New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-05-18

CHINESE BRUTALITY.-The following are stated by
an English paper to be the modes of execution and
punishment in China. What can be more ferocious
and inhuman In the first place, there is the wooden
cage, which consists of two large pieces of wood
fitting into one another and having three openings,
into which the head, or the head and hand or the
head and both hands, according to the severity of the
sentence, are put. This punishment is so severe
shoulders weight of 200 lbs without any possibility
of reef-that it is certain death ii inflicted for more
than a very few days. Next comes beating with
bamboo canes-a process which sometimes kills after
fifteen blows. Then faying, crushing limbs, and
tearing out the tendons Of the feet. Stranging and
beheading are the capital punishment, to which may
be added-though it is said, not often practiced-the
penalty by which a criminal is placed between two
boards and sawed in two from head to foot Starving
to death is sometimes practiced, the cuprit being
buried in the earth up to the neck and there left to
die; or he is fixed in the wooden cage, and fed with
daily diminishing ratons of rice till he dies on the
last grain as the horse on his last straw. In 1910,
1000 persons were beheaded in the province Of Can
ton, out OF population of 100000.
Mr.. Meadows, the interpreter of the English En-
bassy in China in 1852, saw at Canton an execution
which he afterwards described. The criminals were
insurgents who had fallen into the hands of the Tartar
officials. The place Of execution was a low room,
from which the heads of persons previously executed
had not been removed. A fire of sandalwOod burnt
before the shed where sat the mandarins who to
superintend the execution and nterposed its fra
grancy between their nobility and the stencil of the
decomposing heads The criminals were brought in,
some borne in baskets and tumhed out the ground,
where they lay paralyzed with fear, or from the
effects of torture inflicted during their trial and i'm
prsonment. They were then placed in order in
kneeling position, with their faces towards the ground
man standing behind each and graspng him tightly
by his bound hands. Another in case Of resistance,
seized the queue and pulled in the opposite direction
to keep the neck extended All being thus prepared,
the executioner came forward, sabre his weapon,
which he held with two hands, standing with his legs
somewhat apart ready for the work. In three min
ntes, thigtythree bodies were headless, all but the
first completely severed with one blow. From one to
another the executoner leaped, body and sword act
ing with the precision of machine, and dealing a
death-blow at every jump. One criminal remained,
and for him more awful death was appointed. He
of powerful frame, in the prime of ife and
had surrendered himself to the officials to save his
wife and family who were in their hands, from the
torture They took and bound him to wooden cross,
fixed against the wall. The flesh was then cut from
his forehead, breast and extremites-a horrible pro-
cess, which occupied five minutes, and yet rap
idly performed. The unhappy man was then taken
from the cross and beheaded.