Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/88

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
288
288 PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES.
[Sept.

And he rose with a sigh,
And said, "Can this be?
We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor? —
And he went for that heathen Chinee.


In the scene that ensued
I did not take a hand,
But the floor it was strewed
Like the leaves on the strand
With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding,
In the game "he did not understand."


In his sleeves, which were long,
He had twenty-four packs—
Which was coming it strong,
Yet I state but the facts;
And we found on his nails, which were taper,
What is frequent in tapers—that's wax.


Which is why I remark,
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark,
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar—
Which the same I am free to maintain.