Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-06-23
CHINESE MOCK MONEY.
Made by the Ccicstiais to Defraud Their
Departed Ancestors.

Made by tho Cclcstials to Defraud Their
Departed Ancestors.
4 correspondent Of The North China
Herald, writing from the interior Of
klangsu province, mentions that ono Of
the industries there is the manufacture
of mock money for Offering to tho dead
Formerly the Chinese burned sham pa
per money, but in these days of en-
lightenwent 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 a 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 10 know the difference,
for many Of them palted this life before
silver dollars were imported INFO China.
\ 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 mp
per board is pressed down on the lower
thickness of tin remains. This is
next cut up into strips inches long,
| one wide and an eighth of IN inch
thick. Some 10 of these strips arc
placed evenly together, one on top of
the other, and one end is held between
the fingers, when the workman pro-
ceeds to hammer them out till he has
beaten them so fine that they are now
8 feet long and a 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
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 tine
one side and the other the reverse, ham
ners 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. 1t ap-
pears that districts of the Anhui prov
ince have lately been ravaged by an
epidemic, so that III many places the
people We're disable to attend to the har-
vesting of the crops. An attempt was
then made 10 deceive the gods by play
ing at New Years day and pretend
ing that Sept.1 was the first day of the
new year. Every preparation for cele-
brating 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 a
mistake in the seasons and had erred in
bringing an epidemic on the people at
a time when no epidCmics 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 superior divinity.
This cnild's play received the permits
sion and cooperation of the local au-
thorities. London Times.