ye
A Chinese Funeral.
« s—
1 was disturbed one day during my
mid-day meal at Hong Kong by a com-
motion in a street adjoining the one in
which I was residing, caused by a
Chinese funeral of more than the usual
pretentions. . As very little is known
among foreigners, even those residing
in China, in regard to “celestial” obse-
quies and their meanings, I took some
trouble to gather information regarding
the strange pageantry which 1 that day
witnessed.
It is the general custom in China,
when a man is about to die, for the
eldest son to remove him from the bed
to the floor of the principal room of the
Louse, where he is laid with his feet tothe
door. The inhabitants of the province
of Fulekien are in the habit of placing
a piece of silver in the mouth of the
dying person—with which he may pay
his fare into the next world-—and care-
fully stopping up his nese and ears, In
certain cases they make a hole in the
roof to facilitate the exit of the spirits
proc. e ling from the body, their belief
being that each person posseses seven
animal senses, which die with him, and
three souls, one of which enters Elysium
and receives judgment ; another abides
with the tablet which is prepared to
commemorate the deceased, and the
third dwells in his tomb,
Whether all these practices are ob-
served in Hong Kong I am unable to
say ; probably the tetting open of the
windows and doors is regarded as a
preferable proceeding to making a hole
in the roof, more especially when the
death happens to occur in the lowest
room of a three-storied house. Here,
however, as elsewhere, the intelligence
of the death of the head of a family is
communicated as speedily as possible to
all his relatives, and the household is
dressed in white-—the mourning color
of China. Priest and women hired to
mourn are sent for at the same time,
and on their arrival a table is set out
with meats, fruits, lighted candles and
joss-sticks, for the delectation of the
souls of the deceased and the wailing
and weeping by the mourning-women
is relieved at intervals by the intoned
prayers of the priests or the discordant
‘ tom-tomming’’ of ‘musicians’ who
have also been called to assist in the
ceremonies. The women weep and la-
ment with an energy and dolefulness
which, if genuine, would be highly com-
mendable ; but ungenerous ‘“‘barbari-
ans” of extensive acquaintance with
the Chinese assert that this apparently
“overwhelming grief is, at least in the
majority of cases, mere sham. In re-
gard to the nearest relatives of the de-
ceased it would be uncharitable to
presume there is mot A considerable
amount of real grief beneath all this
weepihg and wailing : but hired mourn-
ers, who are usually the most demon-
strative on these occasions, can hardly
be expected to launch every other day
into convulsive lamentations of a genu-
ine nature over the death of individuals }
they hardly know by name. As it is,
the priest usually directs these emo
tional demonstrations much in the same
way a8 a conductor controls the per-
formance of a band of musicians ; now
there are a few irregular wails ; then a
burst of them, relieved in turn by a few
nasal notes from the priest, the inte:-
vals being filled up by the **tom-toms”’
and an occasional titter from the latest
tomers,
One of the strangest features in the
obsequies I witnessed was the erec-
tion of & structure in front of the
house in which the death occurred,
to enable the coffined body to be
brought down to the roadway from
the room in which it was lying. The
house being a three-storied one, and the
body lying in one of the topmost rooms
the erection, which furnished sloping
footway of planks from the room to the
road, and a landing at the top, had
necessarily not only to be lofty but sub-
stantial, Communication was, of course,
had with the room through the window.
These structures are, I believe, erected
for two reasons—first, because strange
families in a house object, on supersti-
tious grounds, to a corpee being taken
through their rooms; and secondly,
because it is almost impracticable to get
a heavy Chinese coffin down the narrow,
tortuous stairs of many of the native
houses, For a similar reason no
body in course of transportation from
one part of China to another for the
purpose of interment is allowed to pass
through any walled town. No corpse,
either, is ever allowed to be carried
across a landing-place or to pass through
a gateway which can in any way be
constructed as pertaining to the Em
perer. The Chinese are indeed so su-
perstitious in regard to death as seldom
to mention that word itself, perferring
to take refuge in a circumlocution,
for instance, as ‘‘having become im-
mortal.” .
