Wed 9 [9 February 1898] Breakfast at 7. Medical inspection, custom
house formalities, got on to the quay about 10.30. A mist lay over the
bay and prevented our seeing much. Got through the Custom House
pretty quick, jumped into our cab, drove to the Palace Hotel. Great
joy. Found heaps of letters and papers, made a small toilette and
lunched at 12. Our rooms are luxurious, with bath rooms and dressing
rooms. 2.50 dollars a day. Most excellent lunch, such oysters!
Walked out into Market St. went to Cook's and our photograper in
Geary St. Took cars down to the ferries and then by the Sacramento
cars up through part of China Town to the Parks. The cars rush up
and down the steepest inclines where no horse cd go. "No pushy no
pully, go like Helly" the Chinese said and burnt joss sticks to them all
down California St. Outside the car line the streets are often a mess of
mud, never better than the roughest cobbles. Wooden shanties stand
next to stone buildings 15 stories [sic] high. Outside the town towards
the sea is a sandy tract with a few houses each with its big waterwheel
standing by it, and little bushes of green growing about in the sand.
The round knobs of hills stand up to the left, some of them clothed with
pine wood, the cemetary [sic] with its cross on top. We walked
through the park which is most lovely and got onto a sort of
amphitheatre on top of a hill from whence we saw a great view across
the bay and round Seal Rock and so on. The Arums, roses,
heliotrope all flowering and in the streets they sell great California
violets, roses and mimosa for a song. Back to tea. Dined at 7 and
went out at 8.45 to China Town. The name of our guide was [space
left blank] He was an ex policeman and told us with modest pride that
he had sent more Chinese people to the gallows than any other man
in San Francisco. A car took us in 3 minutes from America to China.
The streets were all alight and busy - they work from 6 AM till 11 P.M.
Extraordinary food being sold, most of it imported from China. Ducks
eggs, ducks and chickens pressed flat; chickens' claws wrapped
round with strips of liver, dried fish and shell fish. We went to the
Palace Hotel of China Town, little rooms opening all round a square
court, inhabited by single men. In one room about 10 ft square or so
we saw a man lighting his opium pipe. He was lying on a bench and
next to him were two men sleeping under opium. He told us he
smoked 90 pipes a day and that comes to about a dollar and he
earns 2 dollars a day or a little more. Though there seemed to be no
form of ventilation but the door, and the room was inhabited by 10 or
12 China Men, it was not smelly. Next to a pawn broker's shop where I
bought a jade bangle; then to the theatre. We sat on the stage below
us it was packed full of men, all listening with attentive faces, in the
gallery a few women. The orchestra sat behind in the centre of the
stage and kept up a continuous banging and thumping, and
squeaking. Above them curtains hung over the Joss house. The
characters walked in at one door, spoke their lines and off at the
other. There were braves in embroidered robes, painted faces and
with long feathers sticking out of their headdresses; they had sort of
wings behind on their backs somewhere in their sleeves. The women
were men, wonderfully well got up and speaking in falsetto. We saw
two of them sing to one of the warriors and then a trial scene in which
the wooden handcuff was struck off the wrist of the prisoner. In the
green room the people were dressing, painting, looking over their
parts; in the basement cooking, sleeping, smoking opium. They all
live in little cells under ground; if they come out of the theatre they are
mobbed and stoned; it's like a rabbit warren under there with joss
sticks burning in various niches. Then we walked through an alley
where the women live; there are 500 of them and 25000 men. They
are bought for as much as 500 dollars and kept there by their masters
in slavery till they have payed off their debt. They sit up the little
staircases behind iron gratings, painted and dressed up, waiting for
who may come. When we walked up the stairs they quickly drew the
curtain for they would have been injured and perhaps killed by
jealous lovers if they had allowed the foreign devils to look at them.
People who have wives[?] hire them out and make a large income.
Some charming little women passed us (they are short in stature, said
our guide) one in a mauve and gold brocaded jacket, slender and
dainty with her sleek black hair draw [sic] back low behind and
fastened with gold ornaments. Then came a horrible old procuress,
with scant hair and hideous in her black coat and trousers. The girl
turned her head over her shoulder speaking to a man, the woman
threw her a word as she passed and the girl hastened on up a
staircase. Next to a goldsmith's shop where the China men were
working each with his little flame in front of him; twisting the 28 carrat
fine metal and working it into any shape. Then to a Joss house full of
artificial flowers in great bronze vases, pewter twisted ornaments;
wooden carvings of whole scenes of painted figures and a great gilt
carving sent by the Emperor of China with joss sticks burning and little
dishes of tea standing before it in its honour. Before the principal idol
there were dolls representing his wives and a toy horse with a little
dish of tea set before it. A stick of cedar wood was smouldering
before the idol and a great bell stood near him with which his
worshippers attract his attention. A notice stated that if we bought for
25 cents "we will offer up prayers for family and their friends" for a
dollar our "nanes" [sic] wd have been inscribed as benefactors but
we didn't go so far. On a balcony outside were pots of plants, dwarf
pines etc, and great wooden dogs. Lastly to an eating house; a
dinner party had been going on; the musicians were still playing and
the singing girls standing about. We had tea in tiny cups from which
we poured it into other tiny cups, preserved ginger and citrons and
nuts of sorts. Saw a safe with 8 padlocks one for each of the
proprietors. Home at 11. Too excited to sleep for a long time.