The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-01-25
CHEATING The GODS.
II Chinese Are Not Slow When 1t Comes
to Getting a Rake-Of.

. SElGN IiNN1 III WV
II Chinese Are Not Slow When 1t Comes
to Getting a Rake-Oh.
4 correspondent of the North China
HStald, writing from the interior of
S&ngsu province, mentions that one
oofhe industries there is the manufac-
tire of mock money for offering to the
dad. Formerly the Chinese burnt
sFhm paper money, but in these days
OF enlightenment and foreign inter-
co rise the natives of Soongkong, Hang
chew 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 ex-
tent, supply their ancestors and de-
'tted friends with mock dollars
Y msse are only half the size of real dol
BIT !, but there appears to be no more
harm in cheating the dead than in
cheating the living. Besides, the de-
cea sed are not supposed to know the
dl1 erence, 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
~O-t AOI IlllI w -lOuE uOlldTS CdSu L llC
OPERATION for making this money is in
te]]Ssting. First of all, there are blocks
OF I'm which are melted down and then
III 6red between boards lined with Chi
Use paper, and when the upper board
pressed down on the lower thick
Jess of tin remains. This is next cut up
nto strips four inches long, one wide
y INDIAN niuhfb -
IFfSve these strips are placed evenly
together, one on top of the other, and
'o1he end is held between the fingers,
vi Then the workman proceeds to ham
nier them out till he has beaten them
SO fine that they are now three feet
long and one foot broad, and so thin
that they are not thicker than the
thinnest paper. This is next pasted
on common cardboard, which is then
cut with a 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, hammers impressions
of dollars on them, and the money is
ready for use. Another very curious
instance of the practice of cheating
the gods is recorded in the same jour
nal, but from quite a different part of
the country. 1t appears that districts
of the Anhui province have lately
been ''avaged by an epidemic, so that
in many places the people were unable
to attend to the harvesting of the
crops. An attempt was then made to
deceive the gods by playing att New
Years day and pretending that Sep.
t@mber was the first day of the new
year. Every preparation for celebra-
ting the bogus new year was made,
such as burning frecrackers and past
ing happy sentences in red paper on
the doors. The object was to make
the god of sickness think that he had
made mistake in the seasons and had
erred in bringing an epidemic on the
people at time when no epidemics in
the course of nature should appear. AS
any action 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
-ssuperior divinity. This child play re-
ceived the permission and cooperation
of the local authorities, but so far no
visible effects for the better are APP
parent.-London Times.