What may be particularized as the
public obsequies of the deceased, on the
special occasion I refer to, were com-
menced by a procession issuing from the
house on the mission known as *‘ buying
the water” wherewith to wash the
“musicians ** (save the word); then a
priest, wearing a long robe of a dark-
red color and a sort of college cap, and,
lastly, the white-clad mourners. On the
mainland the procession would probably
have repaired to the nearest river, well
or even the wet ditch of the city for the
water; but these antiquated conveni-
ences being scarce in Hong Kong the
sorrowful cortege on this occasion was
compelled to wend its steps to the Gov-
ernment hydrant at the end of the
street | The leading actor in this cere-
mony of ‘buying the water’ was, as
usual, the eldest son of the deceased, a
boy about seven or eight years of age.
Notwithstanding his youth, however,
his part was performed with an exact-
ness that must have resulted from a
considerable amount of previous in-
struction. Bearing in his hand a wand
covered with white indented paper, sup-
ported on each side by a female relative,
and bending nearly double in token of
his intense grief, this young scion of
the deceased proceeded slowly and
gravely in the direction of the hydrant,
the ‘*band ’ meanwhile doing their
best with the tom-toms and that close
imitation of the Scotch bagpipe, the
Chinese pipe. Arrived at the hydrant
the party knelt around that useful ap-
paratus; the *‘ musicians’ redoubled
their exertions, and the priest his
prayer ; more incense was burned, and
a tremendous burst of wailing and la-
mentation went up from the mourners,
While these performances were in oper-
ation, the youth to whom I have just
referred drew, with the requisite pros-
trations and solemnity, a basin of water
from the hydrant, and then scattered a
few coins on the ground by way of pay-
ment. It is essential in this ceremony
that the water should be paid for, The
procession thereafter returned to the
house, where, doubtless, the body of
the deceased was washed by the boy,
in compliance with the custom of his
country.
After the body of the deceased is
washed in this manner it is dressed in
the best clothes which belonged to the
man in his lifetime, a hat being placed
on his head, a fan in his hand and shoes
on his feet, the idea being that he will
be clothed in these bhabiliments in
Elysium, and consequently that he must
appear there as a respectable and supe-
rior member of society. At intervals
during these and subsequent ceremonies
gilt and silvered paper in the shape of
coins and sycee bars is burned, in the
belief that it will also pass into the in-
visible world, where it will be recoined,
into solid ; and clothes, sedan-
chairs, furmiture, buffaloes and horses,
made of paper, are transferred on the
same principle to the ‘better land” for
the benfit of the dead.
The body was now brought through the
window and placed in the coffin on the
top of the temporary wooden structure,
It is the practice with the richer Chinese
to keep the coffined bodies of their rela-
tives in their houses for long periods,
sometimes for years, This custom was
not followed on this occasion, for the
funeral took place immediately after
the ceremony of “buying the water.”
Large sums of money are expended on
coffins by the ‘‘celestials,’’ and a dutiful
son will see that his parents are provided
with these melancholy receptacles some-
times many years before their death.
They are made of heavy boards, four or
five inches in thickness, and rounded at
the outer joints, and appear to invariably
take the form, in this colony, of the
polished trunk of a tree. Inside they
appear to be lined with a sort of mor-
tar | the joints are all carefully closed
with a similar substance ; but a small
hole is drilled through the coffin over
the face of the deceased, so as to leave
a channel of escape and entrance for the
cash
engaged in at the grave, so far as the
priest, the mourners and especially the
‘‘musicians’’ were concerned, and those
earlier in the day. The deceased's tab-
let is carried back in procession to the
house, and there set up in a room sp -
other tablets of the family, Before
prayers offered, The food carried in
the procession is, we believe, commonly
distributed among the poor ; sometimes,
however, a portion of it is consumed in
the house,
The burial places are sometimes
selected by necromancers, and if the
family be rich this selection is often
made a matter of considerable difficulty
aud expense, A good view for the en-
tombed spirit is one of the chief require-
ments for a grave,
near a hilltop are highly favored spots,
-—
Here and There a Gem,
The power of a4 man’s virtue should
not be measured by his special efforts,
but by his ordinary doing. Pascal,
| Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
i Will rise in majesty to meet thine own,
{| “He is faithful that hath promised, He'll
surely come again ;
He'll keep His tryst wi’ me, at what hour 1
dinna ken;
jut He bids me still to wateh, and ready
aye to be
{ To gang at any moment to my i nu
tree.” !
