The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-08-27

ticles of furniture. But it was hollow,
and within it lay the inhabitant Of the
dwelling, sleeping his last long sleep,
never more to rise, never more to sip
his tea or samshoo, though it waited
there prepared for him never to sit on
his ebony chairs; never to light any
more joss stick to his ancestors, but to
have them lit for him by his posterity.
There were other chambers in the
house similarly furnished, except that
the mastody was thrown back and dis
played an empty coffin, which lay
ready lined with sandal wood, its owner
not being yet dead. The verandah was
furnished with the usual green porce-
lain seats and vases, in which seemed to
stagnate the bloodless flowers. We
stole softly out into the street, chilled
and painfully, yet not mournfully, i'm
pressed. We went into the next door !:
this house was ''To let, unfinished"
A third was rich in gliding and vermil-
ion, and mirrors reflected and glittered
through the rooms. The ebony and
ivory furniture was most beautifully
carved. The tea and samshoo cups
were Of exquisite eggshell china; OBJ
jects de vertu lay about on the altar
emblazoned with rare jewels. The bed
was covered with magnificent crimson
velvet quilt, richly embroidered in gold
and seed pearls, with deep bullion
fringe, worth its weight in gold. I'm
der the quilt lay high mandarin, who
ha1 onocCod on oporrno,,o for<u1o hxr
the very simple process of chopping off
the heads Of all such as he discovered
to be possessed of money.
Twas informed that he had immense
money with him in his coffin, and was
adorned with all bis jewels and costly
mandarin dress. The coffin or state
bed On which he lay had cost $1,000.
The outer one was of ebony, beautifully
inlaid with gold, silver, ivory, and
mother-of-pearl. The inner case was OF
the famous iron wood, from Borneo or
Burmah, considered more invulnerable
than metal, as it neither rusts nor de.
Gays, and defes the white ant. Within
that there was sandal wood shell lined
with velvet the body being highly
spiced to preserve it. The furniture Of
the house might well exceed thousand
pounds. The altar cloth and hangings
were ofrich, embroidered silk, with
profusion of gold fringe, and the lattice
fligree, which the Chinese are so fond
of introducing everywhere, was Of gilt
and vermilion. The floor was of inlaid
marble.
Wandering about this odd, ordinary
place, which was neither mirth nor woe,
the painful stiffness and the heavy at
mosphere being the only elements which
inspired awe, my nerves, nevertheless,
received sudden shock. when. just as
| was examining the decorations of an
apparently new visitor, speaking in
whispers and raising the mastody,
shrill shrek made me start, drop the
mastody, and clutch my companion by
the arm, and for a minute I could
scarcely control my fright. He laughed,
for it was only the Growing Of cock
but | declare st. Peter was never more
startled. But this was a proof that
the corpse was fresh one, as the white
cock, with a colored feather, which ac-
companies the csfin, is usually left
there when the body merely goes into
lodgings. If really inferred, l be-
lieve it is killed and eaten. In another
portion Of the city we saw several of
them, though | think they were past
growing. Some of the interior walls of
the house were decorated with portraits
to represent the defunct; on
the toilet tables were the brass basins
used for additions, and in one, where
there was portrait of lady who must
have been Chinese beauty, there was
a large pot of red paint and another of
white, which the Chinese use unspar-
ingly by the side of that lay her jade
comb and silver pins and the gum
which was used to stiffen her hair. We
quilted the city nothing 10th. We
seemed to breathe more freely when
fairly outside the pent air of the death
DIV