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crowded the courtyard in front of the reception-room, while her husband is es
bouse; the bridal chair again made its corted by his friends up the other side.
appearance; and not without much trouble In the centre of this room is a large table
the newly made wife was got out and half with two seats at one end, the right one for
carried into the house. It was here that the bride, the left for the groom. While
I first had an opportunity to see the bridal the couple are proceeding to their places,
clothes. These, like the bridal chair, are a man, a relative of the groom, stands by
generally hired for the occasion at a great the table, and in the soberest manner, yet
expense; but we were told that, as far as the in a sing-song tone, pours forth compli-
bride's costume went, it was her own prop-mentary speeches about the bride and all
erty and the work of her own hands. The her relations; while opposite to him an
material of her dress or robe was of rich old woman, representing the bride's fam
crimson silk, beautifully embroidered in ily, does the same by the groom and his
gold and colors, the design embodying relations. This simply amounts to an ex-
almost everything you can think of flow- pression of mutual flattery. The table is
ers, vines, houses, trees, animals, birds, decorated with flowers, amongst which is
butterflies, beetles, and lots of other things, a stone jar filled with money which has
jumbled together in an artistic but appar- been given to the bride. Besides this, all
ently meaningless manner.
the guests are supposed to make presents
of money to the bride; and in many cases
the couple are dependent on these offer-
ings to defray the expenses of the wedding
in fact, that is what it is for, just like a
collection at church.

The dress consists of two pieces, the lower one or skirt being the more elaborately worked; while the sleeves of the upper garment and the middle of the back were one solid mass of embroidery. Over her head she wears a very thick red silk veil, through which she can manage to see what is going on without being seen herself. This reaches below her waist. Over the veil she wears an immense bridal crown of gold or "looksee" gold. This appears so heavy that it makes you tired to look at it. It is about eighteen inches high, and is made up of almost everything ornamental, heaped up tier above tiergilt, real gold, jade, silver, silk, embroideries, pendants, tassels- in fact, a pile of Christmas-tree ornaments, weighing several pounds. What must this poor girl have suffered wearing it all day! This crown is invariably hired.

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The bridegroom's dress was also hired, as the young gentleman having affected European clothes was not in possession of a Chinese wardrobe. His costume was of ink-blue satin, heavily embroidered with gold, the back being plain, with the exception of a square of about ten inches between his shoulders of very rich gold embroidery, which I thought at the time would just make a nice anti-macassar. We learned afterwards that this unwilling husband had been obliged to return to China by his parents, who have supreme authority over their children here; also, that his queue or pigtail was false, and was fastened inside his hat, removable with same.

Arrived at the house of the bridegroom, or the substitute for it, the Chinese ceremony begins. The bride is accompanied by her bridesmaids, her servants, and her friends, who lead her up one side of the

are

While the complimentary speeches are being droned out with many bows and much solemnity, some eatables are being brought in by an old waiting-woman, and set upon the table in front of the happy pair. These comprise about a dozen dishes of all kinds of Chinese foods, rather decorative than substantial, and brought in for appearance only. A woman approaches the bride, and with chopsticks and bowl in hand pretends to feed her with some of the viands; but as the heavy veil is never lifted, nothing whatever is eaten, and only the appearance of it is indulged in. The same office is performed by another woman for the bridegroom, who, though not veiled, was equally content with going through the motions. Then a glass of native wine is poured out and handed to the groom, who puts it to his lips only; the same cup is then applied to the outside of the bride's veil, and both are supposed to have partaken. The couple are then tied together, always at a respectful distance, by two pieces of colored silk ribbon, red and green, the ends of which are tied to the right wrist of the groom, and the left of the bride. This, I believe, is the nuptial knot. In this position they remain for about a quarter of an hour, being subjected to the gaze of all the guests and inflicted with more music by the band, which has by this time found its way into the room.

