The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-12
SLAVES IN PROCESSION,
A Woman'S Gorgeous Funeral
in Chinese Highlander
Circles.
A Society of HighbInders Sends
Carriages In Token Of
Respect.

Chinatown was stirred up to a state of
| intense excitement between noon and 1
o'clock yesterday by one of the most gor-
geous funerals that has paraded its streets
| for many long day.
The people chartered and gesticulated in
every window, blocked the entrances to
the stores and iostled one another on the
sidewalk in their eagerness to see the
pageant, but not one of them professed the
least knowledge OF where the funeral came
| from or whose were the remains. Uncom-
municative as they usually are in their
! dealings with white people, their ignor-
ance yesterday surpassed all previous
| effort in that direction, and their i'no
sabes" were more stolid and meaningless.
At the consulate the officials regretted
| in quite a touching manner that other
business had prevented them from seeing
! the beautiful funeral. They said, how
| ever, that the obsequies were in favor of a
certain All Chow, who had lived for many
years on Jackson street, and in the course
| OF a long and industrious life had amassed
much wealth and many wives. They be-
heved that the whole neighborhood had
| deeply respected the deceased gentleman
and mourned his loss.
All this information was childlike and
| bland, although it existed only in the fer
vid imagination of the smiling official of
| the consulate.
The gorgeous funeral was that of a
woman, Wong All Mo. A Respondent pic
| ture of herself, framed in white flowers,
was carried in the procession, and on the
reverse of the banner the deceased bag s
aye was announced to be 48 years.
| Wong All Mo was the wife of distin-
guished highlander who had a reputation
in Chinatown for executing all orders COM
mitted to him with neatness and dispatch.
| The husbands name is Wong All Mo also,
| but so proud was the wife of her husband s
distinction in his profession that she
elected to sink her name entirely in his,
although it is not the custom for Chinese
women of her independent character to
| do so.
| For years past Mrs. Wong All Mo drove
a highly profitable trade in Chinese slave
girls on Baker alley, between Cum Cook
| alley and Dupont street. Wealth poured
in upon her, in fact, one reason for this,
no doubt, being the great favor in which
! she always stood with the highbinders.
When she felt her last moments approach
| ing she gave orders for such a splendid
funeral as is seldom bestowed upon a
| Chinese woman, and yesterday her in
structlons were carried out to the letter
All Wong All Mos slave girls both past
!
walked in the procession draped in white
as mourners. There were about forty of
them, heavily yelled. with downcast heads,
stumbling along over the cobblestones of
Dupont street.
Among the girls were three who had
their heads wrapped in gunny sacks in
token of extra-deep mourning. These
were supposed to be the deceased woman's
children, though it is stated By people who
know something of her affairs that they
were only adopted slaves.
In addition to large number of hired
mourners in sky-blue robes there were six
| full Chinese orchestras dotted at different
places in the long line of carriages.
The highbinders had shown their respect
and admiration for the deceased by turn
ing out in large numbers. The club of
which Wong All Mo, the mourning wild
over, is such distinguished member, had
hired several carriages, which were filled
with sorrowing highbinders, who consid-
cred that in Mrs Wong All Mo they had
lost one of their best friends.