Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1862-08-07
The Execution OF Tapping Prison.
erS-FerOCiOuS CrueitieS.

Ties committed Oh lue IaepiHSe NSu'
nese robels) by the Imperialists, in Chi
ma, is from the pen of an Enghshmar
who was present, in company with both
English and French officers and soldiers,
at the execution by discmbowclmeRt Of
Taepiug prisoners.
81 went with the crowd to see the ex-
ecuton of the Tacping prisoners that
had been given up for execution iuto
the hands of the mandarins by the Eng
lish and French authorities--or, what
is the same thing, they took no meas
urcs to prevent the ruthless butchery of
those they lent their aid to capture,
when, horror of horrors, how am I to
describe the dreadful scene, or will il
ever leave my memory! Among those
wretched creatures were young and old,
of both sexes, and Of all ages and sizes,
from the infant recently born to the
man of eighty, tottering on his staff
from the encientc woman to the young
maiden from ten to eighteen. The lat
ter were pushed out by the guards a
mong the crowd of ruffians assembled,
and were taken into sheds and by places
and debauched, and again dragged back
guards to await their turn for execu
ton. Some of them had tainted, and
were pulled along the ground to the
exccutioncrs, who threw them on their
backs, tore off their clothes, and ripped
them from the lower part of the abdo-
men to their breasts, which were cut of
and dashed with a curse into their faces
"The bowels, as a matter of course,
gushed out but the cut was made in
such way, and so skillfully and with
such expertness, that the intcstines were
seldom injured. After little time in
this state of excessive torture, the exc
cutioner thrust his hand into the chest
and tore out the reeking heart, his vic
tim looking him in the face all the
while. A young female. apparently
about eight months pregnant, who new
er uttered groan or sigh at all the
previous cruelties she had endured from
the surrounding mob, had her infant cut
out of her womb, and held up in her
sight by one of its little hands, bleeding
and quivering, when at the sight she
gave one heart-rcnding, piercing screech
that would have awakened pity in IL
ger, and after it had been in that state
dashed on her breast, she, with a last
suporhuman effort, released her arms
from those holding her down, and clasp
ed her infant to her bleeding heart and
died, holding it there with such force
that they could not be separated, and
were thus thrown together on the pile
of other carcasses
"Another young woman among the
prisoners awaiting her turn to be disem-
bowelod, with fine boy of ten months
old, Growing and jumping in her arms,
had him snatched suddenly away from
her and flung to the executioner, who
plunged the ruthless knife into his ten
der breast before his mothers cyes.--
Infants but recently born were torn from
their mothers breasts and dscm boweled
before their faces. Young, strong men
were disem boweled, mutilated, and the
parts cut off thrust into their own
mouths or flung among the admiring
and laughing crowd of Cinnamon,
"But no more. can write no more
of these scenes; | can only regret for
ever that looked on the dreadful sight. /
am no longer fit to be a soldier.
have been in many battles during the
last twenty years, and in the thickest
Of the fight in most of them, where a
rage and thirst for carnage is dreadful
to reflect on afterwards, but nothing
heretofore that / have seen or heard of,
or even read of, could be compared to
the dreadful cruelty of this diembowel-
ing execution May God forgive Eng
land for the part she has taken in this
war, and may the sin Of the enormitics
she has assisted in perpetrating on the
defenceless women and innocent and
helpless children, be removed from her
door; anG after the treatment English
women and children met with from the
hands of the blacks in the Sepoy mutiny,
it is truly wonderful that Englishmcn
should join in or countenancc similar a
trocities here"
INCREASE OF LITERATURE OF THE CoUN-
TRY.-In the last decade the newspaper
,nl ,ol Gtarofn,a of Tho