In due time—that is, when everybody's patience is quite exhausted - the couple are released from their silken bond. age, and are conducted, each in the es

covered with red paper, with gauze on the top, through which you could see that each contained a small handful of Chinese confections. Every one leaving the bridal a complete mu-chamber received a box. This corresponds to our custom of giving each guest a piece of wedding cake, and, indeed, may have been its origin.

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cort of two women, out of the room and up-stairs to the bridal chamber, all the visitors following in the train. This chamber contains, among other things, a bed of great splendor seum in itself. In shape it is a very largesized four-poster of dark red hard wood, richly carved, and with small round slabs of mottled Chinese marble let in wherever The whole company, followed by the there seems a place for them. But the bride and bridegroom, then descend to a principal feature is the richly embroidered reception-room, shortly to be shown into curtains hanging from the top of the frame a long room furnished only with chairs. down to the ground, but made in such a In the middle of the floor is a piece of red way that the wooden frame of the bed is cloth; on one side are two bridal chairs, allowed to be seen in front of the draper- very elaborate and colored red, standing a ies. The bedclothes consisted of a num- little distance apart; and facing these, on ber of hand-worked quilts, and two the other side of the carpet, are two ordimagnificently embroidered pillows, which nary chairs for the reception of the guests were laid down the middle of the bed in each in turn. These chairs, however, very neat order. Outside the curtains, were scarcely used on this occasion, the this extraordinary piece of furniture was guests remaining standing. This part of ornamented with all sorts of small speci- the ceremony it was more like a scene in mens of embroidery of varied designs, a drama- was perhaps the most characlooking like pen-wipers, pincushions, and teristic of the Chinese ways and customs, the like, some shaped like dragons, others and was devoted entirely to "chin-chin," square or triangular, and all dissimilar. or saluting. The groom had taken up his We heard that all these elaborate embroid-place beside one of the chairs, and there eries were the work of the bride, and that stood ready to receive and pay homage she had probably spent the whole of her to the male guests each in turn; while life in preparing for this great event, such beside the other chair stood the bride, being the custom among Chinese women. bowing to the lady guests. Having reached the bridal chamber, the company proceeded to examine the wedding presents, which were displayed on the Chinese dressing-table. These were partly Chinese, partly foreign, but all very nice and well chosen -a pair of costly vases, a manicure set, a toilet set, Japanese tea-service, pieces of silk embroidery made by friends, and many other things beside jewellery. But what was very characteristic was noticed on one side of the room - a pile of black boxes tied up with strips of red paper. These boxes were heaped up one over the other till they nearly reached the ceiling. There may have been twenty of them, all as like as peas, and each large enough to contain two or three ladies' dresses. It is regarded as a sign of wealth to have a large number of these; and such is their love for show, that a Chinese lady would sooner not be married than not have a large display of these boxes, which are supposed to contain her trousseau. Of course, some of these boxes may have been empty, and others may have contained old clothes, as great care was observed to have them sealed up and their contents safe from examination.

In one corner of the room, on a table, were a number of small cardboard boxes,

The gentleman who chanted the complimentary speeches at the make-believe breakfast table now acted as master of the ceremonies, and brought in a male friend, placing him directly in front of the bridegroom. Then commenced a series of Oriental salaams; the husband, the guests, and the master of ceremonies all on their knees, and with hands clasped, and raised above their heads, bow down to the ground again and again. In order to enable them to move together, the master of ceremonies sings a doleful strain, rising and falling to suit the action, and apparently done to enable the trio to move in concert. more influential or rich the guest, the more "chin-chin" they receive.

