Hiring Workers

              During the making of the railroad, many Irish immigrants moved into the Americas. They became the ones to work on building these transportation roads in order to start migration of people around the country. The job was cruel and the owners could barely keep 800 people in work at a time. Owners hired over 50 new men as wagon pullers and all were of Chinese heritage. These emigrants  were pushed from their homeland because of poverty and overcrowding. The Irish weren't doing their jobs as well as the Chinese were and so owners decided to employ more of them. In no time shiploads of migrants flocked to America to work on the developing railroads. By the end of the year, more than 12,000 emigrants were working on the transportation system. Because the Chinese were so well behaved and hard workers, they became known as the ""Celestials" which also referred to their strong spiritual beliefs. Although they worked so hard they were payed much less than the Irish or American people. The owner was so happy with how willing his workers were that he made a bet that they could lay 10 miles of tracks in one day. on April 28, 1868, all the men worked as one to lay down rails as fast as they could and as the boss watched, he said he never saw such organization as what he was seeing before him.
              In the camps, the Chinese were alienated due to their different ways of life. They ate seafood and vegetables, they kept live animals in pins for food such as cows, chickens and pigs.  They bathed themselves and instead of drinking alcohol, they preferred lukewarm tea.The Americans stuck to what they were familiar with such as dried food which was salted for preservation. The Irish stuck to boiled foods and beef or potatoes.


By Piper Wright

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-cprr/