Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-21
Executions in Burmah.
The Cruel Way i'm Which Royal Person
 ages are Put to Death,
[Correspondence Philadelphia Press.l


 ages are Put to Death.
 Correspondence Philadelphia Prezs.l asked my compan ion whether many exc cutions took place here now, and he replied | 'sThere have been none for several weeks, | because the palace intrigues have kept every body in authority too busy scheming, plot | ting and planning to allow them to get up 8 public execution; but not many months ago | I saw band of score or more men and l women murdered on this sanguinary hillock. Some of the victims had royal blood in them, and they were not butchered in the common | way. Imagine to yourself princess charm | ingly dressed in silks and jewels, with flowers | intertwined in her jet-black hair, being pushed or goaded up this hill The crowd | of spectators clustered in the rice fields there or perched upon the roofs of the houses you l see peeping forth among the mango trees NQYer against us on our extreme right, set up a Stout. It is not a shout of pity or mercy. It is merely one of holiday excitement. It is like the mExmur you might hear once at New gate when the fAlon appeared upon the scaf-
 fold or in the Palace df6e d Q 1GreVe when the vic- tim's head was laid on the blecsx beneath the guillotine. The sun is pouring down it's
 brightest rays, which appear to concentfate
 with their greatest brightness on this hillock.
 One executioner unbinds the girls raven hair,
 throws the pretty flowers away, twists tress
 of it round his hands, and pulls her head vio-
 lently backward. Another executioner grasps
 bamboo bludgeon with both hands One, two, three! He swings it in the air, and down 1t falls upon that outstretched throat.
 One, two, three and again it strikes the
 poor, gasping victim on the same place. The body falls Ifeless, though still quivering.
 The princess is dead. Her body is cast aside
 disdainfully.
 ssThen look at this other group of men
 hustling handsome young Burmese in their
 dst-hauling at him, tugging at him, to get
 him to the summit of the mound. He also is of royal blood. Pride of race, and that
 disregard for death which buoys up your true l Buddhist as strongly as does the fatalism of the Wahabee, preserves equanimity in his department. He has flung something away | over among the crowd. It is only his cheroot. He has done with it, and long before the brown urchin who has picked it up will have blown the last embers from it, the spark of | life of it's original owner will have joined the clements and one more Buddhist soul will
 have started of on it's vast career of trans- | migration. See, he stands there cool and | collected. his profile a clear, dark outline l against the unclouded sky. A high check boned executioner seizes his long black hair 1 in front and pulls his head forward until his chin adjoins his breast The second execu- | tioner spits on his hands, grasps his bamboo club firmly, and-whishi whish the blud- geon misses through the air and falls on the nape of the neck of the victim. He falls for ward on his face, the first execationer still h0lQ1n2 on tne na1E. second DloW on the
 back of the neck, while the man lies pros-
 trate, settles the matter. An experienced touch on the red and bruised neck tells the executioner that the vertebra is broken and
 that life has fled. Once more the body is
 spurned aside, and more victims are dragged up the hill. But these latter are only com mon victims and are killed in a common
 way"
 venture to ask my friend what he calls
 common killing He explains: According
 to the Burmese law royal blood must not be
 shed. This injunction is literally obeyed for
 while the women are dubbed across the
 throat and the men across the neck, no blood
 is split. The common people may be execu-
 ted in any way. On the morning of which
 speak the common people were hacked by
 Burmese with a short sword until their heads
 rolled of. Sacre! it was a terrible specta-
 clel but saw no sign of horror among the speatators. Executions in independent Bur-
 mall are too common, and have been for cen turtles, to excite much public feeling. Every man. woman and child knows that their turn
 may come next, just as they happen to en- counteg the displeasure of some high official
 Come, let us be moving onward, or these vul- lures wifi think we have come here to pro- vide them with . feast"