The

The first male guest having been disposed of, the groom takes a rest, and our attention is directed to the bride. She is assisted by an ahma (Chinese nurse), who stands beside her and assists her to bow in a manner which seems more forcible than polite. A lady having been placed opposite, the same show begins, and the same extravagant salutations are indulged in. Then the groom begins with another man, while the bride has an opportunity to straighten out her back, and so on, until all the celebrities and intimate friends have been done homage to. With this,

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Our driver, who was rather a solid, sober-looking "gossoon, " did not at first sight promise much amusement. But appearances are deceitful, and Shakespeare himself has told us that "there is no art to find the mind's construction in the face." He warmed up after we had "shoved on a bit," and when he had been stimulated by the remarks of an asylum porter, who proudly said he owed his position to the patronage of two "lards." "Oh! if it's lards ye're for talkin' about," observed the driver, "the nicest lard I iver met is Lard Mountmellick [we slightly transform the title]; he's the grandest lard av the day. He niver smoke anything but a long clay pipe, as long as the crop av me whip [here he suited the action to the word], and he niver smoke anything but the common twist tobaccy. This lard's a grate smoker intirely; he'll ardher a box av these long clays wid thirty in it at a time, an' he'll niver drop smoking wan av thim till he have it colored as black as me hat." This testimony to his lordship seemed incontestable; but the driver proceeded to improve upon it. "An' he's sich a lard for sport. John,' he'd say to me wan day lately, where do you spind your Sunday?" (Sunday was a sort of off-day with the driver, and at least a half-holiday.) "At home in Glounagoleen, me lard,' says I. Well, John,' says he' if ye want to enjoy yourself some Sunday,' says he, 'bring a couple av dogs wid you,' says he, 'an' take a day's huntin' in my demesne,' says be. Look at that for ye now! Look at that for a lard!" The asylum porter was quite abashed by the recital of such personal friendship and familiarity on the part of a lard, as his two lards had only used their influence for him officially, and

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he retired from the field of conversation in favor of the driver. As we passed an old ruined castle, the latter inquired if we "had iver heerd tell av how the crows falled' the rest av it." As we had not, he proceeded with the narrative as follows: "Well, there was wonst a grand young lady who lived near Ballywire, an' she was very rich intirely, an' she had a grate rookery near her place. Well, be the same token, she was iver an' always goin' to balls an' parties an' operas an' thayaters, and would only be rowlin' home in her carriage at four o'clock in the mornin'. An' when she'd want to go to sleep, the crows wouldn't let her close an eye at all, at all. So she gothered a party of her gintleman frinds, and they were shootin' at thim same crows mornin', noon, and night; but they might as aisy have bailed the Shannon wid a tay-spoon, for all the good they did. Well, at long an' at last there was an ould pinshioner came the way, and he med an offer to the lady to do away wid the crows for fifty pound. 'Done,' says she; 'for all that I'm afther losin' a dale av money over thim same crows,' says she, 'fifty pound doesn't matter a traneen to me, wan way or another,' says she. Well, me bould pinshioner, what did he do but off wid him into Limerick, and spint twenty pound av the fifty on bird-lime. An' when he came back, he plasthered all the trees with the bird-lime, whin the crows was aff on their divarsions in the day time. Well, home they came agin, shure enough, when the night was falling, an' wint to roost. And whin they were sound asleep, an' well clung to the trees wid the bird-lime, what does the pinshioner do but walk into the rookery wid a double-barrelled gun. An' whin he fired off a couple av shots, the crows all flapped their wings to fly; but they were so clung to the branches by the bird-lime, they couldn't stir at all, at all. Well, they pulled an' they dragged all as wan, till they pulled all the trees in the rookery out by the roots, an' flew off wid thim. An' the first thing they came against was this ould castle; an' they falled it ivery bit to pieces but the wan wall that is left. An' it's not very long since I tould this story to two English gintlemen; an' they were so plased wid it, they made me tell it over agin."

