and threw more and more of the oriental laborers into the general
labor market. Chinese were hustled out of towns. Here and there
violence was done. For example, in the Los Angeles riots of October
24, 1871, fifteen Chinamen were hanged and six were shot by the mob.

This prejudice, based primarily upon the Chinaman's willingness to
work long hours for little pay and to live in quarters and upon fare
which an Anglo-Saxon would find impossible, was greatly increased by
his strange garb, language, and customs. The Chinaman remained in
every essential a foreigner. In his various societies he maintained to
some degree the patriarchal government of his native village. He
shunned American courts, avoided the Christian religion, rarely
learned much of the English language, and displayed no desire to
become naturalized. Instead of sympathy in the country of his sojourn
he met discrimination, jealousy, and suspicion. For many years his
testimony was not permitted in the courts. His contact with only the
rough frontier life failed to reveal to him the gentle amenities of
the white man's faith, and everywhere the upper hand seemed turned
against him. So he kept to himself, and this isolation fed the rumors
that were constantly poisoning public opinion. Chinatown in the public
mind became a synonym for a nightmare of filth, gambling,
opium-smoking, and prostitution.

Alarm was spreading among Americans concerning the organizations of
the Chinese in the United States. Of these, the Six Companies were the
most famous. Mary Roberts Coolidge, after long and careful research,
characterized these societies as "the substitute for village and
patriarchal association, and although purely voluntary and benevolent
in their purpose, they became, because of American ignorance and
prejudice, the supposed instruments of tyranny over their