| The scene depicted in our sketch is one that occurs in the San Francisco Custom-house on the arrival of every steam-ship from Chinese ports. The immigrants are landed in companies of from seventy-five to one hundred within a space inclosed by a netted railing, where they undergo the most rigid search at the hands of thirty-six Custom-house officers; and it requires no ordinary skill and experience to prevent the wily Celestials from eluding the law. It is a common thing for a Chinaman to have on five or six coats, the lining of which must be thoroughly overhauled in the search for opium. |
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| After each man is searched he is chalked on the back, and is at liberty to take himself, bag and baggage, outside the railing. There he finds an agent of the Six Companies, who sees that he is put into an express wagon, which, as soon as it has loaded up, is driven off to "Chinatown." From a thousand to twelve hundred Chinamen are thus landed twice a month in San Francisco, and are hired out by the Six Companies until they have repaid the money advanced for their passage. |
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