"Chinaman's chance" in the news

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 00:14:41 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>The first OED cite specifies that it's a cat *without claws* that doesn't
>have much of a chance (in hell):
>
>-----
>1796 GROSE Dict. Vulg. Tongue (ed. 3), No more chance than a cat in hell
>without claws; said of one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one
>greatly above his match.
>-----
>
>Since HDAS has the expression "play (someone) for a Chinaman" meaning 'to
>treat as a fool', I wonder if the figure of the "Chinaman" was simply
>thought of as a "clawless" target who could be easily duped, say, into
>taking the most menial tasks on the frontier.

This passage from Herbert Asbury's _The Barbary Coast_ (1933) certainly
fits that image:

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Throughout the state, for almost half a century, John Chinaman was
buffeted from pillar to post. He was everywhere discriminated against; he
was robbed, beaten, and frequently murdered, and no punishment was meted
out to his assailant; he was brutally and unceremoniously ejected from
whatever mining or agricultural property he had managed to acquire; in the
courts he was classed lower than the Negro or the Indian; and scores of
laws were enacted for the sole purpose of hampering him in his efforts to
earn an honest living.
(p. 143, <http://print.google.com/print?id=KbfGPNuaNqcC>)
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--Ben Zimmer