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There were six passengers on the mail car; and in the intervals of story-telling, their conversation was entirely political, the Anti-Parnellite element outnumbering the Parnellite. The chief Parnellite advo cate was considerably "under the influ

There is a long codicil to the will, made in the following year, explaining at great length why the "irreclaimable booby had been so treated. It describes his experiences at the gold-fields, as a gold-digger, a horse-dealer, a flour-merchant, a trafficker in boots and shoes-quite an amusing biographical sketch, written in a style of most. severe sarcasm. It concludes as follows:

He returned to Ireland with his finger in his mouth. This is the career of this man of such a man I ought to leave the independence the world. I only ask any man to say is it to I have so hardly earned.

A medical friend is remembered thus:

ence," or, as the universal formula in | this annuity, and he has my leave to die in Ireland is, "had drink taken," before the the Poorhouse. car started. However, when a halt was made at a village post-office on the way, he found it necessary to be in company with John Jameson again. Though he could hardly maintain the perpendicular, it was marvellous how very slightly his powers of expression were affected. His language was well chosen, courteous, and coherent. The whole controversy was conducted in the most amicable spirit, notwithstanding the decided differences of opinion among the speakers, and was in its own way an excellent illustration of Irish conversational power. The car-driver himself seemed rather undecided; he declared that if a vote would put Parnell into heaven, "he couldn't give it to him, for he hadn't wan to give!" And when pressed with the atti tude of the bishops, he observed that "if he knew William O'Brien's mind was to go wid Parnell, he'd be for him too." William O'Brien was evidently his pope in the matter, if he could only know his mind. We desire to add here, by way of conclusion to this article, a remarkable specimen of readiness attributed to an Irish rector, father of a living Irish bishop, who was beneficed in the county where our cardriver plies his whip. A "fish-jolter called at the rectory one day with fish for sale. "What have you to-day?" "Sole and plaice, your Reverence; the finest iver swum the say.' Rector, after examining them for some time: "Damn your sole, leave the plaice." It would not be easy to get a better specimen of a double pun than this.

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A CURIOUS IRISH WILL. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.]

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SIR, So recently as the year 1874, a professional gentleman in the south of Ireland made a will some extracts from which are here given. The will was lent to me by a parishioner; but for obvious reasons I do not give the name and address of the testator:

I leave and bequeath an annuity of 120 a year, an ample provision for an irreclaimable booby, to my nephew, I. L. C., to be paid him only in Australia or any British colony, where he may desire it to be remitted to him.

Should the said I. L. C. return to Ireland, England, or Scotland, I then revoke

When I had an opportunity I called him in, which was a great advantage to him profes sionally, as he was well paid. Mr. C.'s case, the one when I amputated, he got a larger fee than myself. B.'s when upset by Mail Coach was another, and others also. I now make him a present of my works on surgery and any instruments I may have.

desire all other books not medical, with soup I give my medical books to Mr. W. G. I ladle and large silver Tankard being long in my family, and also my silver snuff-boxes, to be packed up in a chest down-stairs, painted [sic], properly fastened, and directed to S. M., Hobart Town, Tasmania.

I desire to be buried in my tomb in T. churchyard, and that no laborer with spade or shovel be allowed to enter my tomb. I in order to show their work and trouble. I have seen this class committing great sacrilege wish quicklime to be strewed thick in bottom of coffin, and when corpse is in to have lime thrown over it. While alive I have a great abhorrence of insects, and may have the same though dead.

I leave and bequeath to Mr. J. M. an annuity of £10 a year, to be paid half-yearly, as he is the most distressed of all his respectable because he was a near relative of my deceased relations, not from any regard for him, but

wife.

I leave the Parlor maid £10 on giving up all articles entrusted to her care in good or der; she has the key of plate-chest.

Scarves and hatbands may be bought at O'C. and L.'s; these men employed me; but I will not have a coffin made in T., from the way my niece was served and treated.

Are there many instances of wills such as this being made the vehicle for personal reflections? I am, sir, etc.,

COURTENAY MOORE, M.A. Mitchelstown Rectory, March 21st.

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VIII. LORD Beaconsfield: AFTER TEN YEARS, National Review,

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For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

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