &0., &c. The prices vary according to the machine work done. For walnut bedsteads, 27 dollars per dozen is paid; for bureaus, 24dollars; and for tables, 8 dollars. A smart workman, by unceasing labour, will finish a dozen bedsteads in fifteen dayß ; but three weeks, and three and a half weeks, is the general time taken to complete these elaborate pieces of furniture. Witii wear-and-tear of tools and the expense of moving the work, as the men are obliged to do, little is ltft oat of euch small wages for rent, clothing, &c. The effect the strike has had is the rise in second-hand furniture. Articles hitherto bought at ineroly nominal prices are now at as high a figure as the new

money but no goods," and those he had for sale were raised in value at least three per cent. And, apropos o£ fcrniture, it is astonishing what a difference exist i between the household belongings here and those of Emope. The best furniture is madia exclusively of black walnut, not polished, but simply oiled in the panels and plain portions, only the filagree work is poliihed; but wardrobes aud bedsteads are for the most part perfectly void of gloss, yet they are handsome exceedingly. The bedsteads have high heads which tower up against the white walls to a height of sometimes six feet, the foot-board, iu pn.p irtion, elaborately cirved and ornamented. All the washstands, tables, aud bureaus are mari le-topped, the base of the tables being very elaborate, aud generally of oval-sliape. Never a cloth of brilliant colour takes oif from tlis ghostly white of the marble, which freezes your blood to touch iu the cold spring days. No lady thinks her household finished unless every article is of black walnut. The chairs are Vt-ry ponderous, and highly carved in the woodwork ; while the seats are invariably stuffed and tabbed down like a mattrass, with puffings of velvet satin or rep round the edge of the seat. There is no variety whatever from this style, and almost all the parlours (drawing-rooms we call them) are furnished iu brown rep with scarlet puffings; Ecarlet carpets are invariably used, though lately dark colours prevail ; black and brown grounds with vivid patiirns are the most elegant. No one lives in their front parlour ; the Venetian blinds, yellow in colour, are shut day aud as though the house was iu mourning for a departed member. The furniture—black wainut, red satin or rep, here and there a gilded chair, a shut piano, and nothing to tell of every day life—is what you see iu an American parlour. It may be grand, but certainly is not comfortable. Silver Pen'.