The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-01-03
How tho Records of Passing Events are
Brought To Celesial Eyes.

| brought 10 Celostial Eyes.
h, The Celestial Empire, remarking on the i'm
portrait part played IN Chinese affairs general
~ by the placards which are posted on the
walls says:
"In China, rs we have more than once point
ed out the literature Of the walls covers pretty
much the same ground rs an ordinary Eng
lish newspaper, from the agony column
downwards For, mixed up with notices of
lost property, consisting sometimes of human
beings, and advertisements of all kinds OF al IL
Giles of trade such rs one would naturally look
for in the handbill Literature OF any city, there
are to Ee found announcements OF new and
startling 2remedcs for various diseases, in
tallible pills for the cure ot depraved opium
smokers, long lists of the names of subscribers
to some coming festival or to the pious restora-
ton of a local temple, sermons without end
directed against the abuse of written paper,
and now and then against female intanticlde, or
Cumm;ng-like warnings Of an approaching
millennium at which the wicked shall receive
the reward OF their crimes according to the
horrible arrangements OF the Buddhist TaOist
purgatory Occasionally an Objectionable
person will he advertised through an anony-
nous placard to deslst from the course which
is pointed out as offensive; and similarly but
more rarely, the action OF an official will some
times be severely criticised or condemned. But
among the most curious OF all such documents
that have ever come to our notice must be reck-
oned one which has recently been scattered
broadcast over several Of the eighteen provln-
ces. 1t is Il large yellow placard, about two
! feet in length by u foot and a half in depth,
and Is divided into seven parts by thick, black
lines. One of these divisions is occupied by
letter-press, and the remaining six contain
l fairly well executed wOod-cuts bearing upon
the subject described in the first This pla
card is headed, IN large characters, 'lllustra-
tioDs of the Imperial command to flay and
scatter the ashes; and it would appear from
the letterpress above mentioned that in the
fourth year of the reign of the late Emperor
! 1865 there lived IN the province OF Hupen a
certain man named Tsang who had married a
wife from the Hwang family With them re-
sided Tsangs aged mother, but instead of at
fectionate kindness at the hands OF her son
and slavish submissIveness from devoted
daughter-inlaw the poor old lady seems to
have received nothing but harshtI treatment
from both This went on tor some time until
public opinion felt itself to be altogether too
violently outraged; the behavior of Tsang and
his wife was brought to the notice of the au-
thorities, and the consequences as set forth in
the placard under consideration are almost
too awful to contemplate.
! The case was reported to the Throne and a
gescrpt was finally issued ordering the condgn
punishment at all parties concerned IN the
said shathc!L! outrage on public morals. Ac-
4 c"rdngly Ia the first picture we see Tsang and
his wife being quietly tiayed IN the presence
of mandarin of rank while the old mother
stands weeping by, leaning on staff and gaz-
ing through her tears at the dreadful retribu-
ton whlci has overtaken her son. In plate 2
we have a whole crowd of the seniors of the
family who have been sentenced to die by
strangulation-tke oldest and most guilty by
decapitation-tor not having taken proper
measures at an earlier stage of the untilial
sons misconduct; and in No. 5 we see the
bad daughterln-law father and mother sub.
'ectcd To the raining strokes OF the bamboo
tor not having educated their Child with "a bet
| ter sc2sc of her duties towards her husbands
parents. The father and mothcr are then, as
by plate No. 4, sent off into banishment, the
former 10 distance of 5000 Ii, the latter across
the WIDE extent of three provinces There,
separated from family and friends, with every
tie that makes life worth having broken, they
will drag out miserable and rcmOrsefu eXis-
tence until mt length death signs their release
from terrestrial sorrows Oniy to consign them
to the horrors which await the wicked beyond
the grave Plate shows Us two official run
ncrs carrying parcels of food and money to
the destitute old mother, while a third man
bears away ner infant grandCnllu 10 DE trained
up IN the path of virtue In the yamen of the
district magistrate Last scene of all: Plate
No. 6 exhibits as a warning to all the final end
of the unhappy pair whose crimes have
brought a,em to this dreadful pass. The body
4 of Tsang and his wife are burned with fire,
and their ashes scattered 80 the four winds of
heaven-.the most hateful punishment in Chi
nese eyes that could be inflicted on mortal.
Such is this extraordinary placald, which has
probably been printed and published by some
benevolent individual who would keep his
countrymen true to these grand principles of
| tilial piety and subsection which many believe
to have been so instrumental In holding to-
gether for SO long period the integral parts
of this vast and almost unmanageable empire
The document, which occupies section No. |,
processes to be a genuine official record of this
case, which is further said to be entered on
the fifteenth leaf Of the twenty-siXth book of
the new edition of the Chinese Penal Code
but until we shall have found it there, and
have obtained further evidence to convince US
|Of its bona tide character, we must repudiate
all claim to the trusting righteousness of Ju
IDEAS Apella"