《通往金道钉的铁轨》(3)
（2007年4月11日，第三次修改，未经允许，严禁转载）

By William F. Chew, author of “Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental Railroad”

原作者：赵耀贵（《美西大陆铁路的无名建筑者》作者）

{dy}位华裔铁路工人的雇佣日期

Employment Date of the First Chinese Railroad Workers

The Central Pacific Payroll sheets No. 26 and No. 34, respectively dated January and February 1864, record the first Chinese railroad workers. Ah Toy is listed as railroad foreman, and Hung Wah as supervisor of a crew of 23 unnamed workers. Hung Wah later became the largest labor contractor known as The Hung Wah Company.  It is believed that Hung Wah may have been among the few workers who remained to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. 

记录最早铁路华工雇佣日期的，是中央太平洋铁路公司第26和第34号工资单，时间分别是1864年一月和二月。这份资料显示，AT是这群华工的领班，而HW则带领一队由23位无名华工组成的小队，他后来成为{zd0}的劳工中介人，并成立了HW公司。据可靠推测，HW是少数坚持到大陆铁路最终完工的华工之一。

These two payroll sheets are undisputed proof that the Chinese started to work for the Central Pacific railroad as early as January 1864, and not in Spring 1865, as previously published by several well-known authors.

上述两张工资单，确凿无疑地证明了华工早在1864年1月就开始参加中央太平洋铁路的修筑了，而不是先前被广泛认为的从1865年春天才开始。

Only the names of Chinese Gang Bosses or Headmen, and labor contractors are listed on the payroll sheets. A few other independent workers, not assigned to specific crews, such as cooks, waiters, water boys and blacksmiths are also named. Crewmembers names were too numerous to list. Tragically we will never know the names of the thousands of workers.

被列入这份工资名单中的，只有中国工程队的老板、工头和劳工中介人，以及少数独立的、没有被编排到特定工程队的工人，诸如厨师、服务人员、水工、铁匠等。而每个工程队中的华工数量实在太多了，以至于无法一一列入名单。令人遗憾和悲恸的是，我们将永远无法得知那些成千上万华工的名字了。

A meticulous accounting of the total man-days paid to each gang boss or headman helped me to estimate the number of Chinese railroad workers employed by the Central Pacific, between January 1864 and December 1867, to be from 23,000 to 30,000. The critical loss of 29 months of payroll records from this period, as well as all the payroll records from January 1868 through May 1869 would have changed this total dramatically.

一份xx的会计账本使我得以统计出当时铁路华工的大致的总人数。这个账本记录了付给每个工程队老板和包工头工资的总天数，据此推算，在1864年1月至1867年12月间，共有二万三千名到三万名华工参与中央太平洋铁路的修建。然而，这期间以及从1868年1月到1869年5月间，总共29个月的账目遗失，这对我的统计结果影响重大，如果加上这期间的华工人数，那么前面的数字将会有显著的改变。

Fortunately, it appears that all 12 months of 1866 are complete. This is particularly important because April 1866 recorded the peak monthly employment of 6,191 Chinese workers. This was the time when the workers were digging thirteen tunnels through solid granite at a rate of a foot per day, working three shifts, six days a week.

值得庆幸的是，1866年整整12个月的记录保存完整，这一点尤为重要，因为1866年4月是华工被雇用的高峰期，一个月内就达到了6191人。也正是在此时，华工们以每周6天工作日、每天三班制、{yt}一英尺的进度、在坚硬的大理石中开凿了13条铁路隧道。

Wondering why there was such a large number of workers, I conducted another study which revealed that the average employment tenure of the Chinese workers, finding the work too grueling, was an average of one and one-half months.

为什么需要如此巨大数量的华工呢？带着这个疑问，我开始了另一项研究，从而发现：在严酷的条件下，华工平均的雇工试用期是一个半月。

The premise that some of these workers may have been counted more than once, by switching from one Gang Boss to another, incorrectly inflating the total count, is doubtful. When Gang Bosses selected crewmembers, they would pick men who came from the same village and spoke the same dialect, ensuring clear communications and cooperation with one another. Men from different villages followed an established cultural division and would not intermingle. The Gang Bosses kept a running account of payroll deductions for transportation debts incurred by their crew workers. Crossovers would sabotage the orderly accounting system they were responsible for; therefore, it was not practiced. 

有一种假设是，由于华工可能从一个工头换到另一个工头处，因此一名工人也许被重复记录多次，造成了总人数的膨胀。这种假设是站不住脚的。在当时，每一个工头都会从他们的同乡或说同一种方言的工人中选择自己的工队，为的是确保沟通的顺畅无误和彼此间的合作。来自不同村镇的人有各自约定俗成的文化传统，也形成一定意义上的部落分支，因此，他们互不混杂。而工头们通常也有一个流水账，用以记录手下工人的交通费等，并从他们的工资中扣除。如果互相交换工人，则极有可能破坏已有的、由各个工头单独负责的会计记账体系，因此，这是不现实的。

These historical payroll records also reveal no less than sixteen different, skilled trade jobs -- not just “coolies” of the pick-and-shovel type labor. Chinese worked as blacksmiths, lumberjacks, carpenters, teamsters, masons, etc. Their wages varied from a low $0.63/day for a waiter, to $1.34/day for a blacksmith.

另一方面，这些历史性的帐目记录也显示出在当时有不下16种不同的技术工种，而并不都是卖苦力的铁铲工。许多华工做起了铁匠、伐木工、木匠、卡车司机、石匠和水泥工等等，他们的低廉工资从一名服务员{yt}63美分，到一名铁匠{yt}1.34美元不等。