of another world, and his capacity for patience, his native dignity
without suspicion of hauteur, baffled the loud self-assertion of the
Irish and the Anglo-Saxon.

During the first years of the gold rush, the Chinaman was welcome in
California because he was necessary. He could do so many things that
the miner disdained or found no time to do. He could cook and wash,
and he could serve. He was a rare gardener and a patient day laborer.
He could learn a new trade quickly. In the city he became a useful
domestic servant at a time when there were very few women. In all his
tasks he was neat and had a genius for noiselessly minding his own
business.

As the number of miners increased, race prejudice asserted itself.
"California for Americans" came to be a slogan that reflected their
feelings against Mexicans, Spanish-Americans, and Chinese in the
mines. Race riots, often instigated by men who had themselves but
recently immigrated to America, were not infrequent. In these
disorders the Chinese were no match for the aggressors and in
consequence were forced out of many good mining claims.

The labor of the cheap and faithful Chinese appealed to the business
instincts of the railroad contractors who were constructing the
Pacific railways and they imported large numbers. In 1866 a line of
steamships was established to run regularly between Hong Kong and San
Francisco. In 1869 the first transcontinental railway was completed
and American laborers from the East began to flock to California,
where they immediately found themselves in competition with the
Mongolian standard of living. Race rivalry soon flared up and the
anti-Chinese sentiment increased as the railroads neared completion