Evening Star Newspaper, May 27, 1893, Page 15

THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1893—TWEN'IY PAGES. AT A MEETING OF THE TONGS. MUST THE CHINESE G02 Celestial Crime as It Exists on the Pacific Slope. AN OFFICIAL’S VIEWS. ate Chinese Lotteries Which Net $20,000 A Day —The Chinese Millionaires of San Franciseo and the Eich Six Companies— ‘The Mighbinders and Their Murders. Bpecial Correspentence of The F Sax Faancrsco, May —, 1993. OF THE MOST teresting men in the ince Star United at pres- ent time is Mr. Jobn Quinu. the United States collector of internal revenue for the southern distriet of Cali He is the man been making California for th striction of Chinese immigration and who, had Secretary Car‘isle not withdrawn the pro- vision that the Chinese must register them- selves by photograph. might by this time have ly stopped tis mense amount of smuggling which is continually going ou by the organized Chinese of America. Probably no man in California knows as mach about the Chinese as Mr. Quinn, and certaialy no one heretofore beui ti nerve to enter into a t fight with thom for the preser- American laws, I had a long chat with him the other night about these people and the wonderful power that they hold on the Pacific wlope. Said be: “The people east of the Rocky moaatsns do Dot understand the Chi here. ‘This is the battle ground of the of the Occident and the Orien:, and San Fran- cisco is the herd of the nment of the Chinese of Americ». It e that their rulers live and it is y look for law and panishment. Ther have no res; ther do as the ware by no me: » Fran i wort pent, more f im circula- control at least $15,000.00. ¢ furnish more than one- third of all the lavor we u they have so woven themselves in and ont thronzh our in- dustries that we are simost depenient upon them. When the Geary act compeiling the Chinese to re-ister themselves was passed iv was my duty to enforce tue provisions of the tion on the that we had to keep the Chinese w here, fora time at least, and at the same t.me keep out the hundreds of thou- sands of coolies who were trring to get in. As soon as the act was pablished acre went up frem the <aud lots. or the hoodinm clement, that the Ciinese must co. At the «ame time there came word from the vineyards aud fruit- growing districts of California that the whole- sale depor of them would ruin all such industries. The result was the problem how to keep out the coulies aud keep im the present 8. ‘THE CHINESE AS FRUIT GRowERS, “I should think that roa could have got outside taborers for the vinevards,” said L “The thing has been tried.” replied Mr. Quinn, “but no workers weem to be at good as the Chinamea. Down in Fresno not loag ago three thousand negro mon and women were brought from Tenneswee and Alubama to work in the vinerards there. The Chinese were dis- charged and the negroes put in their places. In less than a month there was not x negro able to work. and the raisin growers having lost thousands of dollars, fell back again on the Chinese. The picking of grapes in California iw by no means an exsy job. The sub-irriga- tion of the soil and the ot sun, which rns as high as 105 dezrees in the sh: makes the work so terribie that only coolies cau stand it, and it wilted the negrous. It is the same orchards. Train loads of vovs and girl sent to the country to take the place of Chi- nese fruit pickers, and in two weeks the or- chardists bad honses fuil of sick children and the Chinese again at work among their trees, On the deserts in southern California and Ari- zona the railroads have to use Chinamen as section hands. as white men cannot stand the terribie summer sin. he Chinese know that there is « certain class of work here that they alone can do. They are not fools and they ask and get as high wazes as wuite laborers.” NOW THE AMERICAN CuINESZ ARE RULED, “Tell_me something about the Six Com- panies, Mr. Quinn,” said L ‘The Six Companies,” was the reply, “‘con- stitute the most wonderful organiz: ever heard of. It rules the destin Chinese in America with au iron hand. defied for years and is now openly defving the 7 government. During this pres- ted £125,009 in contributions h from the Chinese ia less nd this money w and given with the understanding to be used to defeat the ope: Geary law.” that it was stions of the “When were the Six Companies formed,” I | asked. - “No white man knows,” was the reply. Idoubt whether very many Chinese e you. You can’t tind the records of th Ries and no one but their preside: Fetaries kuow where they are. are kept in a crpher wich Their books ead only by themselves and all their work is done in secret. The Chinese in America, you know. come from six dfferent di-triets of Chinn. Ther are in Feality six points in comn tribes, [am told that the Six Companies were organizesi at first to carry on the business be- different tribes of Chinese in this AU CHANG. SAID To BE THE LEADER OF THE BING ON TONG y = SEGA Da Li vo TAL HIGHBINDERS. try, to settle their disputes without re- poeminly the courts. punish the offenders, take care of the sick. and above all. send bones of the Chinese who died in America back to China. This they do today. but they have grown from @ suiali organization to a great asked for | power and great wealth. They have the power of life and death over the Chinamen here. Were I to tell you that the Six Companies havo sentenced not one but twenty men to death, and that the sentence in every case has been exeented. I would tell you only what such men as ©. B. Harton, a newspaper reporter who has made work among the Chinese ? specialty tor ten years, has time and again published over his own signatu MILLIONS FoR CHINA. “How do these Six Companies stand in China?” “They are recognized by the Chinese gov- ernment as the real powe this country. of that empire in The Chinese consul general is mber of their executive com- sels with their president. These companies have for years taken charge of the mouers of the Chinese of the Pacific slope from Alaska to Guatemala and of the United States. and they have constantly on deposit an enormous amount of money here. Their de- posits in the banks of San Francisco often run up as ligh as three millions of gold coiu. aud | within the last forty years they have shipped out of thix country to China the enormous sum ‘This money was made nese laborers and the | profits of Chinese merchants, and if today the Chinese were sent out of the United States SECRETARY OF THE SIX COMPANIES. ther would carry away with them more than $50,000,000 of money. My figures for these sumsare from the ‘banking houses of San Fraueiseo. Los Angeles, Portland and from the offices of the Six Companies, They are an up- der estimate rather than an over estimate.” ORGANIZED CRIM IX SAX FRANCISCO, “How do these compantes work?” I asked. “They do their work openly toa great ex- ten,” replied Mr. Quinn, ‘They act as a court for the Chinese, and the Celestiais come hun- | dreds of miles here to San Fraucisco to have | the presidents of these companies settle their troubles. ‘There is no appeal from them, The Chinamen who refuse to obey them will certainiy ppear.’ and no one but the six Companies will know what has become of them. As to their business there is no doubt but thoy have been engaged for vears in smug- ghng opium, the importing of Chinese women for immoral purposes aud the importing of Chmese iaborers im defiance of the exclusion act. Itisestimated that a handsome Chinese girl of twelve to fourteen years of age is worth when landed in San Francisco clear of the cus- toms officers £3,500. White men are hired to perjure themselves in swearing that these girls were born in America, return to CI for an education and then come home again, Hundreds of women have been brought in this way aud the Six Companies pay the perjurers and hire the lawyers to defend the cases. The reporter Harton, to whom I have already re- ferred. ran two white men to the earth about six months ago. They had just landed a Chi- ! nese girl aged only ten years. The men were arrested und the girl was found at a disrepu- table place where she had been taken immedi- ately after being landed, The perjurers and the girl were bailed out of jail by money fur- nished py the Six Companies and a lawyer was paid by the same orgamuzation. It is estimated 68° a 1G te et thei ue. o % m0 2 Se 7 = 3 aE w i mH CHINESE PROCLAMATION AGAINST GEARY LAW. that it cost the companies between five and six thousand dollars to laud this girl and the eom- panies stick to their own people to the last. They spare no ex; nd they are honest in carrying out the most immorul of their contracts.” r AT CHINESE LOTTERY. “How about the Chinese lottery? “This is one of the great sources of revenue for the companies. They run lotteries in | every city and town in the United States, Can- | itish America and Alaska, The . 3 fi cerned. Itisa Chinese affair and a man can win ar SH EL 29 AS wi Hr aaa u Qasr Shoo 2 a 8 8 br a R % ae frente, to accomplish their | the drawing is con- | nesses of newspaper quilted together and made into a garment that covers the entire body from the throat to the thighs, he arms himself with a long-barreled revolver and knife and goes into the street and waits for the man he is to kill. When the man comes along he begins his work, regardless of the ‘Presence of the police, and he finishes it. though h know he is to hang for it the next day. This sounds horrible. but such things have been done in San Francisco, and will. I doubt not, be done again. Only a few weeks ago one of these men named Lee Sing killed a Chinaman ik with three policemen in sight of him. He had drawn the black bean of the society, which sentenced him to kill this man Yick, and he killed him. There were four men kalled by the highbinders at this time. They were killed because they had registered them- selvesand had urged other Chinamen to do the same—in other words, to obey the laws of the United States. The highbinder society held a meeting and drew lots as to who should kill the men, and they were all killed accord- ing to the drawing. Do you wonder that the Chinese are afraid to fight their own people rather than the laws of the United States? I have had opposition of this kind to contend with ever since I have been in office out here. A HIGHBINDER CoAT oF MAIL. I have promised to protect the Chinamen who have obeyed the laws; but what can vou do? It is an outrage, but how can you help it? You have to ight orgunized crime and organized money.” “I suppose the Chinese of this city are very wealthy?” “Yes; there are at least twenty millionaires among them, and the 27.000 Chinese of San Franciseo Lave their hands on ail the Chinese money in the United States. As to rich men, take, for instance, Wong Fat. oue of the twenty Chinese millionaires of San Francisco, He owns a little store on Dupont street and the room he occupies is only twenty by fifty, but he has branches in every town in southern ity in Denver, Salt Lake, Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, cago. Minneapolis, St. i, Indianapol New York. His branches in these other towns have smaller branches radiating over the whole country, and he gets reports from every one of them. “The Chinese in New York and Wash- ington report to the Six Companies here just the same as the man who lives a few doors away from the company’s offices, Wong Fat himself controls more than 2,000 inborers and the most of these have been smuggled into this country. It costs a Chinaman $600 to be smuggled into the United States, and he pays this money over to the Six Companies out of his wages. He is landed and rented out by the companies to one of these rich Chinamen. Wong Fat, for in- stance, at €20a mouth. Wong Fatrorents him at $30'a month to some one else and of the money he earns the laborer gets only from six to eight dollars a month till the #600 due the Six Companies is paid. If he 1s sick, how- ever. he is taken care of. and if he dics his bones are sent back to China, THE MISTAKE AS TO PHOTOGRAPHS. “1 think that the greatest mistake that has been made in the Geary act was the removing the provision requiring photographs. A Chins- man will maim himself in anyway in order to fit any description neoded.and one of the most skillful Chinese doctors in the United States was employed to help along the smuggling. ‘This was Dr. La Po Tai, who had a practice of some- thing like $100,000 a year, about one-third of which he got from white people. La Po Tai made moles, scars and hairlips to hold his countrymen in this country. He died only a few weeks ago and he was buried with great ‘he photographs. however, beat the Chinamen. Being of nearly the same height and lookiag much the # me they can make themselves correspond to other men’s pass- ports but they could not make themselves look like other men's photographs. ‘The smug- gling of them nets the Chinese large fortunes ever; and I don't wonder that the fought the law. What will be the end of it can’t teil. What I have eaid to you is nothing in comparison with what I might say. Ike whole situation is an outrage upon America and American civilization. Fuayg G. Canrexter, ———__+e-_ A BUTLER WHO sTOOD ON HIS DIGNITY. His Quarrel and Duel With the Father of the Present Earl of Rosebery. From the New York Sun. Aman who helped to make a curious diplo- matic episode in the days of Louis Philippe’s reign died a few daysago in Passy, a suburb of Paris, Hoe was known among his neighbors simply as Francois, and for half a century or more he had lived at leisure on the profits ne- cruing to him from a duel whieh he had fought in his youth with the father of the present Earl of Rosebery, secretary of state for foreign affairs in