How it opens
You had crossed the water on the strength of one sentence, and the sentence was in a letter from San Francisco.
The letter said that in America a man stands equal before the law, and the law knows no color, and a laborer may rise.
Ching Foo, my brother of the lamp. The country of liberty is in sight, and it is as tall as they said.
Ah Song Hi, my friend. Write me everything, and do not spare the paper, for I am coming after you.
Tell me the streets are not paved with the broken teeth of men who worked them. Tell me anything true.
Choose
Write him the harbor as you see it from the rail.
Write him the landing first, the officials and the papers, all of it.
Write him the people on the dock who look at you as you come down the plank.