The first Chinese were hired two years after the beginning of construction on the railroad. Many Chinese ex-miners were seeking employment in other towns and in the countryside for low wages. Wages for the Chinese were $25 a month, ten dollars cheaper than white men. The Chinese also had to pay for their own

On the advice of Chinese merchants, according to the Chinese Historical Society, the Chinese workers were fed a Chinese diet including dried oysters, dried fish, sweet rice, crackers, dried bamboo, salted cabbage, Chinese sugar, dried fruits and vegetables, vermicelli, and dried seaweed, Chinese bacon, dried abalone, dried mushrooms, peanut oil, tea, rice, pork, and poultry. This was a much more varied and balanced diet that the beef, beans, butter, bread and potatoes of white laborers at the time. The Chinese also drank lukewarm tea brought by Chinese mess attendants (Chugg). The whites thought the Chinese were strange because of the strange clothes and hats they wore, because they ate strange food and drank boiled tea all day, spoke in their sing-song language, and most of all, because they washed and put on clean close every day. The whites on the other hand, drank from puddles, seldom bathed or wore clean clothes, got drunk, fought, and spent most of their hard earned money on gambling and other vices (Chugg). Despite these differences, the Chinese were treated very poorly and subject to being whipped and beaten by their overseers.

food, supplies, cook, and headman. J.H. Strobridge, an Irish construction superintendent, was reluctant to hire the Chinese and agreed to hire 50 Chinese on an experimental basis. Strobridge limited the work of the Chinese to the simple work of filling dump carts. Soon, the Chinese proved very adept at this task and were promoted to using picks on softer excavations. The Chinese proved to be “as good as white men” according to E.B. Crocker, a legal counsel judge for Central Pacific (Kraus). Eventually the Chinese were employed to do the dangerous jobs of blasting and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the high Sierras (Doolittle).

"If there had been that number of white laborers... it would have been impossible to control them," Crocker would later recall. "But this strike of the Chinese was just like Sunday all along the work. These men stayed in their camps. That is, they would come out and walk around, but not a word was said. No violence was perpetrated along the whole line." At first Crocker figured opium dealers had instigated the action; then he suspected rival Union Pacific agents. He did not

Some topics in this essay:
Society Chinese, Charles Crocker, Central Pacific, Union Pacific, Harvey Strobridge, EB Crocker, June Motivated, Chugg Despite, Doolittle Chinese, Chinn Thousand, central pacific, union pacific, pacific railroad, chinese proved, chinese workers, charles crocker, railroad central pacific, building transcontinental, white laborers, doolittle chinese, eb crocker, central pacific railroad,