{ The secret of Mr. Wm. E. Dodge's
| power lay in the first hour of every
| morning. That hour he gave to God
with his Bible, and on his knees ; and if
he came down among business men
| with his face shining with cheerfulness
COoun~
{ and loving kindness, it was because he
| had been up in the mount in communion
{ with his Master, — Cuyler,
trooping out to their tombs to repair
and sweep them and make offerings. A
Chinese tomb in the South of China
seems invariably, so far as the outline
on the ground is concerned, to take the
form of the Greek letter Omega ;
when raised to any height it
and
usually
a round back, the coffin being placed in
the seat,
HT —————— a -
Raiding the Chinese * Joints.”
Even certain parties in the city of
the crusade against the
norrid depravity, the substance of which
is concentrated and doubly distilled into
that terrible vice of opium indulgence.
Fortunately the excitement is confined
{o Mott street, Now,
the
into Mott
tion very much if
the ‘old boy" street
in that delectable
siogan is,
vicinage, jut the
Chinese,” This is not, however, an
uprising of the people against the Mon-
golians as much as it is a gushing out of
the mob venom that lurks in the gutters
If they don't ha e
the almond-eyed celestial brother they
will wreak their upon
class or classes of any foreign commu
of all large cities.
vengeance the
nity, whose aims or labors may be in con-
flict with their own. It a Dennis
Kearney howling, ‘The
Yes! any, all, any-
is
belligerency
Chinese must go.’
sovereigns of the slums,
A fellow loaded to the
rum hiccoughs anathemas against
imaginary enemy with his little pipe of
opium, and, ushering from his fetid
dive excoriates the pigtail citizen emerg-
ng from his “joint.”
mentary upon ous
that we make
slaughts
muzzle with
our most Vigorous on-
upon apparent vices while
the deep-sea soundings in the ocean of
turbance to the reformaton
This bhub-bub about
with thelr
is a farce.
but, if the aggressive
the empire city desire
their faculties we would respect.
fully suggest that there are
portions of New York which
horrible
Opium
op.um
is bad
reformers of
to
£1
OIE
are
the sanitary and moral prestige of the
metropolis than all the stone throwing
and dirt flinging at the harmless celes-
tials,
Improvements.
A German has invented a safe which,
spirits,
It was a work of some dificulty to
bring the coffined body down the steep
foot-way from the window to the road ;
but the task was finally accomplished
without mishap, amidst the renewed
wallings of the moarning-women, the
shrieks of the pipe and the belaboring
of the tom-toms. Awaiting the arrival
of the coffin in the street were some
twenty elaborately -carved and lavishly-
gilded sedan chairs, constructed especi-
ally for use on sueh occasions, These
chairs contained meats, fruits and cakes
—real and artificial-—in profusion.
Among other articles displayed were
two excellently cooked sucking pigs.
Two or three altar-pieces, emblazoned
with the name and age of the deceased,
were also carried in the procession ; also
banners, the deceased's tablet and pho-
tograph, and other articles— Lhe bearers
all being dressed more or less in mourn.
ing costume, Before the procession
started for the burial ground at Mount
Davis there was more wailing, more
incense burned, more shrieks from the
“gusty pipe” and more prayers from
the priest. One of the last acts of the
mourners was to walk round the coffin,
and then the procession moved off, the
coffin taking the last place in the cor-
tege.
At Mount Davis the body was cone
signed to the earth with much lamen-
tation, incense-burning and praying.
