Near the end of his life , Harte used the characters of both Truthful James and Ah Sin in his poem " Free Silver at Angel 's " , a satirical response to the silver plank in the 1896 Democratic National Convention platform . Even so , when asked about the original poem in later years , Harte called the poem " trash " , and " the worst poem I ever wrote , possibly the worst poem anyone ever wrote . " " Plain Language from Truthful James " ( or " The Heathen Chinee " ) was very popular among general readers . One New York newspaper reported on the frenzy over the poem : " Strolling down Broadway ... we saw a crowd of men and boys , of high and low degree , swarming about a shop-window , pushing , laughing , and struggling ... Elbowing our way through the crowd , we discovered an illustrated copy of Bret Harte 's poem ' The Heathen Chinee . ' " The poem 's popularity came , in part , from the ambiguity over its race-related message . The narrator implies that the cheating of the Chinese man was no worse than that of the white man , but the irony was too subtle for general readers . The message matched one Harte had written elsewhere in exposing white people 's hypocrisy . As he wrote later , the Chinese " did as the Caucasian did in all respects , and , being more patient and frugal , did it a little better " . Harte had repeatedly opposed anti-Chinese sentiment since as early as 1863 , both privately and publicly . In 1866 , for example , he wrote a letter defending the " peaceable citizens " of San Francisco 's Chinatown who were " patient under abuse , and that patience , I am ashamed to say , they have to exercise continually in California " . After the discovery of a murdered woman in Chinatown , whose cause of death was uncertain , Harte wrote , " as her head was caved in it is thought by some physicians that she died of galloping Christianity of the malignant California type "
1896 Democratic National Convention
1896 Democratic National Convention
The Heathen Chinee