China and the West

Mark Twain and Steve Gillis worked for the San Francisco Morning Call and were living on California Street. Their window looked down on a lot of Chinese houses, small wooden shanties covered with beatenout cans. Steve and Mark would look down on these houses, waiting until all Chinamen were inside ; one of them would grab an empty beer-bottle, throw it down on those tin roofs, and dodge behind the blinds. The Chinamen would swarm out and look up and pour out Chinese vituperation. By and by, when they had retired and everything was quiet again, their tormentors would throw another bottle. This was their Sunday amusement.