As A Chinaman Saw Us | Page 3

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have met thousands
who hail from this stock. At one time England sent her criminals to
Virginia--one of the United States--and many of the refuse of the home
country were sent to other parts of America in the early days. Younger
sons of good families were also sent over for various reasons. Women
of all classes were sent by the ship-load, and sold for wives. I reminded
a lady of this, who was lamenting the fact that in China some women
are sold for wives. She was absolutely ignorant of this well-known fact
in American history, and forgot the selling of black women. Among the
men were many representatives of old and noble families; but the bulk,
I judge from their colonial histories, were people of low degree. Very
soon other countries began to ship people to America. Italy, Germany,
Russia, Norway, Sweden, and other lands were drawn upon for
constantly increasing numbers as years went by. All tumbled into the
American hopper. Imagine a coffee-grinder into which have been
thrown Greek, Roman, Jew, Gentile, and all the rest, and then let what
they call Uncle Sam--a heroic, paternal, and comical figure,
representing the government--turn the handle and grind out the
American who is neither Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, Russe, or Swede,
but a new product, sui generis, and mostly Methodist.
This process has never ceased for an hour. America has been from 1492
to the present time, in the language of the American "press," the
"dumping-ground" of the nations of the world, the real open door; yet
this grinding assimilation has gone on. It is, perhaps, due to the climate,
perhaps the water, or the air; but the product of these people born on
the soil is described by no other word than American. It may be
Irish-American, very offensive; Dutch-American, very strenuous, like
the Vice-President;[1] Jewish-American, very commercial;
Italian-American, very dirty and reeking with garlic; but it is American,

totally unlike its progenitor, a something into which is blown a
tremendous energy, that is very wearisome, a bombast which is the sum
of that of all nations, and a conceit like that possessed by ---- alone.
You see it is incurable, also offensive--at least to the Oriental mind. Yet
I grant you the American is great; I have it from him and from her; it
must be so.
You have the spectacle here of the nations of the world pouring a
stream, that is not pactolean, and not perfumed with the gums of Araby,
flowing in and peopling the country. In time they had grievances more
fancied than real, yet grievances. They rose against the home
government, threw off the English yoke, and became a republic with a
division into States, which I will write of when I tell you of the
American politician. This was the first trust--what they call a
merger--but it occurred in politics. They have killed off a fair
percentage of the actual owners of the soil, the Indians, swindling them
out of the balance, and driving them back to a sort of ever-changing
dead-line. Without delay they assumed the form of a dominant nation,
and announced themselves the greatest nation on the earth.
Immigration was resumed, and all nations again sent their refuse
population to America. I have facts showing that for years English
poorhouses and hospitals were emptied of their inmates and shipped to
America. It was a distinct policy of the anti-home-rule party in Ireland
to encourage the poor Irish to go to America; and now when there are
more Irish in America than in Ireland the fate of Ireland is assured. Yet
the American air takes the fight out of the Irishman, the rose from his
cheek, and makes a natural-born politician out of him. America still
continued to receive immigrants, and not satisfied with the natural flow
of the human current, began to import African slaves to a country
founded for the benefit of those who desired an asylum where they
could enjoy religious and political freedom. The Africans were sold in
the cotton belt, their existence virtually creating two distinct political
parties. America long remained a dumping-ground for nearly all the
nations of the world having an excess of population. Great navigation
companies were built up, to a large extent, on this trade. They sent
agents to every foreign country, issued pamphlets in every European

language, and uncounted thousands were brought over--the scum of the
earth in many instances. There was no restriction to immigration until
the Chinese were barred out. After accepting the outlaws of every
European state, the poor of all lands, they shut the door on our "coolie"
countrymen.
In this way, briefly, America has grown to her present population of
80,000,000. The remarkable growth and assimilation is still going on--a
menace to the world, but in
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