Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-04-04
Trials and Execution i'm China
shocking Barbarity Of the
SCCleStinlS.v

Trials and Execution i'm China
shocking Barbarity Of the
"Cclestials."
A correspondent of the New York
World, attached to the American squadron
in China, gives the following revolving
picture of Chinese injustice:
At Pun Yon chief magistrate was
presiding over court of justice, and a
large number of criminals were arraigned
before it for robbery, piracy, theft, &c.
Several were tried while we were there.
The criminal was obliged to kneel in front
of this officer, on the stone floor, with his
feet and hands chained. If he refused to
answer any question he was severely struck
upon the mouth with piece of board, by
q man who was stationed near by for
that purpose, and if that failed to bring
him to his senses, he was strung up by
his pig tail, great toes and thumbs, his
knees made to rest on iron chains, and
kept in this position until his tongue hung
hut, and his thumbs and toes were black
and blue. There were over dozen to be
tried, but a sight of two or three was
enough for us. Some of them were ex-
ecuted the following morning, by having
their heads cut off. The prisoner stands
with his hands tied behind him and his
head bent little forward, just enough
for the executioner to sever the head from
the body at one blow, when he kicks the
head into one corner, and pitches the body
into another, streams of blood issuing
from both, as water from water-can,
and by the time a dozen or two are ex-
ecuted, (it often amounts to forty) there
is pool of blood, with mixture OF
hair, beneath your feet ankle deep. 1t is
know that upon numerous occasions three
hundred human beings have been executed
in one day. 1t is a heart-rending scene,
but after witnessing it few moments
you become accustomed to it, and the
disgust with which you are at first i'm.
pressed wears off entirely. Each China.
man looks about him af if nothing of i'm.
portance was taking place, and seems
glad when his turn arrives. They con.
slider life nothing, and they are only sorry
that they die in this way. for they believe
they enter the other world without head
l saw, in the "Chamber of Horrors" q
miniature imitation of what they believe
the next world looks like, with a num-
Der of their countryrnen walking about in
it, some turned into animals, some with.
out heads, others clambering up noun
tains heavily laded, &c.
AT one ofthe prisons we saw woman,
eighty-four years of age, the mother of the
rebel chief Tai Bing, who was captured
four years ago and thrust into this dis
nal place. 1t seems when they do not
capture the offender himself they take any
one of his family they can lay hands on,
and make them suffer for his crimes
She looked haggard and careworn, and
as if she had not sufficient food to keep
her body and soul together. There were
number of other women, old and young.
in the same place. some of whom had
been imprisoned for ten years. At an
other We saw forty prisoners in a small
and filthy apartment, with heavy wooden
collars about their necks, three feet square
and three inches thick, 80 that they could
not lie down nor get their hands to their
mouths; ifthey were neglected to be fed,
the poor creatures starved to DEATH
These collars are put on for three months
at time. At another | saw some
men and women, who told me that they
would much rather suffer death; they had
been imprisoned fifteen years Again, |
saw some in the streets with their hands
pinioned behind them, walking about, no
one allowed to give them a morsel offood,
for if they did it was punishable by
instant death, Friends, relatives. fathers,
brothers and sisters being obliged to see
their kin starve to death in tho streets
Others l saw lying down in what they
call the dead house, just drawing their
last breath.