The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1894-04-28
CHINESE MOCK MONEY,
Made BY the CelestiAls to Defraud Thely
Departed Ancestors.

4ads BY the CelestiAls to Defrsud rhel,
Departed Ancestors-
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 pa
per money. but in these days of en-
hshtenment and foreign intercourse the
natives Of Soongkong. Hangchow and
other places have come to the conclu-
sion that dollars are more handy to the
ghosts than clumsy paper money; hence
| they now. to great extent, supply
their ancestors and departed friends
with mock dollars. These are only
| half the size of real dollars, but there
appears to be no more harm in cheat
ing the dead than there is in cheating
the living. Besides the deceased are
not supposed to know the difference
FOR many Of them parted this life before
SILVER dollars were imported into China.
A hundred mock carolus dollars, done
up IN boxes, are sold for "a cash.
The operation of 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 up
per board is pressed down on the lower
thickness of tin remains. This is
next cut up into strips 1 inches long.
one wide and an eighth of an inch
thick. Some 10 OF these strips are
placed evenly together, one on top of
the other, and one end is held between
the myers, when the workman pro-
ceeds to hammer them ont till he has
beaten them so tine that they are now
feet long and foot broad and so thin
that they are not thicker than the thin
nest paper. This is next pasted on COM
mon cardboard, which is then cut with
punching machine to the size of half
dollars, 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, ham.
mers impressions OF dollars on them,
and the money is ready for use.
another very curious instance of the |
practice of cheating the gods is record. |
ed In the same journal, but from quite |
different part of the country. II ap-
pears that districts of the Anhui prov
lnce have lately been ravaged hy an
epidemic. so that in many places the
people were unable to attend to the har-
resting of the crops. An attempt was
hen made to deceive the gods by play
ng at New Years day and pretend
ng that Sept.l was the first day of the
lew year. Every preparation for cele-
'rating the bogus new year was made.
uch as burning firecrackers and past
ns happy sentences in red paper on the
loors. The object was to make the god
4 sickness think that he had made a
Mistake In the seasons and had erred in
ringing an epidemic on the people at
time when no epidemics in the course
I nature should appear As any action
ontrary to nature done by the gods is
liable to punishment by the king of
eaven, the actors in this farce thought
hat the god Of sickness would gather
is evil spirits back to him for fear of
ne displeasure of his superior divinity.
his ch1ld's play received the permits
on and cooperation of the local au- :
,or1ties. London Times. G