The labor assigned to the Chinese was the foulest sort—“the kind of work”
Hawthorne confessed, “we didn’t want to do ourselves.” They asked little in
return. “All they expected to get out of life,” said Hawthorne, “was hard work
and the promise that when they died their bones would be shipped back to the
old country to be buried in the graves of their ancestors. And even that wasn’t
done until they was buried over here long enough for the flesh to waste away.
It saved expense and shipping space to dig them up, pack each man’s bones in a little
metal box, and send them back home in a sizable consignment.”
Another stellar volume in the Time-Life series titled The
Old West. Full of personal vignettes, curious detail, and inspiring stories.
This volume will take you from cheechako to sourdough in no time flat.
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