The Penn's Grove record., 1884-05-10

of San Francisco. These companies
we're instituted with the object OF
directing and %profting by the immigra-
ton of the Chinese to California.
Apart from other payments a China
man subscribes s. to the six companies
on arriving at San Francisco, and from
81 to So on returning. In consideration
of these payments the companies under
take in the event of sickness to provide
medical aid, and in case of death to
embalm the body and ship it to Hong
Kong. The companies are in fact a
kind of sick and burial society. On a
hill at San Francisco overlooking the
bay and the Golden Gate is a small UNI
kept Enclosure known as the Chinese
cemetery. But it is merely a temporary
resting place for the bones of the dead
man. 1t is in his bond that, sooner or
later, he shall be laid at rest in his
native village, in convenient cOntiguity
to his ancestors, and the six companies
dare no more, in the least considerable
case, refuse to meet their engagement
than the Bank of England dare refuse
to cash one Of Its e5 notes. 1t is
whispered among the outer barbarians
that the six companies are not asleep to
opportunities of reducing the liabilities.
Ii they have on their books a man
sinking from consumption-a dire dis
ease among the Chinese immigrants
they make haste TO ship him off. If he
dies in San Francisco it will cost the
companies from first to last 20 shillings.
If he is got on board and passes out
through the Golden Gate into another
world, the cost of embalming falls on
other shoulders. If the man has money
the amount is deducted from his posses
sions. If he has not the poorest China
man on board will subscribe to the fund
necessary to secure his embalment. In
either case the cost is only $50, Of which
the purser takes So. so, the doctor who
does the work receives an equal sum,
ard the odd So are distributed among
the members of the crew who handle
the coffin. A dead Chinaman is with
grotesque realism called a ''stif," and
the number of stiffs on a voyage is the
measure of the financial prosperity of
purser, doctor and petty officers. On a
good voyage L have been told there
have been as many az sixteen ''stiffs,"
representing $3.50.
These steamers always take out a
stock of collins. They are stored in
the boats on deck, and should anything
happen to the vessel and we had to take
to the boats we must first hand out the
collins, some full, others empty. A
Chinese coffin has an unaccustomed
look, which relieves the boat load from
much of their ghastliness. They look
like the trunks of trees followed,
squared and with the ends stopped up.
They are not shaped with the stiff for
mality of the Western coffin, and are,
to my mind, infinitely preferable. Gen.
orally the deaths are viewed with stolid
Ind Inference by the Chinese. There is
one o bunk empty, II mouth the
less to feed, and the purser and the
doctor have another handful of dollars.
But when there is a family and one is
taken the commotion is considerable.
There was an old dried up Chinese lady
from Demarara, said to be so years of
age. She was going home to dwell
forever with kith and kin but could
not hold out, and died on the tenth
day. One night she predicted her
death on the following day, had herself
dressed in her grave clothes, and lay
quietly awaiting the tryst she had made
and which death for his part faithfully
kept. When the coffin was carried out
to be placed with the rest in the boat,
her o n and daughters and grand
children followed it with great weeping
and wailing, in which their sympathetic
countrymen playing dominoes on the
deck heartily joined. When the sail
cloth was drawn over the newest coffin,
sons, daughters and grandchildren re-
turned to pipes and tea, the players
returned to their dominoes, and the
yellow, wrinkled old lady in the white
grave.clothes seemed to pass from
memory. The reason why uncertainty
exists as to the precise number of bod
les on board arises from the friendly
habits ofIthe Chinese. They will cheer
fully pack up the bones of a compatriot
in a red poeket-handkerchief, or place
them as the last layer in a trunk con
tanning their best clothes, and so give
them a free passage home.