Little capital is required to start a laundry, one hundred dollars being usually sufficient, and several men frequently associate themselves together and share the profits between them. The owners should each clear from twenty-five to seventy dollars per month, while the hired laborers are paid from twenty-five to thirty dollars per month, with their board and lodging. They rise at daybreak and work until their task is finished, often until far into the night. Two meals a day are provided for them, one at about nine in the morning and another between four and five in the afternoon. These consist of rice, fish and pork, and certain vegetables, and are abundant and palatable. One of the men in the laundry acts as cook, an avocation for which all the immigrants seem to show much aptitude. Sunday and Monday are generally observed as holidays, work being resumed on Monday night. The Chinese New Year is the season for a holiday lasting for nearly a week, and at this time, as upon the occasion of several other principal Chinese festivals, employers are expected to provide a special dinner for their laborers.
The occupation of the laundrymen, both as owner and employee, is a profitable one, but their incessant toil, with their aptitude for combination and freedom from many of the expenses which the family relation entails upon all other classes, may be regarded as the secrets of this success.
The store is the centre around which life in a Chinese colony revolves. As soon as several men have collected in a town or city, one of them will send to the nearest place of supply and purchase such Chinese groceries and other wares as may be needed by the colony. These he will sell to his comrades, without at first discontinuing his usual avocation. If the colony increases in numbers he may rent a small store and with the assistance of some of his friends form a store company. Several men are usually associated in such enterprises, one of whom will be placed in charge as manager. A general assortment of Chinese merchandise is obtained, either from New York or San Francisco or direct from China itself, and an auspicious name is selected for the company and prominently displayed without the store door.