ter life away from the extreme poverty in their country at the time. Railroad agents used such slogans as, "Come over and help!" and "We have money to spend, but no one to earn it" (California History). In contrast to the miniscule Chinese population in 1848, as early as 1852 the number of Chinese immigrants in California had sharply risen to 25,000.
             When Chinese workers began to be recruited for work on the railroads, Irish workers got "scared back into line" so to speak. Their striking and demanding higher wages ebbed, but there was still a labor shortage so the Chinese were still brought to California to work on the railroads. Many of the Chinese were doing grading work for the railroads. Even though the Chinese knew very little or nothing of grading, once they were shown what to
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