The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-01-02
Odd Remedies in Chinese Hospital

Sock doh or prescription, he gets
one which usually contains abou, an
ingredients. Prominent among .,,
are dried snakes skins. frog skins Owl
powdered toad, upon the bowers ~.
which they pin great faith.
Other ingredients are herbs. Whom
the sick Chinaman has succeeded in
getting the prescription filed the whole
is boiled and he drinks the resulting
decoction. which is bitter as gall. I'm
mediately after drinking the prescrip-
ton the patient takes a dried plum in
his mouth to kill the taste. Water has
no effect upon the bitterness
The price usually charged by the
Chinese physician is so cents The
Chinaman does not consider it refined
to hand his doctor the bare money. 1t
is always wrapped in red paper, and
the physician never knows the size of
his fee until after the patient has de-
parted
But the Chinese have learned that
the New York Board of Health has
many questions to ask about deaths. AS
| a consequence when it is evident that
a sick Chinaman is beyond aid an
American physician is called in. This
is mere formality, as the American
physician can give death certificates
acceptable to the board, while one from
the "Chinee- like doctor would not be
worth the paper it was written on.
In the hospital the feeble or sick
Chinese lacks for nothing to comfort
him if it can be procured Money or
no money, cousins or no cousins, he is
treated just the same.
Banquets are of almost nightly oc-
curence in the Chinese clubs, and the
viands left over are always taken to
the hospital. Whoever gives these BAN
quets considers it duty to provide a
sufficient quantity of food so that the
Chung Wah Kong Sor f Sang Fong
may share the good things.
When the sick Chinaman has reached
] food he is kept alive on fue-juke, or
cream of rice, the most expensive food
! known to the Oriental. 1t is imported
from China and is so delicate that
barely one case in five reaches New
York without being ruined by mold. 1t
consists of rice beaten into a pulp,
pressed and dried, then cut into slices
and cooked with cream.
When a sick Chinaman has got so
low that it is an assured fact that he is
soon to see the light of the other world,
rites are conducted around his bed
side by his cousins" and friends. In
the wards of the hospital are two
small affairs. At the same time incense
is burned on the affairs, while burning
sticks of sweet smelling incense are
placed between the patients fingers and
toes, and even in his nose and ears
Offerings are also taken up to the
main joss house at 16 Mott street,
where more prayers are chanted and
more incense burned.
But the Ri Soy Sot and incense burn
ing cease suddenly when there is an
assurance that the patient is but few
hours from his end. Then he is bundled
off to the Chinese lighthouse at / Pell
street to pass away. This is because
the Oriental fears the spirits of the
dead and wants none of their evil in
fuence about his hospital When the
end comes, he is turned over to the
semi official undertaken of China
town and finds temporary resting
place in the Chinese enclosure in
Evergreens Cemetery.
The bones of every Chinese find their
ultimate and permanent repose in his
family plot at his original home in
China. Every five years the ceremony
of digging up the bones in the 1nclo-
sure in Evergreens Cemetery takes
place.
AS the grave-digger uncOvers them,
the old keeper of the rec ords of the loss
house sits above him and arranges the
bones as they are handed up to him.
The records held by the old man show
the history Of every skeleton and each
is packed in separate zinc box and
shipped across by way of San Francisco
to China, where it is inferred in the
family plot with many ceremonies
Thus every Chinese. no matter how
long his residence in this country, finds
a final rest among the bones of his an
cestOrs in China.
The old and feeble Chinese seldom.
appear so that they can be viewed by
the curious eyes of the Chinatown WISH
tor. But go through Mott, Pell or Dover
street early any summer morning or
even on clear sunny winter day and
you will find ranged along, sitting on
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