| |
| WHICH I wish to remark,— | |
| And my language is plain,— | |
| That for ways that are dark, | |
| And for tricks that are vain, | |
| The heathen Chinee is peculiar,— | 5 |
| Which the same I would rise to explain. | |
| |
| Ah Sin was his name. | |
| And I shall not deny | |
| In regard to the same | |
| What that name might imply; | 10 |
| But his smile it was pensive and childlike, | |
| As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye. | |
| |
| It was August the third; | |
| And quite soft was the skies: | |
| Which it might be inferred | 15 |
| That Ah Sin was likewise; | |
| Yet he played it that day upon William | |
| And me in a way I despise. | |
| |
| Which we had a small game, | |
| And Ah Sin took a hand: | 20 |
| It was euchre. The same | |
| He did not understand; | |
| But he smiled as he sat by the table, | |
| With a smile that was childlike and bland. | |
| |
| Yet the cards they were stocked | 25 |
| In a way that I grieve, | |
| And my feelings were shocked | |
| At the state of Nye’s sleeve: | |
| Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, | |
| And the same with intent to deceive. | 30 |
| |
| But the hands that were played | |
| By that heathen Chinee, | |
| And the points that he made, | |
| Were quite frightful to see,— | |
| Till at last he put down a right bower, | 35 |
| Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. | |
| |
| Then I looked up at Nye, | |
| And he gazed upon me; | |
| And he rose with a sigh, | |
| And said, “Can this be? | 40 |
| 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 | 45 |
| 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,— | 50 |
| 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, | 55 |
| 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. | 60 |
| |