Mr. Gladstone's cabinet. Francois had resigned his place as a non- commissioned officer in the French cavalry to assume the more lucrative duties of butler in the house of a conspicuous French statesman. One day old Lord Rosebery came to see his master about the business of the British gov- ernment. Francois declared that he could not deliver Lord Rosebery’s card to his maxter,who was then engaged, and advised Lord Rosebery, whom he did not recognize, to secure a letter granting an audience and return later. ‘This was too much for the British statesman, and | thrusting his card into Francois’ hand, he com- manded him angrily to deliver it’at once Francois, after starting away with the card, | stopped to read the name on it. Lord Rose- berv reproved him so sharply that Francois re- plied impudently. An exchange of angry words followed, and the master of the house came to the reception room to learn the cause of the disturbance. Francois was discharged atonce. On the next day Lord Rosebery re- ed this note: “sir: Yesterday I was a servant; today am afree man. I no longer allow your insults to pass. As a former ofiicer in the cavalry of the French army I demand satisfaction. s to mark the right number of spots on cket ten thousand dollars for the ayment of twenty-five cents, | held twice a day, morning and evening, and it is estimated that the Six Companies make | $20,000 a day out of it. This lottery is cor- rupting San Francisco, The whites as well as | the Chinese engage in. it. The police have | tried to break it up an. both the city and state have passed laws against it, but it does a greater business today than ever.” . SOMETHING ABOUT THE IIGHBINDERS. “Suppose a Chinaman refuses to obey the Six Companies, Mr. Quinn,” said L “What irst place he is ostracived,” was the ins the persecution that will sif he isa merchent, or cost him bis place if he is « laborer. Ail’ help in time of sickness or financial trouble will be de- | nied him, and fourth, iis bones will have to lie | after his death in alien soil instead of being | boiled. cleaned, scraped and polished and sent back to China," This means disbarment from the heaven of Confucius forever. So much for | lawfat persecution. If his crime of disobedi- ence is important enough it may cause his | death, and this will be brought about by the |highbinder societies of the Chinese. or | the Tongs. as they are called, The Six Com- panies claim that they have no connection with | the Tongs, but not long ago when two of these societies were engaged mm a murderous war | upon each other and the Chinese consul gen- eral and the Chinese merchants joined with the police to try to stop their murders, the Six Companies refused to do a thing or give a dollar to hinder the erime or 10 punish the guilty.” KILLED FOR OBEYING THE LAW. “What are the highbinders?” I asked. ¥ was the reply, an who never works, but lives ff of the earnings of bad women and the proceed | of blackmail.” He doesn’t need to have a man’s secret to threaten him, but he has merely to go to him and say, ‘Unless you pay the highbinder r . 4s the case may be, before Saturday night, we will kill you.’ There is no half way measure about it, and should | the merchant thus blackmailed cause the highbinder’s arrest his doom ia seuled. The highbinder cares nothing for the law. Cloth- ing himself with a coat of mail made either of fine steel chains or of twenty or thirty thick- A drawing is | Lord Rosebery accepted the challenge, and two shots were exchanged without injury to body concerned. Francois was satisfied, | but Lord Rosebery was nettled at the thought | that his antagonist might at any time lay aside | the dignity of a retired officer to become a | butler again, and thus expore him to the re- | proach of having fought with a servant, He | therefore gave Francois an’ annuity of 6,000 | francs on the condition of his abstaining from | domestic service in the future, aud thus pre- serving his personality as a retired man of honor. Francois fulfilled his part of the agree- | meat ns faithfully as did Lord Rosebery, and | never worked afterward; at least, that is what is afirmed by the French newspapers which | have incorporated this story in their obituary notices of the butler of honor. ——~+e+ Ball Terms. From Life. “Right off the bat.”” ———+e- “You say in the meantime. To what period do you refer?” ‘To house-cleaning?”"—Letroit 1 Tribune, FRAGRANT FLOWERS That Will Be Strewn Over the Soldiers’ Graves HAVE LONG BEEN USED To Mark Respect and Affection for the Dead—Some of the Customs That Pre- vatled Among the Ancients in This Mat- ter—Practices Now Obtaining in Different Countries. ———— ITH THE RETURN- ing springtide and the Toses returns the day long dedicated to the nation’s dead. The sad memorial anniversary marking a laurel twined epoch in the nation’s history, when pansies for thought: rosemary for remem- brance, myrtle for love and amaranths, bright emblems of a blessed immortality, are mingled with sad yew and mourning cyress above the hearts of the heroes who sleep, each in a windowless palace of rest. Nearly three decades have pussed since the first order for this flower memorial for the dead went forth. Year by year the sad, sweet custom has grown in favor, and year by year | the flag marked mounds have increased tntil “‘a soldier of the Union mustered out” shumbers ‘on every hill side and sleeps in every valley. In all this broad land there is no “city of silence” that has not at least one war-worn veteran who has turned in at his last tattoo. For them and for the thousands of unknown herocs, Where they fell” nature's dear children, sun nurtured and rain kissed, fragrant with sweet perfumes and dew gemmed, ure laid upon the altar of remem- brance, ‘a consecrated memorial tribute of earth's brightest and purest gifts to the na- tion’s bravest and best. This memorial custom grown to the grandeur of a national holiday in this country is almost asold.as the human race. It is a pagan cns- tom christianized, a Christian custom civilized. Among the ancients of the earth flowers were Pagan gods and goddesses personified. The souls of these deities came to earth reincarnated as roses and lilies, ns grass and forest trees, bees aud birds and blossoms, and ministered to the senses and passions much as when in the carnal state. The modest violet was to tho Greeks the incarnation of Ia, the daughter of Midas, who was changed to the little blue flower to hide her from Apollo. The daisy, which symbolizes innocence, was a coquetting little goddess, and to escave from an importu- nate lover was turned to the “lover's fortune teller.” ‘The cypress, “Dark tree! still sad when other's grief fs fed, ‘The only constant mourner o'er the dea was, according to Ovid, the youth Cyparissos, the borom friend of Apollo. He accidentally killed a favorite stag one day while hunting, and