THE PRICE OF WOE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 646, 25 February 1914, Page 3

THE PRICE OF WOE.

Events in China make for the security of the new Imperial regime ; it is too costly to have dead Royalty on hand. The Celestials could have built a Dreadnought or so with the funds which they have expended upon the obsequies of their late Emperor and Empress. Up to the close of last year a sum of over £900,000 had bean expended on the funerals, and then the serious part of the business was only beginning. It was all very well to get the Emperor settled down in the Coal Hill Mortuary, but the spirit of the departed monarch did not like the lie of the land. Two months later, an edict appeared announcing that the Imperial ghost was "uneasy," and "required to be comforted." Hence the proper officials had to be on the pounce, ready to seize a lucky day for temporarily "ranging him" in ths spiritual depot of the Hall oi Service of Ancestors, what time the final abiding-place was made ready. Since then the dead Empress has been upon a journey equalled only by that of her portrait, and the end of all is not yet. THE CHARIOT OF FIRE. To get well and truly settled after death in China it is advisable to be a little less exalted than of regal ran>. Viceregal rank is the grade for despatch with dignity, finality with decorum. When Li Hung Chang was nearing his end they popped on his graveclothes, and summoned to his courtyard a party of illustrious mummers. They brought a green chair with : iglit bearers,, and eight black horses with riders. All waited lor the signal, and, when Li Hung was declared to be no more, someone applied a match, and up went chariot and horses and riders in a cloud of fire. Horse and riders and chariot were all of paper, though life-size. Then up trotted a party of men bearing the famous teak-wood and lacquered coffin—a rare friend of the dead man. It had been all round the world and home again with him. We knew it well in England. In it they laid him ready for the funeral, and never a million did it cost his country.—"Sketch."