The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-11

culars, the boarding house keepers to rear I
range their rooms for temporary dodgers,
while the authorities entered upon fresh ex.
pedients for preventing anything but free
emigration. Meanwhile couriers secured the
country from Swatow to Linchau, aud from
Yangkiang to Nanngan, scattering the invita-
tions everywhere and proclaiming to the won
der-struck coolies that great nation had need
of them. These couriers went into the hovel
and told of fine houses into the rice swamps
and spoke of healthier occupations; iuto the
workshops and ridiculed the pay and lost no
opportunity, so long as the officials left
them free, to SOW discomfort in the already
desponding hearts of every laborers family.
Men who had heard of America only as land
of fable, where none but the good were al
lowed to go, heard it then for the first time
in connection with themselves
They came. Every valley and mountain in
Fukien, every plain and river in Kwantung,
contributed to the army of labor which was
to give to the Union peace and prosperity
So many came to the ports that there were
not ships enough to take them, and years
passed before all had left Hong Kong who
came there to answer the invitation sent by
the Pacific Railroad. Since that call there
has been but little difficulty in obtaining ship
loads at any time for America. This ''emi-
grafton fever" steadily increases, and it may
be safely estimated that, from this time forth,
if no measures are taken to prevent it, the
number of coolies coming to this country
during any one year will be doubled during
the subsequent year.
SPIRITUALIsM IN CHINA.
The disciples of Confucius have often de-
monstrated that what has usually been sup
posed to be of recent origin is really of long
standing in their country. Especially is this
the case with spiritualism. Not only, says
Colonel Conwell, do the Chinese spiritualists
believe in the same agencies and the same
results which distinguish the sect here, but
they also practise all the methods adopted in
this country for spiritual communication, and
hundred others that do not seem to be
known here. BY this means they determine
what their deceased relatives are doing; how
they live and what they eat; what are the
troubles and pains of purgatory, and what is
the rem edy. They believe that the land of
purgatory is like this earth, socially and poll
tically, with the exception of the absence of
work and wages The spirits are supposed
to eat, drink, sleep, quarrel, fight sing, dance,
etc., just as they did on earth. But as life
is as expensive there as here they can have
but little Joy unless the relatives on earth
send them money enough to pay their ex-
penses. During the stay of the spirits in that
neither world, which is but temporary, they
are possessed of certain powers, by means of
which the gods expect them to make their
wants known to men. They can rap on
chairs and tables and move the kitchen fur
| niture with permission of the kitchen god,
they can make noises in the air, play on mu-
sical instruments, show their footprints in
mud or sand, sprinkle water on the face of
the dead, pull the hair or clothes of the living,
take possession of human Beings, and after
| putting them into trance, talking through
them, and, in thousand other strange ways,
show their presence and desires. The most
common method pursued by the Chinese is
that of the medium or 'talking with the
human mouth, and to such source will the
coolie go for the information which the
kitchen god has refused to give.
The medium is generally young girl of
eighteen or thereabouts, who after being
propitiated by an ample supply of cash, ad-
vises, as the mouthpiece of the spirits, that
the coolie take an Immediate departure for
the United States. He then proceeds
to prepare his relatives in the other
world for his long absence. They must have
money with which to buy spiritual food and
clothing, and his family will, in his absence,
be too poor to supply them until money has
enough to keep the spirits with strict econo-
my until he has time to reach the United
States, earn money and send it home. This
money is made of paper, bamboo leaves, bark
or of other available material which can be
marked with ink. When he has manufactured a
quantity which he isassured will be satisfactory
to the spirits, he encloses small bunches in
little paper boxes prepared for the purpose,
and marks upon the cover the ancestors name
for whom it is intended. One of these boxes
is placed upon each ancestral tablet-which is
usually piece of paper pasted up with the
ancestors name upon it-and there burned
to ashes, while the coolie prays the ancestor
to accept his ''meagre gift" Some of this
money is also burned for the benefit of the
kitchen god, and the tree at the back of the
house comes in for its share. Food, in the
shape of rice cakes and vegetables, is ther
offered to the gods and to the ancestors by
setting it apart from the food of the family
rious places and the ignorant coolie suppose'
that his ancestors are provided for.
WHO COME HERE.
Out of the large number that left Hons
Kong in the year 1869 for the United States
nearly one-third belonged to that class OF
coolies who own no property, and who car
scarcely live from day to day in China or
their wages. The others belonged to the
next higher class, who may be the owners OF
cabins, pieces of land or other property suff
cient to secure passage, and yet be far from
the danger of want or even of starvation, in
case of any accident Among the higher OF
partially educated classes money can be Dor
rowed of friends with or without security, sc
that if man is poor himself his weather re-
latives may advance him the necessary
funds. OF this class few ever emigrate, as
they consider themselves well situated il
China OF the very highest classes none
avar oo ont of their native countrv Thf