There was, however, apparently, but
little difference between the ceremonies
in addition to the customary walls and
doors of steel, has an attachment that
on being touched immediately flares an
electric light on the scene, and at the
same time uncovers a prepared plate
on which the burglar’s photograph is
taken while an alarm is sounded,
Mr. BR. 1. Wadlow, a Brooklyn, Ga.,
man, after three vears' hard work and
study, has finally invented and patented
a new way of making shoes, The en-
tire uppers of these shoes are of one
piece, with no seams that touch the
foot, They are made with an adjusta-
ble instep and fastened with buckles of
his own invention,
A Turin jeweler has made a tiny boat
formed of a single pearl, which shape
it assumes in swell concavity, Its sail
is of beaten gold, studded with dia-
monds, and the biunacle light at the
bow is a perfect ruby. An emerald
serves as its rudder, and its stand is a
slab of ivory. It weighs less than half
an ounce. Its price is $5000,
i ————
A reporter who had seen long service
on English newspapers died in the per-
son of George Hl. Kent, He began his
career oni the London Morning Post in
1820, and he was afterward associated
on the Morning Chionicle with Charles
Dickens. He enjoyed the further dis
tinction of having reported the first
University boat race and the first regat-
every yacht race during the last fifty
| years his face was a familiar one,
Work, for the night is coming
f Work through the morning hours
Work while the dew is sparkling ;
Work ‘mid springing
the
GWErs
Work when day grows brighter, work
in the glowing sun,
for the night is coming,
work is done.”
Work when man’
Knowledge is, indeed, that which
next
to virtue truly and essentially
It
human soul.
| raises one wan above
of the
pleasant
another, fin-
It
the
ad-
of
It gives ease to solitude,
Addi
isnes one-half
| wakes being to us, fills
mind with entertaining views, and
| ministers to it a perpetual series
| gratifications,
| and gracefulness to retirement.
s0N.,
Prayer with and for others
rrow out of our own private prayers,
In the closet, with the door shut, we
learn how to speak to our Father. He
| prays best in public who prays best
alone,
must
A congregation, however large,
is a gathering of individual souls, ‘As
in water, face answereth to face, 80 ths
heart of man to nan, ’— Marling
An Unexplored Region.
Hearing the report around town that
| valuable redwood and yellow-pine forest
had been discovered by R, D. Cook, of
this place, about eighty miles east of
| town, we dropped in upon that gentle-
| man and received full confirmation from
him of the report. It seems that about
three weeks ago he became alarmed at
hd : - . .
the long ary spell and in ¢ wilh
MPAny
started for
head waters of the Sisquoc in search of
another gentleman, he the
food for hisstock.
He reports the sce: «
| ery along the route aftér he left civili
| zation as exceedingly grand, rivaling
{ anything he ever saw in his life, 1e
nformation that he had
twice crossed the plains and had been
and |
| volunteered the
{ through Central America, After riding
| as as they could they left their
{| horses and footed it over the mountains
ial
and near
one of the tributaries of
{ and through canyons, the
headwaters of
the Sisquoc they fousd themselves upon
| the brink of a percipice over which the
| waters of the creek poured with a deaf-
| ening roar, falling a distance of six or
He threw a rock
to test the distance, and
| seven hundred feet,
brink
waited to hear it strike the bottom, Lut
| after waiting some time he concluded
it had lodged onthe way down, and was
turning to leave when the rambling in-
| tonations told him it had just reached
| the bottom. The view from this point
| was grand and awe-inspiring, and if
properly opened to the public would
rival the Yosemite as an attraction.
Fish and game abound, and to illustrate
the plentifulness of the former he stated
that his companion « n several occasions
took a common guouy sack and fast.
{ened it at a rifle, and would drive
enough fish inte it while he was making
a fire to serve them for a meal, In
coming down a canyon they discovered
a redwood forest that has never before
been known to exist in that locality.
He describes its extent to be from two
and a half to three miles long and from
three-quarters to a mile wide. The
trees were from one to six feet in diam.
eter, and, to use his own words ‘‘there
is enough timber there to fence this
valley into ten-acre lots,’’ On the outer
edge of this grove he found a tree that
had been felled years and Years ago by
chopping around it with a tomahawk,
the blade of which was not over llhree
inches wide, He is confident that no
other white manever stepped feet inside
the grove, for, said he, it would have
been impossible to have reached ita yesr
ago ; but about that time a forest fire
burned off the thick underbrush for
miles this side and made it possible for
th=m to reach the grove on foot. He
does not think that the discovery of the
forest or the magnificent falls will be
of any value for years to come because
of the difficulty of building roads to
them, but, nevertheless, he intends to
s.art out in a short time and further
explore that interesting region.—San
Luis (Cal) Republic,
- -
In the Supreme Court, at Providence,
R. 1, Fanny Sprague was ordered to
furnish bonds within twenty days to the
amount of $300, 00 and Mary Sprague
to the amount of $80,000 as assignees
of the Quidneck Company's stock.
