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Show A rich Chinaman's birthday celebration -Chen Shutong, the Chinese Consul General of California, has just been celebrating his third decade birthday. This is a ceremony which is unknown to us, whose birthdays are all on the same monotonous level. Put with the Mandarin class, who wear the read button it has been from time immemorial the custom to have a grand birthday celebration on each successive tenth anniversary after the twenty first birthday. This celebration lasts three days, the first two being devoted to calls and congratulations from friends, and the last culminating in magnificent feast. One of the peculiar points of Chinese etiquette is not to invite any one to the party, but it is merely hinted to friends who call during the first two days that there is to be a feast, and it will be proper for them to attend. This is done so the Chinese say, to insure that only those who have friendly regards for the giver of the feast are invited. Sunday, Oct. 12th, was the first day of the ceremony, the old Chinese Theatre on Jackson Street was ornamented with red satin, gilded scrolls and pictures, lanterns hung from the ceiling, baskets of flowers and gorgeous finery, the gifts of Hong Kong, Peking, and Canton merchants. About four hundred of the leading Chinese merchants of the coast and the presidents and secretaries of the six companies set down to the table. The event was also simultaneously celebrated in some of the leading cities of China. One of the remarkable gifts presented to Chen Shu Tong by some forty of his intimate friends was a large red satin scroll, embroidered with a symbolical picture expressive of their wishes for his welfare. This was hung at the back of a raised dais, or platform, highly decorated, on which Chen Shu Tong sat and received his friends, who were then assigned to seats, according to rank, at small, black, elegantly carved tables, on which the repast was served. Over a hundred of the elite of Chinese female society were hidden behind a screen, where they could see and hear all that went on. A twelve hours' theatrical performance beguiled the time. A continual light lunch was served all day, and at 6 o'clock the state dinner of forty courses began. The leading Chinese say that this was one of the most gorgeous entertainments ever given in the city, and admiring crowds of Chinese blockaded the streets all day. A friend of Chen Shu Tong states that the cost of the affair was fully $8,000. Chen Shu Tong is a great favorite among his countrymen. During the Chinese famine he gave over $60,000 to the sufferers.-San Francisco Bulletin. |