Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-10-05

you 90 So IL you Culuk MN q
fool Make your most friendly advances to
him, and say the kindest and most reassur-
ing things that suggest themselves to you,
and he will probably look you steadily in the
eye with no more expression than there is in
a wooden horse and say: "No sabe." Yet he
very likely knows English quite well enough
to understand all you are saying Why does
he pretend not to! Because he suspects an
enough to retain every advantage.
Never has the large Chinese population of
New York been so stirred from its inmost
knows that his interests are debated in con-
gress he understands that his countrymen
are already prohibited from joining him in
America, and the question now is: will he
some morning be himself invited to return to
the Celestial empire! He does not feel him
self competent to grapple with this conun-
drum. lie prefers to carry it to one who be
thinks should know all about it, and who
can-and if properly approached, will-give
him authoritatively warning, consolation or
reinsurance That one is the great Quong-
Tai-Gong, or Quong- -He-Say- Gong, the Chi
nese Deity. Both titles belong to him.
The irreverent American shortens his name
down to joss" Before his altars in the two
temples that Chinese New York maintains,
there has been, since the Chinese question
was taken up by congress, an unwonted
amount of devout sacrificing of joss sticks
and anxious consultation of the divining
strips of bamboo.
There is no hour at which the devout Chi
nese worshiper may not approach the shrine
with confidence that Quong-Tai- Gong is pre-
sent in spirit to receive his alteration, and
that priest will be ready to aid him, if de-
sired, in his questioning of the future. The
manner of that questioning is very interest
ing. Let US observe it as conducted in the
principal temple, that on the third floor of No.
10 Chatham square, New York.
1t is desirable but not absolutely neces-
sary, that the shrine should lie in the north
of the temple, and the ever burning flame,
symbolic of the light Of Immortality, in tine
south. That, however, is not practicable
here. Yielding to the architectural necessi-
ties of the situation, the figure of Quong-Tai-
Gong sits in the west. About him is a Won
drous mass of carved, gilded and painted
wood work, seemingly merely decorative,
but actually full of the deepest symbolic
significance, in every bough, and leaf, and
tiny figure of bird, beast and fish. Before
him is great high table bearing bronze and
china bowls filled with sand, embematic
dragons of bronze and other objects To the
right, little in front, bowl of sand is
placed upon the top of stove. To the left,
little less advanced, upon the floor and un-
derneath table is another bowl of sand.
Before the center of the shrine, at a little
distance, in pendant lamp of bronze, burns
the light of Immortality.
Either from smiling Muy Box in the store
below, or from a priest in the temple, the
worshiper supplies himself with ssjoss
sticks" They are very slender splinters of
bamboo, about foot long, three-quarters of
their length coated thicky with peculiarly
fragrant incense composition, and are done
up in red paper sheaths, gorgeous with fire
cracker lingo printed in gold. Twenty five
cents buys ten packages of them, from ITO
to 2O0in all.