Page:Scribner's Monthly, Volume 12 (May–October 1876).djvu/744

738 But, as we said before, such a style of leaving is quite exceptional; and, besides, we happened to have paid his wages to the full, only the day before.

No one need expect permanency who employs Chinese servants. They are always anxious to go to a place, and apparently always ready to leave it. Twenty-five cents is a sufficient inducement either way, and perhaps it is not strange. For, having dared so much in coming to a foreign land for the sole purpose of money-getting, a spirit of unrest and of greed takes possession of them. There is always the hope of doing better, and, therefore, they are always ready to make a change.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule; of course there are Chinamen who have lived in the same family for a length of time. But it will generally be found that these have been paid extraordinarily high wages, or in some other way have had the inducement to roam removed. As a rule, they change often. "He lived with me fifteen months; quite a long time for a China-boy," said a lady to us.

When they desire to leave, there is absolutely nothing which can be appealed to to prevent it, no matter what the embarrassment, inconvenience, or trouble of the family, except money. Therefore, it has come to pass, that most housekeepers make it a rule never to pay them quite all their wages until ready to part with them. For, only thus can anything like justice be extorted from our Celestial servitors. All are eager for money, all are grasping and venal; and this unblushingly, as a matter of course, as the recognized law of their life. And for skill in a bargain, they out-Yankee us all. No one understands so well how to ask a high price, to recede step by step, to chaffer, and argue, and feel the pulse of the market, and to drop just in time to secure the prize.

To digress a little for an illustration. Say the family wash is to be consigned to a laundry for a while. On inquiry, finding that a neighbor whose wash is larger employs Hop Fong at six dollars per month, you think to send for Hop Fong. But your China-boy by no means lets such an opportunity go by for bringing custom to his "fliend," and proposes to go for Ah Sing, to which you good-naturedly consent.

So Ah Sing makes his appearance, very polite and smiling.

"You catchee wash?"

"Yes; how much you ask, one month?"

"I catchee him, then I sabe." But you are too wise for such an arrangement.

"No; my wash no very big; one man, one child, me; how much you ask?"

"Ah," watching your face very attentively. "I think all same flee dollars one week."

"Three dollars one week! Too much!" and you look resolute. "That is twelve dollars one month! No, indeed!"

"A-h. I think nine dollars one mon'."

"No; I no pay nine dollars one month. Too muchee."

"A-h. Seven dollars hap."

"No; I no pay seven dollars and a half. Hop Fong will do it for six dollars one month. I give you six dollars, no more. You no like it, I send for Hop Fong."

Without a moment's hesitation, smiling, and with the utmost suavity, having perceived that you mean what you say, he at once accepts and clinches the arrangement.

"All light. I do all same Hop Fong. Six dollar one mon'."

Chinese servants bear but very little fault-finding, and are very unwilling to be told how to do anything. "Too much talkee," is something which they cannot abide, even of the sort which is necessary. We sent a message to the kitchen. "What did Ching say?" we asked. He said: "All-right; shut up; go 'way," replied the child, laughing, "he always says that."

This does not come from a dislike of talking in itself, for, when together, they have no end of chatter.

And they have no end of "cousins" (sounding the i as it sounds in pin), in this respect out-Biddying Biddie a hundred fold. From one to half a dozen Chinamen will loiter round a kitchen if they dare, and one may feel certain that every Chinese of them is hungry. To be hungry seems, indeed, their normal condition, for they live by scores in their wash-houses and other haunts, subsisting on the smallest modicum of food, in order to save money. When they drop into our kitchens to call on a comrade, therefore, one may be certain that those bright little sloping eyes are on the alert for forage. We have happened suddenly down-stairs and found such a visitor in the closet, his hand in the sugar-bowl. A neighbor met another emerging from her pantry, eating pie. When thus confronted, they laugh and leave immediately. Not a word is said in self-defense, and the housekeeper's consolation is, that they do not dare to take any but small quantities. But it makes