CHINESE MASONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13744, 8 May 1908, Page 8

CHINESE MASONS.

. ' | 'ft CURIOUS CEREMONIES. -",", r.j "CURIOUS CEREMONIES. V HEADQUARTERS IN SYDNEY. ; . -A quaint description is given in the SydneV" Morning Herald' of the opening of - . jhw headquarters for all the. Chinese }re|- ■'. • tnaeons in Australia.- The ceremony started at four a.m., and' lasted until middav. The hall, with the furnishing and ' fittmi;"coa*t"£2ooo, which "was subscribed by the Australian v Chinese Freemasons. A number of stately; deputations and addresses were received, all with due pomp. . 1 A Chinese opera company, brought to- : gether with' much expense, performed for ■ two days at the Gaiety Theatre, and a .dinner.was/held. . ' Under the guidance of Mr. James Chuev, of Jmice, who was in Sydney to ', officiate at this function, one stepped oyer ' the threshold from Blackburn-street, Syd- ;- no-y, /: A.D..1908, into 7 the ■; Chihli - Road, Shanghai or Canton, B.C. 1000. The "smell of joss sticks, lazily smouldering ...somewhere in the ' background, set one half-asleep to begin -.with.- A droning song filtered down' from an upper floor. It was in monotone, with a quaint minor every "now and then, as if something had caught ■in the siinger's throat'tor a moment. On 'the floor in a corner were dishes of food. • ' .Whatever it' wals; i|£ws< chopped up very < small, set out in the neatest of patterns, and gaudily coloured. ', If colour were any indication of" taste, it was a most royal "1 least, ~_ „ \_ . '.. .. . '...:'. ,'1..'.,., Wandering up -the stairs in search of the singer, ono did "not find him, but marched into a hall of Oriental gorgeousness, in which the addresses from various Chinese lodges and merchants in the Commonwealth .' had;been presented. The pillars and walls were covered with blazing, staring red —front coiling "to floor. - Thirty or 40 long wooden tablets, each written, clown with a .... procession "of half-a-dozen; big golden Chinese letters, were hung round the sides. ■ Curiously carved shrines, large .small, stood' "at •' ono , cud. ~, lii " front of them \ flickered a few rickety little candles, and " wreaths of smoke twined in and out of their 'fretwork doors. A portly Chinaman, on a bare wooden settle, -was ■ fanning himself ' with a delicate lady's fan, and smiling his ..blessing upon ail 'the world. One had ■;'" seen' him before. It cannot have been any- ; one else than Buddah in a boxer hat and a '■ • sac. coat. ■ .' ■■■..■'.,,■: ■ ' Stiir that .droning chant camo down the .'-'stairs. . It proceeded from some ceremony on the top floor. The room up there was crowded to the walls, except for a narrow lane "leading up to- a great, gaudy altar. Qxsa ihc' pot hats of a hundred twentieth-. centurv Chinamen one could see a row of inverted yellow' dancers; with red cushion '7 tassels - hanging over them.' They bobbed and bowed, and turned out to bo the head- ■ gear..of. some, half -a- dozen solemn men, in • /■ rich ■". silks, and babies', sashes. One de- ' corated in mauve *ahd gold, like the lord '. chancellor in "lolanthc," knelt and bowed his head again and again '".to the dust. , .In. .intervals he sipped; at' a baby teaJ - cup -full of some weird spirit;., and • ''■'"sniffed .at" what appeared • to be a slice /■of; bacon, and set it down again. At par-**;'t-icularly' awe-inspiring moments a second Chinaman knelt beside him, and, sipped tea and sniffed bacon. Then a wild-eyed man, all complete; in a saucer and sash ~and pinafore,".chanted some order the . ■ strain of a -bugle-calk.-' The expressions oh " ah Eastern face are all one to a. Western; / "and whether he was going to laugh or cry ' one could not for the life of one make out. Only he felt strongly about something. As he. finished, an unauthorised, person in the "crowd hammered a tattoo on-a wooden drum; and a stout Chinaman in a billy-, /: cock hat from a- back ..seat made strange noises on a tin trumpet. He was most 'portentously solemnOYorlfc. ' The Wild-eyed man sang-? another- stave. The lord i chancellor bowed, to the ground. Three - : or" four "ordinary mortals in the audience ; ansv;er«l-%he"litah^.-' ; Apparently it did; .'"'■" not'mlicliTinatter"'whether they sang or. ': : > isrnotv They* took ?ar hand if they felt, in-:j f "cifiiea;- '.'*?; "*' V- V-. v.*. «-' '—; v *'; And so .one. them—the chant and the tom-tom,. and the tooting and sipping : and sniffing, A huge cracker fizzed and banged-and danced" in the street below. One thought of-all those solemn elderly - -Chinamen in the top room amusing them-. selves, in this wav. • "You find it rather ;■■;'■■ ''■■"new." said Mr.' Chiiey,* pleasantly. And so one did. - _ .■■•- '.'