in @ passion of grief prayed the gods that his mourning might be made perpetual. In answer to his prayer he was changed into a cypress tree, and in remembrance of him the ancients made much of the cypress at their funerals, One of its characteristics is that when once cut to earth itwill never flourish nor growagain, as most other trees do. This was also symbolical'to them, for they believed that we CYPRESS AND YEW FOR GRAVES. In accordance with this idea the ancients planted the cypress near their tomba. ‘The Turks piaced it at the head and foot of their Graves, and there were other nations who planted it upon the grave itself, believing that the body nourikhed it. ‘The yew tree has always been in all nations an emblem of sorrow. Its bare trunk and dark foliage, with its fruit like drops of blood, im- presses the beholder with its melancholy aspect atonce. It is a strange tree. Its juice is poisonous and the tree exhausts the soil which supports it and destroys all other plants which pring up Beneath it, The Greeks found in it the personification of the unhappy Smilax who loved young Crocus. When she found her love Fejected she desired to withdraw from the society of the gods and was transformed into a yew, which since that time has symbolized sor- Tow. The yew, like the cypress, was thuch es- teemed by the ancients as a typical tree to shade the tombs of the dead and used it pro- fusely in their cometerics, where branches could beeusily procured on the days set apart by cus- tom for the decoration of the graves. Some Roman, dying, said ‘Yet strew Upon my dismal erave Such offerings as you have, Forsaken cynress und sad ewe, For k-nder flowers can take no birth Or erowth from s) ch unhappy earth. The early Christian denounced unqualifiedly the use of flowers at either festivals or funerals on account of the pagan symbolism of the blos- soms used. ‘Tertullian wrote a book denoun- cing crowns and garlands. Clement of Alex- andria thought it improper that Christians should crown themselves with roses, but after- ward they adopted the custom, and the Chi tian poet Prudence invited his brethren “to cover with violets and with verdure and to sur- Found with perfumes those bones which tho voice of the All-Powerfal would one day restore to life.” Theso early Christians carriedin their hands ivy, sprigs of lurel, rosemary or other evergreens as emblems of the immortality of the soul. They threw these into the grave before the coftin was lowered to signify that “they who die in Christ do not cease to live; for though as to the body they die to the world. yetas to their souls;they \d revive to God.” They cast upon the grave bay leaves, which symbolized immortality. Thus in accepting the symbolic meaning of the plants mentioned they christianized a pagan custom, for in re- jecting the cypress and yew, which typified to most pagan minds the soul's eternal sleep, and adopting these plants which in pagan mythol- ogy breathed of a higher life, they adopted the historical and mythical origin of the sym- bol. The ivy, sacred to Osiris, symbolizes con- stancy, but to the Egyptians it typified the resurrection or at least a higher life. ‘Tho Greeks and Romans consecrated’ the laurel to glory, yet it typified the light-of-love Apollo, who, when he could not w the virtnous Daphne, changed her to a laurel tree. Rose- mary bad no heathen ancestry, but it was much esteemed by tho anctents of all nations, was used at feasts and funerals, the christen- ing cup was stirred with it and it was worn at marriage ceremonies, It was believed that Rosemary had a preventative virtac against pestilential distempers, and that is probably | why it was always in demand at funerals. The Romans and Greeks burned it in the chamber of death aiong with frankincense. It was also nted on the grave and used in the mem- rint services held at stated periods. In flower language, which hi rosemary stands for ‘remem- Shakespeare accepts this when he makes his sweet maniac Ophelia sa} “There # rosemry: that's for remembrance, I pray you, love, remember." ' PASSION FOR FLOWERS. # of ancient days were born voluptuaries and flowers was one of thei greatest passions. Living, they lavished start- | ling sums upon the gratifying of this passion, and in death they asked to be surrounded by flowers. The dead were placed upon couches of flowers and were crowned with roses: the passage of the funeral procession was laid thick with flowers; flowers lined the tomb, and if the earth covered the dead from sight the rough made mound was hidden from view under car- pets of flowers. Curious wills vet in existence show the love that people had for flowers. A French lady bequeathed to the Academy of Toulouse a large income, exclusively for the celebration of floral games. ‘The will also re- uired that every three years, on the day o the commencement of the floral games, the members of the academy should Visit’ and spread flowers on her tomb. Roses were esteemed above all other flowers by the ancients and entered more largely into their decorations than any other blossom. They were lavishly used in the adornment of tombs and burial places. ‘The ancients were careful to renew the plants placed about the sepilchral urn, 80 that each season tho tomb might be surrounded by a continual spring. ‘These flowers were regarded as kacred and as a relic of the deceased. The Romans considered this care so agreeable to the departed that wealthy citizens bequeathed by will entire gurdens to be reserved for furnishing their tombs vik flowers. ‘They also often ordered that their heirs, or those whom they left a legacy for the care of their ashes, should meet together every year on the anniversary of their death and dine near their tomb, scattering roses about the | place. Inscriptions to this effect were placet upon the tombs and many of them are yet de- cipherable. On a tomb near Venice there is It} d its origin in the twilight | made by an emancipated slave to the assembly of the centum, consisting of gardens and a building to be employed in celebrating his obsequies on each returning anniversary, and his master’s as well. He requosted that roses should not be spared. Generally @ donation made thus was transferred, by provisions in the will, to another in case the benefited failed to cover the funeral monument with roses at the proper time. A terrible curse was supposed to attend violation of these sacred gardens. ‘Those among the Romans not rich enough to make stich bequests often directed to be en- graved upon the stone above them a request to passers-by to scatter roses upon their tomba Pliny relates of one of the illustrious Scipios that while he was tribune he fulfilled his duties to the satisfaction of the people, but when he died bad nothing eft with which to pay his funeral expenses. The people voluntarily con- tributed to pay them and spent