Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-09-28

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 TOT Because he suspects an
tagonism in the white man, and is cunning
enough to retain every advantage.
Never has the large Chinese population of
New York been SO stirred from its Utmost
depths as now. John reads the papers and
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 DOW is: will he
some morning be himself invited to return to
the Celestial empirel He does not feel him
self competent to grapple with this conun-
drum. He prefers to carry it to one who he
thinks should know all about it, and who
can-and if properly approached, wil-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 affairs 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 a 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 OF the third floor of No.
10 Chatham square, New York.
1t is desirable, but not absolutely neces
sary, that the shrine should be in the north
of the temple, and the ever burning fame
symbolic of the light of Immortality, in the
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 q won
drous mass Of carved, gilded and painted
wood work, seoniingly merely decorative
but actually full Of the deepest symbolic
significance, in every bough, and leaf, ant
tiny figure of bird, beast and fish. Before
him is a great high table bearing bronze ant
china bowls filed with sand, emblemati
dragons of bronze and other objects. To thu
right, q little in front, a bow Of sand i
placed upon the top Of a stove. To the left
a little less advanced, upon the floor and un
derneath a table is another owl Of sand
Before the center of the shrine, at a it'll
distance, in a pendant lamp of bronze, burn
the light Of immortality.
Either from smiling Muy Box in the stor,
below, or from a priest in the temple, thu
worshiper supplies himself with "jos
sticks" They are very slender splinters o.
bamboo, about n foot long, ~three-quarters o.
their length coated thickly with a 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 IN
to 200 in all.