St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-25
>Ga. ma11 7M.
CHEATING THE GODS.

The Chinese Are Not Slow When 1t
b Comes TO Getting a Rake-Of.
London Times.
A correspondent of the North China
Herald, writing from the interior of
Klangsu province, mentions that one of
the industries there is the manufacture
of mock money for Offering to the dead.
Formerly the Chinese burned sham
paper money, but in these days of II
lightenment and foreign intercourse the
natives of Soongkohg, Hangchow and
other places have come to the conclusion
that dollars are more handy to the
ghosts than clumsy paper money; hence
they now, to a great extent, supply
their ancestors and departed friends
with mock dollars.
There are only half the size of real
dollars. but there apppars to be 10 more
harm in cheating the dead than there is
in cheating the living. Besides, the
deceased are no supposed to know the
difference. for many of them departed
this life before silver dollars were i'm
ported into China. A hundred mock
Carolus dollars, done up in boxes, are
sold for S54 cash. The operation for
making this money is interesting.
First of all, there are blocks of tin
which are melted down and then poured
between boards lined with Chinese
paper, and when the upper board is
pressed down on the lower a thickness
| of tin remains. This is next cut IN into
strips four inches long, one inch wide
and an eighth of an inch thick.
Some ten of these strips are placed
evenly together, one on top of the other,
and one end is held between the fingers,
when the workman proceeds to hammer
them out till he has BEATEN them so
fine that they are now three feet long
and n foot broad, and so thin that they
are not thicker than the thinnest paper.
This is next pasted on common card
board, which is then cut with a punch
Ing machine to the size of half.dOIIaIs,
and, this having been done, a boy takes
the cut out pieces in hand, and with
two dies, one representing the one side
and the other the reverse, hammers i'm
preSsions of dollars on them, and the
money is ready for use.
Another very curious instance of the
practice of cheating theg gods is recorded
IN the same country. 1t appears that
districts of the Anhui province have
lately been ravaged by an epidemic.
SO that ill many places the people were
unable to attend to he harvesting of
the crops. An attempt was then made
TO deceive the gods by playing at''
New Years day, and pretending that
September l was the first day of the
new year.. Every preparation for cele-
brating the bogus New Year was made,
such as burning tire-crackers and past
ing happy sentences in red paper on
the doors.
The object was to make the god of
5 sickness think that he had made a mis-
take in he SEASONS and had erred In
bringing an epidemic Oh the people at a
time when no epidemics, in the course
of nature, should appear. AS any ac-
ton contrary TO nature done by the
gods is liable to punishment by the
king of heaven, the actors in this farce
thought that the god of sickness would
gather his evil spirits back to him for
fear of the displeasure of his superior
divinity. This child's play received
the permission and cooperation of the
local authorities, but SO far no visible
effects for the better are apparent.