St. Paul daily globe., 1889-03-07
AT A CHINESE WEDDING.
How Celestials Tie the Festive Nuptial
Knot.
HOW
THEY BEHAVED.
A Mixed Assembly of Mixed Colors
to See the Cere-
m0nY.

San Francisco Examiner.
There was great time at the Chinese
mission on Washington street last night.
For some weeks the Chinese girls at
the mission have been in state OF great
excitement, sewing and planning and
gossiping and giggling.
The reason for all this was the pros
pective marriage of two of the mission
ary society's wards.
Last night the ceremony was per-
formed. and Miss Florence j. Long be-
came Mrs. Frank Chandler. and Miss
Susie Y. Choy became Mrs. Charles
FOng,
The assembly hall at the mission was
nearly filled with CaucasSians and Mon
golians. The guests we're seated by
dapper jar aneSe and Chinese ushers i
the neatest of American suits. About
all the Christianized Chinese in the city
were there. Most of them wore Ameri-
can clothes, but there were also present
many unregenerated Celestials in all
the inlpious glory of voluminous
blouses, wide lavender trousers and
dangling queues.
JUST LIKE AMERICANS.
Over in one corner the Chinese girls
sat in a bunch, with one of the young
lady teachers to keep them in order.
These chartered and giggled just as any
other school girls would have done.
Their chattering came to a sudden
stop as one Of the teachers began to play
on the organ. While she played the
two couples entered. The brides and
bridesgrooms marched to the platform,
looking neither to the right nor to the
left, and ranged themselves before Rev.
Mr.. Masters.
Then how the beyy of Chinese girls
in the corner did chatter.
A plump young woman, in a faultless,
tight-fitting gray dress and white
shawl, leaned over to where a mis-
chievouS-faced schoolmate in her native
glossy blouse, Starched hair and panta-
looms sat, and perfect gala of crack
ling conSonants came from the lips of
each. Another girl with studious
face, thoughtful in spite of the tlatness
of her nose, joined in the conversation.
1t needed no knowledge of Chinese to
understand them.
''How handsome Frank lOokSv'
''Isn't Susie lovely to-night?' etc.
A SUGGESTION OF HEARTACHE.
The miSchlevOuS girl pointed to the
studious girl, then to Charley Fong,
and giggled something to the plump
girl. The plump girl giggled, too, but
the studiOus girl looked reproachfully
at them and her eyes filed.
The teacher spoke sharply to the
thOughtless young woman.
Charley Fong looked dangerously fas-
cinating, and maybe Miss Susie is not
the only girl to whom he has been at
tentive.
Mr.. Masters prayer put an end to the
giggliDg and talking. The Chinese
present, male and female, listened to
the prayer with the greatest decorum.
Not as much can be said of the various
young white women who were present.
Mr.. Masters read the bride and groom
little lecture on the responsibilities of
the marriage state, and they repeated
after him.
Mr.. Chandler, who was born, by the
way, Chan Kan Yuen, made his replies
bold and clear: his bride. Miss Leong
Wan jim. spoke so low that she could
hardly be heard.
Prejudice aside, the young men were
nice-looking fellows. Their hair was
cropped close, their Prince Albert coats
fitted them, and their attitudes during
the ceremony were not nearly as aWk-
ward as those of caucasian bridegroomS.
The brides, neatly dressed in black,
tlght-fitting suits, stood with their heads
modestly bowed beside their swains.
Each wore daisies in her hair, instead
of orange blossoms, and each carried a
small bouquet.
In corner opposite to the Chinese
girls stood tall, stout heathen in his
working clothes, with half score of
moon-faced young heathens about his
legs. He put on an enormous pair of
horn spectacles and beamed on the
brides and grOOmS with an expression
of the greatest goodwill from the be-
ginning to the end of the wedding.
THE BABY WAS THERE.
In the rear of the hall, at the final
moment of the ceremony, Chinese
baby in gorgeous red, with horned
hood that made him look like an infant
white baby would have done. His
mother tried to quiet him, and the Chi
neSe women around smiled and nodded
to tile baby, and chucked his chin, and
helped the mother, and made no sharp
remarks about mothers who had no
more sense than to bring babies to such
place. The white ladies present
frowned and glared at the mother.
Charley Fong's Chinese name is Fong
Fook Shang, and his wife, before she
came to the mission, was known as
Suey zee ChOy. He is cook, twenty
two years of age. She is twenty. Chan
Kan Yuen is butler. twenty-seven
years Of age, and his bride nineteen.
She is said to have caucasian blood in
her veins.
The two girls were brought from
China as slaves when they were chill
dren. Both have been at the mission
for ten years.
Fong Fook Shang is the son of a
wealthy Canton merchant. When
young Fong embraced Christianity his
father turned him out of home. The
young fellow got even by cutting off
his queue and becoming as much of an
American as the law allows.
Mr.. Masters, after finally making the
four young people two, made Short
address in Chinese, and then Asiatics
and Americans together marched up
stairs to a supper presided over by the
newly-made Benedicts, while a young
lady in pink bodies played wedding
march.
CARE OF MILK.