A Tour of the Missions: Observations and ConclusionsStrong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
A Tour of the Missions: Observations and Conclusions
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
East Asia -- Description and travel; Missions
We left Singapore for Penang with some regret, for the reason that large
steamers must be exchanged for small steamers. The one we took was
exceedingly good and modern. Another on which we embarked somewhat later
seemed to have come down from the days of Noah and the ark. But British
steamers, however old and small, are clean and safe. You "get there"
all the same. On our way to Rangoon our first stop was at Port
Swetterham, from which we motored twenty-seven miles to Kuala Lumpur,
the capital of the Federated Malay States--federated under the British
Crown. Here is a city of Malays and Chinese, with British government
buildings, Mohammedan mosques, Buddhist temples, an English cathedral,
and a Methodist church. Our road thither led us through seemingly
endless forests of rubber trees and of coconut palms. The profusion of
tropical vegetation was both novel and impressive. These Federated Malay
States furnish the world with more than half its supply of rubber, and
many English and American investors are growing rich from the soaring of
prices induced by the war.
Penang, however, furnished us with our greatest sensation. It was a
Chinese funeral. In this city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, a
millionaire Chinese banker had died. He was a Buddhist as well as a
Confucianist, but also a loyal and patriotic supporter of charitable
institutions, and of the British rule. He had given to the British
government a number of aeroplanes to facilitate its military operations,
and a large sum of money for its war-loan. When he died, the customary
worship of ancestors, which is a part of Chinese religion, as well as
gratitude for his past gifts, prompted his family to plan a sumptuous
funeral. It is said to have cost them thirty thousand dollars. We
arrived in Penang just in time to see the show. All the way from
Singapore, indeed, we were accompanied on our steamer by a fine brass
band, which was only one of three brass bands hired to furnish music
for the funeral service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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