this building. I was told that the wood from which the largest hotel
in Chinatown, its Palace hotel so to speak, was constructed in the
early days, was brought around Cape Horn, and cost $350 per thousand
feet. This was before saw-mills were erected in the forests among the
foothills and on the slopes of the Sierras. The kitchen of the big
boarding house was a novelty. It was nothing in any respect like the
well-appointed kitchens of our hotels with their great ranges and open
fire-places where meats may be roasted slowly on the turnspit. On one
side of the kitchen there was a kind of stone-parapet about two feet
and a half high, and on the top of this there were eight fire-places.
As the Chinamen cook their own food there might be as many as eight
men here at one time. I asked the guide if they ever quarreled. His
answer was significant. "No! and it would be difficult to bring eight
men of any other nationality together in such close proximity without
differences arising and contentions taking place; but the Chinamen
never trouble each other." There was only one man cooking at such a
late hour as that in which we visited the kitchen, about half-past ten
o'clock at night. He used charcoal, and as the coals were fanned the
fire looked like that of a forge in a blacksmith's shop.

On our way to the Chinese Restaurant we stepped into a goldsmith's
shop. There were a few customers present, and the proprietor waited
on them with great diligence. At benches like writing desks, on which
were tools of various descriptions, were seated some half a dozen
workmen who were busily engaged. They never looked up while we
stood by and examined their work, which was of a high order. The
filagree-work was beautiful and artistic. There were numerous personal
ornaments, some of solid gold, others plaited. The bracelets which
they were making might fittingly adorn the neck of a queen. I learned
that these skilled men worked sixteen hours a day on moderate wages.