becomes a millionaire, and for the time he feels that he is in the midst of courtly splendours.  But, ah!  When one awakes from his dream the pleasures are turned into ashes, and the glory fades as the fires of the pipe die. Sic transit gloria mundi!  On the walls of the restaurant were various Chinese decorations.  The inevitable lantern was in evidence.  Here also were tablets with sentences in the language of the Celestials.  But there was one thing that struck me forcibly as I examined the various objects in the rooms.  In the rear half of the restaurant, on the north side of the room, stood a Chinese safe, somewhat in fashion like our ordinary American safe.  It was not, however, secured with the combination lock with which we are all familiar.  It shut like a cupboard, and had eight locks on a chain as it were.  Every lock represented a man whose money or whose valuables were in the safe.  Each of the eight men had a key for his own lock, different from all the other seven.  When the safe is to be opened all the eight men must be present.  Is this a comment on the honesty of the Chinaman?  Is this indicative of their lack of confidence in each other?  And yet as a house-servant the Chinaman is trusty and faithful and honest.  He is also silent as to what transpires in his master’s house and at his employer’s table.  The writer has conversed with people who have had Chinamen in their service, he has also visited the homes of gentlemen where only Chinese servants are employed in domestic work, and all bear testimony to their excellence and faithfulness and honesty.

No visit to Chinatown would be complete without an inspection of its theatre and a study of the audience.  Here you see the Celestials en masse, you behold them in their amusements.  Let us repair then to the Jackson Street Theatre.  The building was once a hotel, now it is a place of pastime; and singularly under the same roof is a small Joss-House,—­for the Chinaman couples his amusements with his religion.  It rather reminds one of those buildings in Christian lands, which, while used for religious services, yet have kitchens and places for theatrical shows and amusements under the same roof.  But the play has already begun.  Indeed it began at six o’clock—­and it is now nearly eleven P.M.  It will, however, continue till midnight.  This is the rule; for the Chinaman does nothing by halves, and he takes his amusement in a large quantity at a time.  The theatre had galleries on three sides and these were packed with men and women as well as the main floor.  There were altogether a thousand persons present, and it was indeed a strange sight to look into their faces, dressed alike as they were, and all seemingly looking alike.  The women were seated in the west gallery on the right hand of the stage by themselves.  This is an Eastern custom which Asiatic nations generally observe.  Even in their religious assemblies the women sit apart.  The custom arose primarily from the idea that woman is inferior to man.  In the Jewish temple as well as in the synagogue, the sexes were separated.  It is so to-day in most synagogues.  Among the Mohammedans, too, woman is ruled out and is kept apart; and so strong is custom it even affected the Christian church in Oriental lands in the early days.  You see a trace of it still in the East in church-arrangements.