The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-05
Dead Cinnamon.

We have on board, living and dead. |
some twelve hundred Cinnamon. The liv- |
ing ones are going home to spend in China |
The modest fortune they have made in |
California. The dead are going home
to be buried in the company of their an
ceStors. No one can say how MANY
dead we have on board, though the
original number is being added to from
day to day. Even the purser does not
know; though he might, if he liked, tell
how many collins have been regularly
entered as freight by the Six Companies
of San Francisco. These companies
were instituted with the object of direct
ing and protiting by the immigration of
the Chinese to California. Apart from
other payments Chinaman subscribes
two dollars to the Six Companies on AZ
irving at San Francisco. and from two
to six dollars on returning. In consid-
GRAFTON of these payments the compa-
MES undertake 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, kind of sick and burial society.
| On a hill at San Francisco, overlooking
! the bay and the Golden Gate, is small
unkempt inclosure known as the Chinese
cemetery. But it is merely temporary
resting-place for the bones of the tired
dead man. 1t is in his bond that;
sooner or later, he shall be laid at rest
in his native village, in convenient con-
| tiguity to his ancestors, and the Six
! Companies dare no more, in the least
considerable case, refuse to meet this
engagement than the Bank of England
dare refuse to cash one of its five pound
notes. 1t is whispered among the outer
barbarians that the Six Companies are
not asleep to opportunities Of reducing
their liabilities If they have on their
books man sinking from consumption
"a dire disease among the Chinese i'm
migrants-they make haste to ship him
off. II he dies in San Francisco it will
cost the companies, from first to last,
twenty shillIngs. If he is got on board
and passes out through the Golden Gate
into another world, the cost of erabalm-
ing the body falls on other shoulders
Il the man has money, the amount Is de-
Quoted from his possessions. If he has
D not, the poorest Chiuaman on board Will
; subscribe to the fund necessary to Sc
t cure his cmbalment. In either case the
cost is only thirty dollars, of which the
purser takes twelve dollars and q half
and the doctor who does the work re
ceives an equal sum, and the odd five
dollars are distributed among the mem
. bers of the crew who handle the coffin
l. A dead Chinaman is with groteSqu'
realism called 80 stiff, and the numbe'
| of .'stiffs'' Oh voyage IS the measure o
financial prosperity of pupser, docto
d and petty officers On good voyage
have been told, there have been a
many as sixteen ''stifs," representing
four hundred and eighty dollars.
These steamers always take out
stock of collins. They are stored in tn
boats on deck, and should anything hap
men to the vessel and we had to TAX
to the boats we must first hand out tn
!" collins, some full. others empty.
| Chinese coffin has an unaccustomed look
which relieves the boat-loads of much c
their ghastliness They look like trun
~ of trees. followed. squared, and with tn
ID ends stopped up. They are not shape
co with the stiff formality of the Wester
no no coffin, and are. to my mind, inttnitel
is preferable Generally the deaths al
viewed with stolid Indifference by tt
at Chinese There is one more bun
at empty, one mouth the less to feed, on
80 the purser and doctor have anoth'
Y, handful of dollars But when there is
lst family and one is taken the commotiC
is considerable There was an old, drie
"u I'D Chinese lady from Demarara, said
be eighty years of age. She was haste
/. inc home to dwell for forever with HI
10y and kin, but could not hold out and di'
- on the tenth day. One night she pr
ion dicted her death on the following da
of had herself dressed in grave-clothes, al
, an lay quietly awaiting the tryst she b,
c. made. and which death for his pa
me faithfully kept. When the coffin was ca
are ried out to be placed with the rest i'll t
boat her sons and daughters and gran
children followed it with great weepIl
and wailing, in which their sympathe
countrymen. playing dominoes on t
deck, heartily Joined. When the sa
cloth was drawn over the newest coli
sons, daughters and grandchildren we
- back to pipes asd tea, and the playe
l in returned to their dominocs, and the Y
va, low, wrinkled old lady in the VIII
the graVe-clothes seemed to pass from me
the ory. The reason why uncertainty eXl
cen as to the precise number OF dead bod
on board arises from the friendly hal
of the Chinese. They will Cheerful
pack up the bones of a com-patriot il
red ocket-handkerchief, or place tn
as the last layer in trunk containi
their best clothes, and so give them +
,ien passage home.-Cor. Londo" Do
News.
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