Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 23, February, 1873Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 23, February, 1873
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Coarse cowhide boots are the only articles of American wear that he
favors. He inclines to buy the largest sizes, thinking he thereby gets
the most for his money, and when his No. 7 feet wobble and chafe in
No. 12 boots he complains that they "fit too much."
He cultivates the vegetables of his native land in California. They
are curiosities like himself. One resembles our string-bean, but is
circular in shape and from two to three feet in length. It is not
in the least stringy, breaks off short and crisp, boils tender very
quickly and affords excellent eating. He is a very careful cultivator,
and will spend hours picking off dead leaves and insects from the
young plants. When he finds a dead cat, rat, dog or chicken, he throws
it into a small vat of water, allows it to decompose, and sprinkles
the liquid fertilizer thus obtained over his plantation. Watermelon
and pumpkin seeds are for him dessert delicacies. He consumes his
garden products about half cooked in an American culinary point of
view, merely wilting them by an immersion in boiling water.
There are about fifteen English words to be learned by a Chinaman on
arriving in California, and no more. With these he expresses all his
wants, and with this limited stock you must learn to convey all that
is needful to him. The practice thus forced upon one in employing
a Chinese servant is useful in preventing a circumlocutory habit of
speech. Many of our letters the Mongolian mouth has no capacity for
sounding. _R_ he invariably sounds like _l_, so that the word "rice"
he pronounces "lice"--a bit of information which may prevent an
unpleasant apprehension when you come to employ a Chinese cook. He
rejects the English personal pronoun I, and uses the possessive "my"
in its place; thus, "My go home," in place of "I go home."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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