1 OVEN &
———— —— a ———
Agricultural,
Growing Cabbage.
Tate cabbage is a more important
crop than that which is early, as it is
which enables the
grower to obtain
season, when most vegetables are scarce
Nor does the late crop require a ho's
bed for forcing, nor come in competi-
tion with the Southern product. The
preparation of a field for cabbage should
be very thorough, deep plowing and
frequent harrowing being necessary to
get the soil in proper condition, Asthe
gunantity of manure may be used with.
should be set in rows of
the cultivation of the crop that
grower must depend for success, Too
much cultivation cannot be given cab-
bage, for the oftener the soil is stirred
the
"OTL.
better, and especially
to grow in the field, as nothing suc-
cumbs quicker to weeds than cabbage,
The best manure for cabbage, if size
without guality is desired, is that fiom
the hog pen : but if good, crisp cabbage,
of
the
stable that has become fine and
well-rotted, is sure to give good results,
Of fertilizers a mixture of superphos-
phate, plaster and guano will be found
excellent, and it 1s better to apply the
fertilizer at intervals during the growth
of the crop than at one operation.
the
cabbages al present is
The obstacle in way of growing
the cabbage-
worm. So tenacious of life is this pest
that no remedy is Known that may be
The free
dissolved in water
considered entirely effectual.
use of saltpetre, and
sprinklec well over the plants, is recom-
by if it
the ravages of the worm, is
mended some, and, does not
an
excellent substitute for the guano as a
fertilizer. Paris green, Londen purple
sllebore should not be used on
as it IS dangero 1%, Profes-
vant, in detailing the results
Lurts
of bis experiments, found that hot water
applied to the cabbage destroyed a por-
wm of the worms, but caused the leaves
to turn vellow, The most satisfactory
remedy. though not entirely effectina
all cases, consisted of half a pound each
in three
Erowing
cf leaves
of hard soap and kerosene oil
gallons of water: but as the
ark 8 fa
LCs 8 LNASS
cabbage presents ¢
within which the worm may be cor-
cealed, the application should be re
peated occasionally. The worm will be
killed if
to reach it.
the solution can only be made
In saving seed select, late in the fall,
heads, and cut
then place the heads on
which should be slightly
the best off the stalks
close to them ;
the
#levaled
ground
1 with earth to
As
spring opens remove the covering, cut
the
knife and it wil
single enbbage yielding quite a large
quantity, It is necessary to give sone
kind of support to the seed-stalks, how-
ever, and the pods should be picked off,
carried to the barn and the seeds beaten
out on a clean place,
and co
vir
vel
protect during the winter. S00N 48
cabbage crossways with a sharp
| soon sprout to seed, a
Milk for Laying Hens.
There is nothing better for laying
hens in the spring than milk after the
cream has been taken off, the Amerwcan
Agriculturist thinks. “We bave tried
t several seasons with complete success,
With the milk given fresh from the
dairy-room every day, the fowls will
need no other drink, and it will supply
everything required in the way of animal
food. The pullets fed with milk and
corn. and a mixture of corn meal and
milk, through the cold weather, have
given an abundant supply of eggs.
Wheat bran is also a good article to mix
with the milk. It is better to give the
mixture a boiling and to feed it in the
warm state, but this is not necessary.
We have also found the milk one of the
best kind of diet for young chickens
soon after they come from the nest, to
promote their health and mpid growth.
Indian meal, ground coarse and scalded
with milk, is perfect food for them. As
they grow older, grass, cabbage or
onions may be chopped fine and added
to the daily rations, A portion of the
milk on dairy farms usually going to the
pig-trough may be diverted to the
chicken-coop with great advantage.
Eggs are worth 25 cents a dozen, and
poultry 20 cents a pound, when pork
brings but 10 cents a pound in the mar-
ket.
The "Coming Cow."
