The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1912-05-08
CURIOUS CARGO
IS TRANSPORTED
To the FIowery Kingdom
Regularly.
BONES OF 5000 CELESTIALS
Shipped Back to China for
Burial Alongside of
Their Ancestors.
AN OLD CUSTOM CARRIED OUT

Recently a British steamship left
the port of Seattle, Washington, U.
S. A., with a remarkable total of
5000 passengers, not one of which
cost the owners a dollar in food
from the port of sailing to the
! Orient.
The 5000 travellers on the out
ward-bound freighter were all
slowed comfortably tween decks
beneath the spacious matches, and
not a complaint or murmur came
from one of them. They were all
Chinese, and some of them had
been buried so long that there was
really only set of bleached bones
in the caskets placed within the
plain pine boxes in which they were
embarked.
Every few years the Chinese
gather up their dead for shipment
to and final reinterment in the soil
of the Flowery Kingdom. For a
month or more previously to the
sailing of this vessel, local under
takers and those in other centers
all over the Pacific Coast were busy
digging up the collins and sealing
them in other caskets for shipment.
From all Western points trains
brought large numbers of coffined
Chinese to make up this cargo of
remarkable freight.
Little ceremony was shown in the
transfer of the plain white pine
boxes from the pier to the freight
err. A handful of Celestials, agents
of the society which looks after the
dead Chinese in the U. S. A., stood
around and stolidly watched the
operation of hosting the boxes
from the .pierhead in punches OF
four and lowering them into the
yawning holds of the steamer.
The sailors of the ship, also Chi
nese, did not appear to pay much
attention to the work of loading
their departed countrymen into the
vessel for their last voyage. All
that might indicate anything unto
ward taking place was the quantity
of rice strewn around the decks, !
which looked as If 1t had been !
showered there after a bridal party |
instead of a death watch. The
smell of roast pig and chicken COM
ing from the fo'c'stle also proved |
the Chinese sailors loyal to their
belief that a dead Celestial must |
never be sent on his last trip with
out first-class meal a la carte, |
comprising the above.
These silent tourists were Meth
er cabin nor steerage passengers, |
and, once aboard the big freighter,
never caused the slightest trouble |
or anxiety to the officers, unless
any of them got a conjuring up the |.
idea of Chinese spooks perambulat- |
ing her broad decks as she calmly |
ploughed her way across the seas to
her destination.
HIS SulpllSlI VI utpdi lCu Oli-
entails takes place from various
ports in the United States every
few years, the Chinese exiled there
and DESTROYS of their bones resting
finally on the homeland paying a
small weekly sum to a society or
ganized for the purpose. When
there are enough dead Chinese to
make a shipment worth while, To-
cal undertakers dig up the collins
in the various Chinese burial |
grounds and send them, sealed, to
the port of sailing.
"Tongs" and society Affiliations
do not interfere with this curious
custom, and once aboard the vessel
lie side by side, laundrymen and !
rich mere hants, who may have been !
deadly enemies during life, but
both of whom contributed their |
mite to the society experimenting
the final interment. Each coffin is
duly labeled with the name and his
tory of the Chinaman lying within,
and at the port OF disembarkment |
each body is sent to the locality !
where the man was born and there |
Inferred for the last time.-[Tit !
Bits.