a vast sum for flowers to cast under the funeral train and upon his tomb. ‘Anthony when he had suffered the defeat at Actium which drove him to suicide asked that Cleopatra scatter perfame over his tomb and cover it with roses. Paris at the tomb of Juliet says “Sweet flowers, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew: O woe. thy canopy is dust and stones, Which with sweet water nizhtly I will dew, Or wanting that, with toars distilled by moans; Fhe obwequies thet I for thee will keep, Nightly shall be to strew thy krave and weep.” ‘THE EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS. Jerome, one of the early Christian fathers, wrote as follows of the memorial customs which lind thus descended to the Capulets and Mon- tagues: The ancients scattered roses over the urns of the deceased and in their wills ordered that these flowers should adorn their graves and should be renewed every year. It was also | the enstom for husbands to cast violets, roses and lilies on the urns which inclosed the ashes of their wives. ‘These modest flowers were | emblematic signs of their grief. Our Christian were content to place a rose among the orna- | ments of their graves as the image of life.” This love of the rose was universal. Anac- Teon says of the rose and death: “When pain afflicts and sickness erieves Us juice the drooping heart relieves, And afcer death its odors shed A leasing fragrance o'er the dead." Another poet promises a dead love: : shall thy crave with rising flowers be dressed. hd the ereen turf He ilehtly on thy breast! ‘There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, ‘There the first roses of the year shall blow.” And Virgil writes of Anchises at the tumb of Marcellu “Fall cantsters ant lilles © “Mixed withthe partie rosew of tee serine. Lot them with furereal Bowers his body strew.” Theamaranth, because of its unfading beauty, Was prized as a funeral flower by the ancients, ‘The Greeks used it lavisbly, and it was, in Homer's time. customary to wear crowns of amaranth at the funerals of distinguished per- sonages. Homer describes the Thessalians as Wearing amaranth crowns at the entertainment of Achilles. Wordsworth writes of the ‘“‘ama- ranthine flower of faith” — “Wreaths that end affliction’s heaviest shower, And do not shrink frou sorrow's keenest wind.” The Romans burned juniper berries about their dead, believing that the fumes benumbed the influence of malign spirits. The early Greeks and Romans also offered poppies on the shrine of the d They crowned sleep with poppies, and m_ their mythology death was the child of night and the twin brother of sleep. Nero charmer Sleep, son of the sable night, Brother to Death, in silont darkness born.” They deemed that the poppy, with its sense subduing perfume, brought consolation to all concerned, Many beautiful myths connect the birth of from innocence the children of nature sprung, it seems fitting that they should in turn be- come the tribute of love to innocence in death, ‘here were no flowers until the first child died, No balmy breathed heartsease, no roses,” Wrote one sweet singer, and this from Omar Khayyan, is in the same lovely strain: *"I soufetimes think that never blows so red, ‘The rose as where sone buried Caesar bled, ‘That every hyacinth the gurden wears Dropped fa ber lap from some once lovely head.” Shakespeare follows out the idea at the grave of Ophelia and shows that Denmark accepted the beautiful symbol when Laertes is made by him to say: “‘Lay her in the earth And from her fairand unpoliuted flesh May violets spring.” Tennyson in his phrazed Shakespeat “*And from his ash The violet of his ua CUSTOMS OF THE EARLY ENGLISH. The burial customs of the early English were evidently adapted from those of the Greeks and Romans, more especially those pertaining to flowers. In Yorkshire there was a quaint cus- tom long preserved connected with the burial of the maiden and youth, | When a virgin died the one most like her in the village carried a pair of white gloves and a garland of white roses before the casket in the procession and afterward these were hung in the church from that portion of the ceiling directly over the pew once occupied by tho dead girl, and there they remained indefinitely. The gloves and roses were made of paper, hence practi- cally undying. Miss Cook speaks of the ens- tom as oue familiar to her childhood and it is yet observed in some villages. ‘In Memoriam” para- ‘ow the low beams with paper carlands hung, wry of some yillage youth or maid; otttear, $s 0s snded by the garlan . wy fowers with Fibands tied; we maid, long be thes, Wreaths fumereal spread, Simple incimorial of the early dead. Evelyn tells us that “the white rose was / Planted at the grave of a virgin, and her chap- let was tied with white ribbon in token of hor spotless innocence, though sometimes black | ribbons were intermingled to bespeak the grief of the survivors, The red rose was occaxion- ally used in remembrance of such as had been | remarkable for benevolence, but roses in | general were appropriate to’ the graves of lovers.” Drummond, the Scotch poot, had the follow- ing couplet placed over his grave: “Here Drummond lies, whose song did somotimes race ‘Then rmuring Esk, May roses shade the place.” In Wales when a young girl dies her coffin is wrenthed with flowers, and the youth and maidens plant white rosea over her grave. ‘Tho graves of little children are covered’ with lilies and snow drops, and those of matarer years | have roses placed about them. Gwilym, a Welsh poet, writes of the custom: “Oh! while the season of flowers and the tender sprays, thick of leaves, remain I will pluck the rosea from the brak to be offered to the memory | of a child of fairest fame; humbly will I lay | them on the grave of Ivor.” | in France the magnificence of the tombs and monuments is only paralicled by the munifi- cence with which fiowers are lavished upon the dead. Adherents of a house or line of royalty stew flowers above the dust of the mouldering kings and shed tears for the vanished glories, | The tomb of Napoleon in the Hotel des’ Inva- lides in Paris is eeldom without nosegays of violets, In Turkey the virgin who dies has a rose ulptured at the top of her monument. The Chinese scatter roses above their dead and min- gle with them the lycoris and anemone. Tripolitans place about their dead roses, myrtic, jassamine and orange flowers. In far= off Persia the basil tuft waves its fragrant blos- soms over tombs and graves and **Roses the brightest the earth ever gave” blosrom everywhere. In Egypt the basil tuft 8 also esteemed, vieing with the lotus lily and roses. In Germany and Switzerland the dian- thus, pink, myrtle and orange blossoms are placed about the dead. In Norway the fir is wed to protect the released soul from evil spirits. In Italy the periwinkle is dedicated to | the