St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-30
DIGGING UP THE DEAD.
Eon1A!ian Bones Being ExauTlsa for
Shipment 10 China.
The PICKERS' PERQUISITES.
Eow They Leeate the Collins and Lift
the Skeletons Out Of The
Sand.

enmlty OF An 1al, OF the >dn w lLS SV-
ciety.
I All Tai was the Ncagle of his race,
and, rs a natural consequence OF the
quarrel, Wong All Fat was soon
gathered to his fathers. There was
not much ceremony at his funeral.
Only the ordinary number OF punhS
were burned. and the pig that was
roasted for his funeral meal was neither
very large nor very fat. But the spec
tacleu secretary of the Hop Wo society
made I'D for all this seeming neglect 10y
making seventeen gridlrCn-iike mafAS
in his great register. which, II trans
lated. would read as follows:
wong All Fat, son of the moon ana
brother of the stars, Joined his fathtr
and his fathers father, and his father ;
fathers father. in the third month,
twelfth day OF the nineteenth year OF
the Emperor Lii"
In another volume he entered the age
Of the deceased at his death and some
private memorandum in regard TO the
gentleman who was responsible for IL;
But. though he was buried, and the
PRAYERS that kept the devils from MS
grave had been properly distributes,
and the book containing the record o!
his unfortunate taking OF was hieu
away 10 grow stiff and dusty, Wong Al
Fat was not through with the upper
world yet.
Yesterday the specialized secretary
hunted I'D this yellow record book. and
brought it out 10 the graveyard, where
Wong Ali Fat had slept for decade,
and. after finding his name, hunted up
his grave.
Wong All Fats devoted bones were
dug up. canned and properly labeled,
and then the secretary checked on the
name Of the lamented WOng,and turned
to the next.
DISINTERRUNG THE BONES.
Yesterday was sort of rehearsal OF
resurrection day for nifty departed
Chinese.
The Hop Wo society. finding surplus
in its treasury. set aside sufficient sum
to paw for the transfer of the bones OF
shat many of lis deceased members TO
the land where their ancestors lie.
Without counting the cost OF tranSp0r-
tation, the society has 10 pay into the
rity treasury $40 for every corpse ln-
TERED. But if the price were ten times
as much the Job would be done, for
among the most sacred of the promises
that the society makes to those who JON
it Is the guaranty That 1t VIII see that
the members bOneS-if he be so FORUM
ate as to die in the land of the white
deyils-are transmitted to the only land
from which it is possible to enter the
flowery kingdom of the hereafter.
Things were rushing at the Hop Wo
cemetery yesterday. NagOn-lOad after
wagOn-lOad of tin boxes like coal-oll
cans but little longer and narrower,
81 Of t,A hTaol- in thn fQnnn
that serves as gate. These boxes had
one side unsoldered. One set Of bones
goes in each box. Then it is sOldered
up and shipped like merchandise across
the Pacific.
No Chinaman is allowed to dig up his
dead cOuntrymen. As one of the grave
diggers yesterday Informed an Examiner
reporter:
ATS city work, and under the law
the employment of Chinese on city
work is forbidden"
So the white men dig down and I'M
cover the long-buried collins. The
gruesOme work of removing the bones
is. however, done exclusively by the
"hone-pickers' of the Monaghan aSsoci-
alton.
The bones that were taken up yester-
day had been too long buried to cause
any unpleasant odOr, but they were not
dry and clean by any means.
THE BONE-PICkER.
In nine cases out Of ten The lid of the
coffin was found caved in, and the bones
had to be carefully sifted from the sand.
As soon as the diggers had cleared
the coffin the bone-picker jumped into
the narTav hole, and began to feel
around in the sand. Presently he
shouted something in Chinese that
brought another Chinaman with
the tin box and a sieve to the side
Of the grave. The picker took the sieve
and soon half filled it with an assert
ment of ribs, vertebre and phalanges.
The skull and larger bones were hand
at once to the assistant. A piece of
cloth was laid inside the tin box and
then the bones We're tumbled in without
regard 10 arrangement. The one thing
that the gTaYe-picker must not fail
in is TO gather every fragment of the
skeleton. Should he miss even a tooth
and be found out he would lose his posi-
ton at once, and il the deceased had
any relations. the bOne-picker would
lose more than his job. According to
the Chinese creed no incomplete man
can enter the kingdom of heaven. A
peculiar thing about these examinations
is that the queue, which in life is more
closely looked after than anything else,
is entirely ignored by the bone-pIckers.
The hair in almost every grave that was
disturbed Yesterday was found cOmpar-
atively unchanged by the years that it
lay under the ground.
One coffin was taken from the grave
unbrOken. 1t was that Of the child of q
Chinese merchant. The metal handles
were almost rotted of, but the coffin
and its zinc lining were still intact.
When the bone-picker cut and wrenched
the zinc away the form Of the child
seemed perfect.
a DISAPPOINTED HEATHER.
At the first touch, however, it col
lapsed. The faded garments had pre-
served the form while the flesh had
nodded away under it. The Chinaman
made grab for where the right hand
ought to have been. He did not find
what he looked for, and then thrust his
fingers between the beny Jaws. With
disgustsd gTunt he flung the skull into
the box. Then he swore in English. but
his vocabulary gave out and he con-
cluded his profanity in Chinese.
1t IS the custom TO place small coin
In the mouth or right hand of a Chinese
when he is buried to pay his way across
lHG udth IINtG, these coins are regard
ed as the perquisites of the bone-pick-
erS.
This fellow naturally expected to find
gold piece with this rich mars SON
and " zen he found nothing his disap
pOintment found vent in curses.
Years ago the Chinese grave yards
were a bonanza for the medical stu
dents, and many follower OF Confu
cius was kept from Paradise by the
white mems doctors. As a result, fire.
quently when the grave had Leen dug
into nothing would be found. So the
probe was devised, and yesterday nc
digging was done until sharr
iron rod had been thrust into the SAND
to where the coffin lay.
In almost every coffin was found 9
brick on which we're roughly painted
some Chinese characters. The secre
tary of the Hop Wo society explained
that these characters indicated the name
and date Of death of the inmate of the
grave. These bricks are buried witt
them to identity the bones if the head
board was burned or otherwise de
stroyed.
Tho Ghinaoa ooar,ood 10 hove -, =, $780,