Washoe County NV Archives Obituaries.....See, Ah 1879
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Kathy Grace http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002598 October 29, 2010, 9:58 pm

Weekly Reno Gazette April 10, 1879
Barbaric Obsequies
A Hundred Horse Power Chinese Funeral
Tuesday Reno was the scene of the highest toned and most unique funeral ever
witnessed in this section.  Barnum's museum, Paddy's curiosity shop or the
Passion play in San Francisco wouldn't be a marker alongside of it.  Ah see, a
fan-tan dealer of note and wealth, passed in his checks Monday, and his pagan
compatriots determined to show their respect for him after death for his
shrewdness in robbing them while living.  The brass band and a hearse were
engaged for the occasion, and all Tuesday Chinatown was in a fever of
excitement.  The corpse was laid out in state, with two roast, and one raw
dressed, pigs at the foot of the coffin, and six hired mourners keeping up a
dismal wail around it.  About 2 o'clock the procession started.  First came the
brass band, followed by a Chinaman bearing aloft a huge red banner.  Five more
Chinamen bearing smaller flags with inscriptions upon them came next, and then
the nodding black plumes of the hearse with Pete Comstock driving in person. 
Behind the hearse, walking, came the brother of the deceased supported by two
Chinamen.  He was followed by the dead gambler's wife, or mistress, who walked
along in her stocking feet, with bowed head, her frame shaking with sobs,
resting herself on two other Chinawomen.  About forty Chinese free masons, in
white blouses, with hats off and their heads encircled with pieces of red cloth,
marching two by two, came, next, followed by the entire Chinese male population
in double file.  The Chinese band brought up the tail of the parade, with
frequent and discordant strains of barbaric music.  In this way the procession
marched from Chinatown up First street, into Virginia street, and up Virginia to
Commercial row.  It turned up Commercial row and into Sierra, and up Sierra to
the cemetary.  Everybody flocked to the turn--out, and hundreds of men, women
and children poured out pell-mell to the graveyard.  Out at the cemetary the
crowd was so dense and crowded up so eagerly that only a few could see anything
of the cermonies.  When the coffin was lowered into the grave, the six mourners
threw themselves on their faces on a mat near it, and broke into a wail that
would make a cayote die of envy.  A lot of fruit and provisions were taken out
to place by the grave to lunch Ah See to the happy hunting grounds, but they are
more likely to land in the stomach of the marauding Washoe.  The Indians were
very much interested in the display.  One of the them, who was curious as to the
cause, queried of the reporter, "Chinaman's Fourth July?"

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