graves of little children, MOHAMMEDANS AND JEWS. ‘The Mohammedan matrons repair at stated anniversaries with fairest flowers to sweeten the sad grave. The grand tombs are often plendidly illuminated, but the meanest heap of urf has also its visitors. to chant a requiem, light alittle lamp, suspend a little garland or rop arose as an rffectionate tribute to de- parted love, separated friendship or the mem- mory of the unknown in their great “cities of | silence.” The ancient Jews pulled grass as they turned away from the new-made mounds and threw it | behind them, saying: “They shall flourish ont | of the city, like grass upon the earth,” to show | their belief that the body, though dead, should | spring again as grass, The asphodel and mal- low were planted in all ancient cemeteries, as it was popularly believed that they nourished the dead. The North American Indians attribute a funereal character to the fragrant fiowers of | the sacred champak. The Flathead mother buries her child in a bark cradle hung from the branches of the sobbing pine, its foster mother, xo her sad heart believes, or, when trees are not near, she digs agrave, and above the | leveled earth lays its little toys and scatters some bright berries. Ours is the only country that bas a stated | memorial day, though the people of almost every nation observe the custom at some period | of the blossoming season, which, of course, | se {such an inscription, mentioning « donation | varies with the climate, but from’ April to Au- flowers with the death of the young, and since | gust the sun shines upon a snccession of these sad anniversary days. In one respect the 30th of May memorial stands separate and distinct from ‘the custom as observed in any other country: our memorial day is held in honor of the patriotic dead. No other nation on earth 80 consecrates the graves of her heroes, Another distinctly American feature, and the most pathetic of all the memorial day ceremo- nies, is that of decorating the cross in memory of the unknown dead. There is something tangible in the mound heaped above a pulseless heart, though that heart never throbbed the juicker for your coming, but in the history of world there is nothing to parallel the simple pathos of that cross with its suppliant ont- stretched arms, telling the mute story of the thousands who must sleep “unkneiled, uncof- fined and unknown” until the reveille on the resurrection morn wakens them for the last grand review before the Great Captain. —_—_-o-___—_ THE GATES OF PARIS, Almost Everything That Passes Through ‘Them Must Undergo a Tax, From the Ind‘anapolis Journal. At present the gates and fortifications of Paris seem to be useful principally for the levying of vexatious taxes upon the French people themselves. Of this we were forcibly reminded one day as we approached the Porte Mallot in company with a gentleman who was on his way to fill lecture engagement at one of the great schools of this city. Our friend carried a bag containing a few books he was in- tending to use, and the question to be settled before we could pass was whether anything in the bag was taxable, To satisfy the gate keeper the bag must be opened. It was all done quickly enough and with evident politeness, but it struck the American mind quite unfavo ably, and, of course, provoked it to numer: inquiries. Paris, it appears, lays tribute in this way upon almost her entire food supply and upon numerous other things, and the money collected is divided between’ the government and the municipalauthorities. By this means it comes to pass that many articles are doubly taxed, for in addition to what is assessed upon them at the gates of the city there is the tariff imposed at the frontier. After this we did not wonder that a visitor had to pay so enormously for apartments and board, though we did not wonder at the long- suffering patience of the residents. Meat of every kind is taxed. On a pound of butter the city tariff is 3 cents and ona pound of grapes it is about the same, If you should go outside and shoot a hare you would have to pay tor bringing into Paris even a private little acqui- sition of that sort. Upon spirits and wine the duty is considerable, and the authorities are ex- ceedingly vigilant in collecting it, This is a joint at which vigilance is quite necessary, Jetging trom what ons bars © to she motbeas of smuggling in vogue, We are told that dur- ing the cholera scare liquors were surrep- titiously brought ia by means of coffins, and we have heard of one enterprising liquor dealer who cheated the government for a long time by means of adummy footman. That is, he had @ wooden contrivance on the seat of his carringe shaped and dressed like a footman, and this innocent-looking Inxury was filled, not with animal spirits, but with the kind which at the gates of Paris are held to be contraband. ‘These ruses were decidedly clever, and it is said that had it not been for accomplices who ease an organized enemy which carried on an actual warfare within the body. Herole remedies, Powerful pills and pellets were, therefore, hurled lke shot and shell to displace the invisible enemy. ‘The belief today is that disease is @ delicate or- ganization out of gear and working with friction. Have you had the grip? Has itleft you weak and nervous? Then you know what disease is, You need something to rob the nerves of ir Titability and make the system capable of making vigorous, ruddy, healthy blood. ‘Then, above all things, use Paine’s celery com- Pound. Thousands of people have set their stamp of approval on it. It isin the line of progress. Its Aiscoverer recognized that weakness, lassitude and turned informers they might have continued in successful operation indefinitely. Perhaps, however, the countryman's ruse was the most effectual for the time, though it must have put him to inconvenience ‘afterward. He hed only @ bottle of common wine with him, but the gatekeeper knew his duty and did it.’ The tax was 4cents, levied upon an original valustiot of something like 12 cents, Common wine, it must be remembered, 18 very cheap in France, and this particular ‘bottle would bave been cheap enough, one might have thought, even after the duty had been paid. But the French peasant is noted for his thrift. The burning question was how to get his quart of wine into Paris without any further investment upon it, and the final solution was reached Ly his carry: ing it through the gates concealed, us in the case of the dummy footman, within his own anatomy. Because They Do Not Know When It’s Time to Stop. “Gamble is my name and gamble is my busi- ness,” said the proprietor of a popular resort at Monte Carlo to a Stan reporter. “There 1s not much money in it, however. People talk about the percentage in favor of the bank as if nobody ever could beat it, But it docs not amount to so very much after all, There is that faro table, for example. It has been run- ning for the last three months without making a dollar. My books show that it has come out just about even week after week. Look at the thing from another point of view. We provide an attractive form of amusement. To furnish it money, just like the theater. Instead of paying adinission, visitors here give small percentage to the house for the sake of the en- tertainment, We have to settle for rent, for liquors and cigars provided free, and for the saiaries of the men who deal the cards, throw ths dice, and turn the roulette wheal.’ They work hard for their money twelve hours a day. “The percentage against them is not account- able, mainly for the fact that most men jose their money in a gambling house, I think. A Weakness of human nature is chiefly responsi- ble for the fact. It is the exceptional individ- ual who is able to stop playing so long as he has a doliar left in his pocket, Suppose a fellow comes over here with $50 in his clothes. If he wins, he is not satisfied to clean up a protit of $50 and retire. Luck being with him, he wants to go on and clean out the bank. Sooner or later fortune turns and his original capital fol- lows his winnings. ‘The bank roll being a good | many times $50. the chances are enormousiy in | favor of his losing his $50 before he breaks the bank. So. whether 3 man wins or loses, he doesn't want to guit so long as he has money left, At the original Monte Carlo, mn Europe, the managers of the establishment say that the only peopie they are afraid of aro those who come and plunge against the institution with sums equal to or bigger than what the bank puts up.” ++ Chinese Pheasants in America, From Forest and Stream. It appears to be pretty clearly demonstrated that the Mongolian pheasant can stand the win- ters of New Engiand and northern New York, and that he has nothing to fear from climate on this coast. This has been demonstrated not by a single experiment, but by several. . It is now well known that the pheasants turned ont some years ago at Tuxedo Park did well and scattered themselves over a great range of country in New Jersey and southern New York. They are killed from time to time in Rockland and Sullivan counties, N. ¥., and seem in the wild state to be slowly on the in- crease. Some pheasants imported two or three years ago to Flanders, L. L, by Mr. H. D. Auchincioss, have done well out of doors and are | inereasing. “Last season Mr. Austin W. Wads- | worth of Livingston county, N.Y., turned out ten birds and they survived the bitter weather of the winter jast past. On another page Mr. Wallace of Connecticut gives another instance of their hardiness, Weare familiar with the rapid increase of this beautiful species on the west coast, where all the conditions are in its favor,where climate is milder, food more abundant and easily had, and enemies fewer. But with strict protection asomewhat similar increase might take place in the central west and even on the Atlantic coast. tes An Early Experience of Eishop Brooks. From the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. Dr. Edward Swasey of this city sends the fol- lowing story which relates to the boyhood of the late Bishop Brook When a mere lad he, with one of his brothers, was sent on a short visit to his aunt, his father’s only sister, on a well-stocked farm in Maine. They both were making the most of their holiday and enjoying to the full measure every moment of their time. But at length Sunday morning came and with it the sound of church bells and the usual family preparations to attend church. But the boy “Phil” had sud- denly disappeared and no one knew where he had betaken himself to. Diligent search was | made, both through the house and through the | barn for him, but he did not appear. At Inst | my mother looked under the bed in the guest's chamber (the least frequented chamber in a country house) and there she found the future Dishop of Massachusetts. Poor boy! he had | probably bad some inkling of what the church | service meant in those days in a Congrega- tional country church, both as to duration and the length of the sermon. His little scheme to Secure a forenoon out of doors rather than spend it shut up in churches had been frus- trated! He was brought into the light, how- ever, and taken to church. os They Are Few. From the New Haven Register. These are days when the newspapers that do not use cuts must feel lonely. It would be in- toresting to know in what other way the hap- penings of the day, especially the Columbian episodes, could be’ #0 effectively presented to lack of energy mean that more nervous force is being used than is produced. ENTERTAINMENT TICKETS BY MAIL, Quasi-Blackmailing Under Pretext of a Charitable Purpose, From the New York Sun. The nuisance of tickets sent by mail, with a demand for payment for them, has been greater the past winter than ever before, steadily increasing. The management of al- most every entertainment of any kind in New York which is in the cloak of charity or which can get any of the odor of charity to perfume iteclf with prints tens of thousands of tickets, with which it pesters everybody whose name it chooses to select in the business or society directories, These tickets are usually num- bered consecutively, so that it appears that a record of the numbers and the man to whom they were sent bas been kept in a book, and the request is in the nature of a demand to pay over promptly from $1 to £25. This nuisance takes the name of all forms of benevolence, balls, chowder parties, picnics, church fairsand everything of the kind The senders of the tickets rely on their knowledge of American nature—that an American would rather give away a few dollars than be thought mean or be put to the trouble of returning the tickets, ‘The system is to send out the tickets | several weeks before the entertainment with an addressed envelope, rarely stamped, for their return in case the man to whom they are sent is unwilling to pay for them, and a blank for him to fill out and return with the money in case he keeps the tickets. The numbers of these tickets show that in some cases as many as fifty or sixty thousand have been sent out, and the sending of them must be profitable or the senders would not go to the expense of the printing and the . it is rarely that any of these tickets are used, even if they are kept and paid for. The senders pick out people who are not likely to go to the entertainment or fair they are giving and would not contribute money to itin any other shape than that enforced by the sale and almost semi-blackmailing process of these num- bered tickets, ‘This is an imposition ina good many ways, A ball ora chowder party or even # chureh fair has no more right to make « man go to the trouble of returning their tickets than a thea- ter or dime museum would