Page:The Pacific Monthly volumes 1-3.djvu/1045



For domestic service and as laborers the Chinese are probably unsurpassed in the world. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon.the/noint of view, we, as Americans, .know nothing of a servant class. The girl in the kitchen today will be the teacher in the public school tomor- row, and a daughter-in-law the third day. The American girl is not a serv- ant. She "helps" that she may help herself, and can do it as no other wo- man in the world can. Those domes-

tics who come from other lands soon- learn the possibilities here, and by and by are on the force, or in politics, through matrimonial alliances, and work, naturally, toward the top. So of the laboring man who is born here, or is not too old when he comes here. The stump-digger of today is the rich man of tomorrow. The plowboy edits the great paper; the clerk goes to Con- gress. But in China there is a vast multitude who must serve. Men of