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Orth, Samuel P.

"Our Foreigners A Chronicle of Americans in the Making"

1 | 13.3 | 7.5
| | |
Cities 2,500- 10,000 | 57.5 | 20.6 | 13.9
" 10,000- 25,000 | 50.4 | 24.6 | 17.4
" 25,000-100,000 | 45.9 | 26.5 | 20.2
" 100,000-500,000 | 38.9 | 31.3 | 22.1
" 200,000 and over | 25.6 | 37.2 | 33.6
------------------------+--------+-----------------+---------
The native white element predominates in the country but is only a
fraction of the population in the larger cities.]


CHAPTER IX
THE ORIENTAL

America, midway between Europe and Asia, was destined to be the
meeting-ground of Occident and Orient. It was in the exciting days of
'49 that gold became the lodestone to draw to California men from the
oriental lands across the Pacific. The Chinese for the moment overcame
their religious aversion to leaving their native haunts and, lured by
the promise of fabulous wages, made their way to the "gold hills." Of
the three hundred thousand who came to America during the three
decades of free entry, the large majority were peasants from the rural
districts in the vicinity of Canton. They were thrifty, independent,
sturdy, honest young men who sought the great adventure unaccompanied
by wife or family.


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