have. A theater has no less rights to send a number of admis- sion tickets around the city, with a request that the men who receive them should pay a dollar apiece for them or return them under the pain of further demands for money and the obloquy of everybody connected with the theater and his friends, than thse charitable institut mand on the N rk public. In the cities of no other country in the world, especially of any European city, would such « custom be tolerated. If every man who re- ceives these tickets would tear tear them up and throw them into his waste paper basket, refusing to pay for them, and if’ be wishes to go to the fair buy his tickets in the regular way, the custom would be abandoned. But from the growth of this svstem of extortion it must be that a large number of people who are thus attacked pay up in order to avoid trouble. One of the worst phases of this business is the demand made for the money or the tickets after the entertainment or fair is over. The man who has received the tickets may have forgotten everything about them. They may have been put into a pigeon hole, dropped into the waste paper basket. or lost when the de- mand comes that he shall either return the tickets or the price of them. It is hard to see how he, by any act of his, has put himself in a position where he should be subjected to fur- ther annoyance, but it often happens that he will pay the few dollars demanded rather than be bothered farther with the importunities of the ticket senders. scucen inde) Rae Veen You Never Saw a Fall Moon, From the St. Louis Republic. Did youever see a “full moon”? I know what your answer will be without waiting for it, tis thie: “Yes, once every month since have been old enough to pay attention to such phenomena.” Yet I take the position that you are badly mistaken, and that in all probability you have never in your life bebeld the full face of our “silvery sister world.” By way of solu- tion let us see what it takes to constitute » “full moon” in the exact sense of the term: A | fall moon occurs only when our obsequious at- | tendant is 180 degrees of longitude from the sun, Old Sol and the earth being on the ecliptic. But the moon's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic atan angle of 5 degrees 8 minutes 47 seconds, and is, therefore. never on the ecliptic except when at its *nodes” or crossings. ‘This being the case, what we call the circular disk of the moon (fuli moon) lacks considerable of being an exact circle, being what astronomers term “ina state of gibbosity,” and is never @ perfect disk except when “a full moon” hap- pens exactly at the time when Luna is crossing the ecliptic, at which time she must necessari be centrally eclipted. One of our best prese day astronomers, in concluding an article of much merit onthe same subject, says: “We therefore conclude that 4 real full’ moon, one laaving a perfect circle, as rarely, if ever, been seen.” Aenean Oe Seasonable Weather Item. From a St. Louis Exchange. Every one has seen the toy called the weather cock, but few persons understand the principle on which it is made. Its mechanism consists of a piece of catgut. Catgat swells with mois- ture, and as it absorbs the dompness it shrinks in the direction of its length. Its shrinking turns a rod, which causes the little male figure tocome out of the house, while the drving of the cord draws back the man and sends out the woman. Everybody knows how a window cord will tighten on the approach of wet the large majority of people who do not see theur in person. weather, and the principle is the same. Fou are weak. Here iss recent letter from Mt Ransom Phillips of Acdison, N. ‘Y. enclosing @ photograph of his sister, given above: “Ibave bought three bottles of Paine’s celery ‘compound for my sister. “She had a stroke of paralysis some three or four years ago, but she got better so that she was around. Then she had the grip and it lef her ‘weak and nervous, with a bad cough. She was reading some of the letters from prominent people ‘about Paine's celery compound and she mentioned it tome, and I told her she had better have some. I got hera bottle. She took this one and when that was gone {t had Gone her so much good that I went and got two more bottles. “I carried one of them home tomy wife, who is ‘quite nervous, and it also helped her.” ‘It makes people well. ‘It cures where everything else falls. ‘Try it and you will be convinced. Is the Universe Infinite? From the Fortnightly Review. Bishop Butler has well remarked that “prob- ability is the guide of life,” and, assuredly, ater | the source of the greater part of human know!- and itis | cage. Indeed, m a rapid survey of the field of there is bardiy an astronomical of the utmost elementary kind, of which it might be said that our belief in it depends He 6 ra 8 if F i t covery, or the say, of a certain “central was believed or stated Hi | ! { and the £ 7 a i Hl : tt 4 ! it il 4 i ! H I ! | bee lions of miles from the earth; light from it requires some astronomers have to the abyss which int ‘our globe and those distant I do not speak of the which the universe maj only refer to the mot possibly bring within our great sphere to be described our carth, and with a radius 6 way from the earth to this last by man, Every star that we star whose existence besomes dies on our photographs, lies 3 to the orbs wisicht may lie outaide thatephere | can know nothing by direct observation, imagination doubtless suggests, with ble emphasis, that this outer region is cupied by stars and nebula, suns and |in the same manner as the interior | mighty sphere whose contents are more accessible to our scrutiny. It would do | violence to our notions of the law of | to assume that ali the existent matter in universe happened to lie inside this need only mention such a supposition j we dismiss it as wholly indefenmble. T ao make any attempt to express the miles in’ the diameter of the epbore | mits the extent of space known directly man, What the number may be is quite im- material for ou J present, ap camino! } point that I specially want r Re volume occupied by this stupendous globe, | which amcludes within it all possible visible | material, must be but a «peck when | with the space which contains it, ooo — She Liked the Old Kind Best. From Quiys. It was down in a Chautauqua vilinge that « guy young soldier had his sweetheart, Such @ beauty ehe was, too. It happened that he sent her down from Buffalo a pot of cold cream to keep her checks as frosh as the budding rose. When be came —_ ages Had again be ow is i wSThe tte, wos very nice,” che said with rather a sickly smile, “but I think I like the other kind of cream best.” fs —— He—“What a charming young woman! speaks on every topic with eq “A matter of atavism, m) father was a barber.—Le Figaro. | il i i i i ; i H ar & ; & ; j Bl | He Hs She ‘She—