Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1884-01-15
THE LAST SAD RITES.
THE GORGEOUS QEsSEGUEES
OF GEN. sVONG FAT DIE.
How Distinguished Cinnamon
Was Inferred by his
(Ountrymen

was in ferment ell day the occa
sion being the obsequies Of Wong
Fat Die, one of the most d!stin-
guished Cinnamon that has ever
| died upon this coast. On account
of the great preparations made for
| the funeral and the numerous en-
blems being prepared it was gen
! ally supposed IN this city tiaat the
deceased was a Mason of high de-
| gree. Such, however. was not the
case. Wong Fat Die was one Of
! the leaders Of the rebellion in Chi
ma in the year >55 when the in
surgenss attempted to take Canton.
Gen. W. F. Die distinguished him
self both in the council chamber
and the field and was wounded by
a spear thrust in the groin. The
siege, however, was c failure and
the rebellion was squelched. Since
that time whenever one Of the lead
ers dies a great ado is made over
his funeral by his surviving follow
ers. The crowd which trained with
the deceased in the "lste wah" were
known as the Red Flags in contra
distinction to the White ard Blue
Flags which comprised the Govern
ueut forces. The General died
week ago yesterday brt the corpse
was kept in state IN order to ALLOW
Cinnamon FROM various parts OF
the coast to attend the funeral. The
attenuated state Of the body ct
death and the liberal use of quick
line and car5olic acid made it pos
sibe for .he crowd to approach the
ccffin with but slight inconven
fence.
LYING IN STATE.
The dead man was stretched out
il state on Wednesday last in a
black velvet coffin under a muslin
canopy. On the coffin was long
wooden slab with an inscription
and an ordinary red brick Oh which
his name was carved in Chinese.
Al his feet was table laden with
the odd delicacies which the Chi
nese reserve fer themselves. There
were turpips carved in fantastic
shapes, and painted red and blue;
fried potatoes with the edges gilded.
white and green sausages, confec-
tioaery of ell eolors, candles, burn
ing punk, all Hanked by goatand
a pig roasted whole. The animals
had been shaved all over and the
goat had his horns on. The goat
was the only Masonic emblem no.
ticasle OF the funeral and its pres
ence was probably accidental. Be-
yonG this table was another upon
which we're several demijohns of
rice brandy. When everything
was ready the procession formed
facing the rice brandy and ready
for business
TEE RITUAL FOE THE DEAD.
The Joss men" or clerical func-
tionariaa, were dressed ia green
muslin eircled with red. and white
-four sacks tied about their heads.
They performed tie bulk OF the
archaeological labors and ckanted
the antipaonal responses Next
came priests in red robes, deaeons
in pink aad singers ia yellow,
then came the bulk of the crowd in
white. When all was ready taae
priests kneit before the punk and
rice brandy and prayed and sang. f,
In turn each one of the procession
made a genuAection before the al |
ter, drank some brandy and retired.
THE GRIEF MOURNER
Was tae brother of the deceased.
He was in a white and knelt beside |
the coffin. His business was to i'm
itate everything done BY the brevet
and in order to see what
they did he was obliged to get down
on his hands and knees and look
under the tables. He kept a
eye on the work at the other
end and bent backwards and for
ward several hundred times, his
spine holding put splendidly.
THE TRANsPARENCIEs.
The rebel transparencies were
lac SMILES of those carried in the
yrea. rebellion of SO. They were
sblong, triangular, globular. dia-
nond shaped, shovel b ped,
op1 M, Inform Tho