The position that the ‘‘coming cow’
is to be one well adapted for both beef
and milk production we believe to be
correct, if it Le not pushed too far,
There is an increasing number of dairy
farmers who find it best to give almost
exclusive attention to the quantity and
quality of the milk given by their cows,
caring little abort their merits as beef
makers. So there are beef-producing
farmers who properly count it a disad-
vantage if a cow gives a large flow of
milk, This is true on the Western
plains, It is true of such farmers as
J. D. Gillette, whe only asks for a cow
that shall produce and feed a calf each
year. Both these elasres form but a
minority of cattle raisers. The most
successful dairymen and the producers
found in these classes: but the great
majority of cows and of steers for beef
are, and long will contisine to Le, raised
by men who capnot afturd to ignore
either the milk-giving or the meat-pro
ducing quality, For men the
popular breed must be one with desery-
such
It is quite possible that several
breeds may, in the future, be claimants
for this double pur
pose, but the course of breeding now
the other. The Shorthorn has
been surpassed, if equaled as al “gener
Lever
Ought she 10 lose a
An Objection to Mulching
There is a growing suspicion that the
affect
found Nn ths
insect troubles
strawberry way be
practice of mulching, and there are ce
¥
this v
On careful inquiry of many strawberry
men who ship their fruit at
ew likely to prove the true one
this point
heir fields
§
l
that 14
thal 1h
and from an examination of
and fruit, it is ascertained OS
fields unmulched have been
neariv or free from the
which has
entirely
wrought such ruin o
mulched fields.
Captain H. Andrews brought us sev-
eral plants thick with berries in al
stages of growth and without any =
of bug work.
splendid berries and used no mulching
¥
He has a heavy crop of
H., J. Hileman has a large patch of fins
mulched, Drake
Tus
who neglected to mulch |
of
thoroughly mulched and are alive wi
Dr. A. D. Finch
I also full of the festive bug
ana
berries that were not
Rendlewman, Perry ner and others
i wve good crops
berries. Mr, Earl's fields were
tl
the bug. 's fields were
muiched
Others who mulched have suffered ina
similar way.
The i
ing beneath the
winte:
frait-grower
nsects have been actively breed
mu'cl during all the
now the carefu’
At
To mulch
a strawberry field looks, as one growel
like
frying pan into the
1
wile
and Spring, and
finds his labor lost,
least it has that appearance,
expresses it, jumping from the
Considering
probability of
the mulch acting as a harbor and
tory for the bug, will it not be
+
to put on the mulch late in the
fire.
possibility or rathes
fa
better
spring
instead of in the fall ?
Feeding Value of Ensilage.
We
feeding value of ensilage, some of which
have inquiries concerning the
show some confusion of mind in regard
to the subijact
general principles will help to a bette:
understanding
First. The value of food preserved
in a silo depends very greatly on
was put in—its nature and condition.
The material used and the degree of
maturity of the crop greatly affect
the value,
Second. [DPutting grass, cornstalks or
other substance into a silo does not add
anything to the nutriment contained in
the material. We cannot take
what we did not put in. Catling
storing the green food im a silo may
make it more digestible ; may, and often
does make it more palatable than when
the food is dried in the open air. Let
ting the moisture dry from meadow
grass or from green cornstalks in itself
should not make these substances less
desirable as food. In fact, it does
make them less palatable. Preserving
much of this moisture in the ensilaged
food may be a help.
Third. If fermentation goes on in
the silo to any considerable extent there
is absolute loss of food value,
Fourth. Reason and experience alike
lead us to conclude that we cannot
make ensilaged grass or cornstalks alone
take the place of good grain feed, The
latter should be given in connection with
the former.
Fifth. Reason and experience alike
show that almost any palatable, nutri-
tious, succulent plant kept in a silo, with
reasonable exclusion of the air, makes
palatable and fairly satisfactory food.
wd is—
Bearing in mind a few
what
will
out
and
CURRANT JAM, Mash two quarts of
currants with one guart of raspberries
together in a bright preserving pan.
‘This admixture of raspberries adds
greatly to the flavor of the jam. Now
add sugar in the propertion of one
pound to each pint of pulp; place over the
fire and stir constantly for twenty min-
utes witha long-handled wooden spatula.
Remove the scum and transfer the
jam to china pots or glasses. When
cold cover with paper or biadder, and
set away for future consideration,
The Italian Government refuses to
allow the importation of any patent
medicine unless sanctioned in some
properly authorized pharmacopoeia.