Omaha daily bee., 1902-06-26
10 LEES QUAINT FUNERAL
Soap. Tobacco and Cigarettes to Keep Him
Company.
PERFORATED PAPER CHECKS THE DEVIL
Sticks of Punk turned and IncRntR-
lions Said Over the Grave OF
Dead Celestial at
Forest Lawn.
PERFORATED PAPER CHECKS THE Q

The funeral Of 10 Lee, Chinese laundry
man al III North Twelfth street, passed off
without q hitch yesterday, and by this
time his immortal part is we'll on its way
across the fiery lake, which Is the moat
that separates this mundane sphere from
the celestial heaven. 1t was solemnized
at the undertaking rooms Of Bradley &
Dorrance, Twentieth and Cunning streets.
|Twenty-three Cinnamon were present, under
the leadership Of 10 Hung Wah, master of
ceremonies, but the great majority of the
crowd was made up of whites and blacks,
whose curiosity prompted them to attend.
The casket, of imitation mahogany, rested
upon ~trestles in the reception room, and
the people filed by to have a last look at
the remains. On the breast Of the body
lay two packages Of tobacco, two packages
Of cigarettes of a common commercial
brand and two bars of soap, the latter,
presumably, to enable the deceased to
start up a laundry when he shall have ar
rived at the happy land. There were other
articles, but they were not easily recog-
nizable. They looked like oblong slips of
manila paper, indented as by the nails OF
a bootheel. 10 Hung Wah was asked II
any opium had been placed in the comm
and he answered negatively.
NOpg ne nave OpAhihst
And he laughed merrily at the Joke, the
point Of which was that the late lamented
had died of the opium habit.
Queue an Important Feature.
The queue OF the corpse was draped over
the shoulder in plain view, and this was a
very important feature Of the rite. A
dead Chinaman's queue is his passport to
Paradise. Like a kite, he cannot hope to
get to heaven without a tail.
After the faceboard had been screwed In
place over the casket 10 Hung Wah pro-
cured a bunch Of punk sticks and set them
ahre. There we're forty-four sticks In the
bunch, one for each year of the deceased's
age. Another Chinaman appeared with a
little stamped and colored tin ornament
with peacock feathers sticking in 1t and
thrust it into the crack where the faceboard
Joins the lid of the coffin. The pallbearers
then bore the remains to the hearse. Joe
Hung Wah. his punk sticks still smoking
odoriferously, mounted the box beside the
driver and signalled the other Cinnamon to
bring their carriages into line. There were
1--WE carriages in all. AS the procession
moved off a shower of little slips of red
paper, perforated, trailed behind. 1t was
explained that the devil, in following the
hearse, would examine each OF those slips
and would crawl through the perforation in
each, which would take SO long that the
soul could get the start OF him.
1t is necessary for a Chinaman to have a
queue In order that he may safely cross the
lake Of fire which separates him from ever
lasting Joy. He has to cross this lake on q
wire, and, II he should fall on, other China
men could seize him by the queue and pull
him back. but If he has no queue there Ii
no means Of reseuing him
At the cemetery the ceremonies were sim
pie. A few ineantationS were muttered oVeI