This vice is one of their great
pastimes, and whenever they are not engaged in business they devote
themselves either to gambling, the amusements of the theatre, the
pleasures of the restaurant, or the seductive charms of the opium
pipe.
Later in my saunterings I went into a kind of restaurant, where I saw
a number of Chinese men and boys playing cards and dominoes and dice.
They went on with the games as if they were oblivious to us. I noticed
there were Chinese coins of small value on the tables, and some of the
players were apparently winning while others were losing. The latter,
however, gave no indication that they were in the least degree
disappointed. Of course, as a rule they play after their own fashion,
having their own games and methods. Minister Wu, of Washington, when
asked recently if he liked our American games, replied that he did
not understand any of them. No doubt this is true of the majority of
Chinamen in the United States. In thinking of the Chinese and gambling
one always recalls Bret Harte's "Plain Language From Truthful James of
Table Mountain," popularly known as "The Heathen Chinee," one of the
best humorous poems in the English language.
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