Plain language from Truthful James : autograph manuscript copy of the poem signed, [1870 or later].

Bret Harte's popular and widely read poem was originally intended as a parody of the widespread anti-Chinese prejudice which pervaded American society and political debates concerning immigration policy during his lifetime. With its defamatory depiction of the broadly stereotyped title character, however, the poem was quickly embraced for its racist sentiments, much to the author's dismay, by those oblivious to its satirical intent.
Part of an album of manuscript poems and letters of nineteenth-century English and American authors collected by Mrs. Annie Fields, author and literary hostess in Boston. Manuscripts in the album are described in individual records; see MA 925 for more information.
Presented to Annie Fields.