Page:James Hudson Maurer - The Far East (1912).pdf/54

 much of a feat, he replied, laughingly, 'I would not have undertaken it.'

"He also spoke of the wonderful manner in which the Chinese move heavy objects. When a heavy casting for instance, has to be moved, a labor contractor is called. He looks the job over and quickly says 'Yes, can do,' names his price, gathers his coolies and by a system of extending his carrying poles so that many men can get at the weight effectively, they actually pick up the object and walk off with it. In this way they carried a steam hammer anvil weighing 20 tons for half a mile, and many other awkward and heavy objects that were shown us. Said the gentleman who told us this: 'When one sees how the Chinese handle these heavy objects it can be readily understood how the Egyptians might have handled the great blocks of stone that built the pyramids.'

"Wages are very low in China. At the Hankow Steel Works, for example: Rollers get from $4 to $6 per month; heaters on furnaces, $6 per month; helpers on furnaces, $4 to $5 per month; open-hearth steel melters, $6; first helpers, steel melters, $5.50; blacksmiths, $7.50 to $20; bollermakers, $7.50 to $10; common labor men about 7½ cents per day; common labor women, 5 cents per day; Chinese get from $11 to $15 per mouth. All the common labor at these works are paid in full each night and hired anew each morning. The people must have the money to live. All the above is American money.

"The bricklayers and stone masons on buildings get about sixty cents Mexican money or thirty cents gold per day. When employed at piecework they will make $1 a day, but to do this work from dawn to dark nearly. The bricklayer's trowel is a small butcher's cleaver in shape and with it he lifts the mortar and cuts the brick. The pointing up of joints is done with a simple tool that forces a bit of round iron into the joint, where it rubs a round grove in the mortar; for finer work they use a V-shaped tool. These tools make nicely finished work.

"A Chinaman works very hard when on piece-work. I have seen them toiling like mad on piece-work, but when on day work they must be carefully watched or they have a tendency to slight the work. For example, they will not put heading courses into a brick wall, will put half bricks where the headers should be and fill up in back with mortar. When remonstrated with for not doing the work as ordered they simply say, 'Oh,