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his Company ninety or a hundred dollars. All this money he will have to work out.”
“ Before he becomes his own master-before he can do as he likes?”
“ Of course, before he does as he likes, he must redeem his bond.”
“Do the Five Companies in China take his personal bond, trusting to the Sixth Company in San Francisco to get their money back?”
“They take a family bond as well.
In China, every man has some one-father, uncle, brother--who is ready to give pledges.
We are not like Melicans.
Our family system makes it easy to obtain such bonds, for every member of a family has his place in a sacred line, ascending and descending in a series from the first man to the last.
If there be house and land, we take a lien on house and land, the family giving us a mortgage and allowing us interest at the rate of twenty-four or thirty-six per cent.”
“ Good interest!”
“Yes; it is a trade, and as a trade we make it pay. If an emigrant has neither house nor land, we ask the personal security of his father and ”
1875.
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