Gambling, opium, and life as a Chinese railroad hand

The hard labour of clearing the right of way, grading, laying track or tunneling through granite demanded a release.  Many Chinese hands found that release through gambling.  A variety of games were played like battling bulls, with each man rolling the dice to determine who should throw the dominoes first.  But mostly fan-tan was played.  The dealer placed a small handful of buttons from a pan on the ground under a cup.  After bets were laid down, the cup was lifted and the buttons counted out four at a time.  The men who guessed how many buttons would be left; one, two, three, or none would be the winners.^⁠ Gambling drew the ire of local authorities.  In Washington territory, gambling was outlawed, but “Chinamen continued to take the chances.”  As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer  noted the consequences were that, “Chief Woolery and officer Thompson lit down on two of them and arrested the dealers and captured considerable money.”^⁠1  The two arrested were fined $10 each.

The smoking of opium was another way to take away the painful drudgery of everyday life on the railroad.  Although, according to a Chinese merchant called to testify at the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration, opium smoking was “not as injurious as drunkenness,” the drug did have addictive qualities that had negative consequences for its users.^⁠2  One railway contractor stated that he had seen labourers “under the influence of opium,” as such they risked impaired judgment at often dangerous work-sites.  Another problem was over use.  One contractor commenting on the advantages of the contract system touched upon opium abuse, noting, “if the boss had to have a certain number of men at the railway the fact that ten of his men might be sleeping off an opium debauch would not prevent ten others being in their places.”^⁠3   After waking the reality for the ten sleeping off the “opium debauch” would have hit, no wages for that day and competition to regain employment on the line.

 

References

¹ Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 31, 1883.

² Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration (Ottawa, 1885), 172.

³ Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration (Ottawa, 1885), xxvii.