A CHINESE FREEMASON'S FUNERAL.

Near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the other day, Lee Jin Mun, a Chinese Freemason, died, and would probably have attracted no further attention outside his own little circle had not his funeral struck the American journals as grotesque even for a Chinese cere-' , mony. After secret ceremonies at the house, the body was deposited in a casket. A table was spread with the provisions which are to sustain tlie spirit in its new home. These included a piece of fat roast pork, another of raw pork, two chickens, cooked with the heads and legs on, and all kinds of fruit and sweetmeats. At one end of ' the table was a box of sand, in which burned coloured candles and Joss sticks, s Before this officials knelt and said their . prayers. At the head of the procession . was a horseman with a triangular red banner with Chinese characters. - Then followed Masons in carriages. All the way to the cemeteiy tom-toms were beaten. After deciding to place 1 the coffin endwise in the grave, Lee Tom Ma, Grand Missionary, delivered the funeral oration.' Candles and Joss sticks were again burned, and small brass coins scattered on the ground to , keep the devil busy picking them up, so that he will let Lee Jin Mun rest in peace. Then the worldly possessions of the deceased were placed in two piles at each end of the coffin and burned, and the grave was filled up. Grey River Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9260, 10 October 1895, Page 4