SE£D-TIME AM© HARVEST. 
5 
press, attended the burial of a noted dig¬ 
nitary, a few days since. The funeral 
train consisted of the hearse, band carriages 
for the Chinese musicians, and some two 
hundred Chinamen in pairs, with a few 
persons of various nationalities, bringing 
up the rear. The music, to the ear of the 
average American critic, could not be said 
to be of the highest order, yet had some¬ 
thing of concord or even hormony in it. 
All the Chinese members of the cortege 
wore badges of Masonic mourning, and the 
officers were dressed in appropriate cos¬ 
tume. Some twelve or fifteen banners 
were borne aloft, on which were inscribed 
numberless Chinese hieroglyphics. One 
man scattered little slips of punched 
paper, continuously, from the town to the 
Chinese cemetery, a distance of two miles. 
On arriving at the grave, the corpse was 
immediately lowered into the vault, which 
vault was probably not exceeding thirty 
inches in depth. A chicken was then 
placed upon the coffin at one end, and a 
bucket of food at the other. Dirt was then 
piled around the fowl until all was covered 
but its head, when its throat w T as cut, and 
the grave filled. The banners that were 
brought were erected around the grave, 
and hundreds of little wax candles lighted 
and left to burn around the resting-place of 
the dead. Food was furnished in quantity, 
including fowls and a finely roasted pig 
weighing some seventy-five pounds. All 
the eatables, except the fowls and pig, were 
scattered around the grave for the nourish¬ 
ment of the departed. The roasts were, 
however, devoured by the Celestials on 
their way homeward, where they again 
enter their daily vocations as before, re¬ 
gardless of the fact that one of their num¬ 
ber had passed away. 
Fashion in Flowers. 
We would regard it as a great improve¬ 
ment in floriculture if the alternate rush¬ 
ing from monstrous double flowers to plain, 
single ones could be done away with. Most 
people do not like the extremes in either 
direction. As many or most of our fashions 
in flowers come from England, the follow¬ 
ing communication to the Garden will in¬ 
dicate to us the probable golden mean of 
the future: “There is always a tendency to 
jump from one extreme to the other, and 
we see this exemplified in the case of dahl¬ 
ias, which afford as great a contrast be¬ 
tween the double and single forms as it is 
possible to conceive But a little time ago 
a single dahlia was a rarity; now they are 
the popular flowers of the day, and perhaps,, 
by an easy transition, we shall presently 
come to find the greatest beauty in the 
semi-double forms. I am inclined to think 
that they are amongst -the flowers of the 
future, and that, as effective garden flowers, 
they will stand far ahead of both doubles 
and singles. Some time since a friend 
brought me a large-flowered dahlia, agiow¬ 
ing orange-scarlet, having three rows of 
petals. I thought I had never seen any¬ 
thing more striking; I certainly never re¬ 
member to have seen anything so brilliant 
amongst double dahlias as this semi-double 
variety. I would earnestly beg of raisers 
of double dahlias to give the flower-loving 
public the opportunity of deciding on the 
merit of the semi-double, large-flowered 
varieties. Many a fine sort has undoubted¬ 
ly been cast away because it so nearly 
approached the typical form, but now that 
the single kinds are so much thought of 
the semi-doubles would stand a good chance 
of getting a trial as decorative kinds.” 
Puns. 
BY W. B. DERRICK- 
A solid, pungent pun, 
Is enjoyed by every one; 
But a poor pun is a punishment indeed. 
Puns should dazzle and delight. 
And be ever sparkling, bright, 
Like the sparks that sparkle on the spark- 
er’s weed. 
It is wise to make the least money and 
the least labor accomplish the greatest 
amount of good, but it is unwise to regard 
necessary labor as a burden, and necessary 
expenditures as a waste. 
Being Truthful. Never complain that people do 
not believe your words, but compel them to believe 
you by always speaking the truth, and by avoiding to 
speak much of strange and great things, even though 
they be true. 
