The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-24
EXECUTIONS AT CANTON.
Criminals Beheaded or Dying Upon the Cross
at the Rate of One a Day.
M ondnn Inn,a Tnl.a

Criminals Beheaded or Dying Upon the Cross
at the Rate of One Day.
Correspondence London Telegraph.
Crime does not go unpunished in this part Of
China The professional guide of the city. in.
deed, shows the execution ground of Canton
with an honest pride 1t is not pleasant place
to look at on wet morning, and to a criminal
must have very depressing appearance Yet,
with the exception of three or four wooden
crosses leaning up against the wall, there was
nothing to indicate that the scene had ever been
one of wholesale butchery. Still here it was
that, in 1855, nearly $4,000 socalled rebels were
beheaded A short lane, seventy five feet long
by about twenty five feet wide, narrower at one
end than the other, was nearly filled with earth
enware pots put out to dry. Very muddy and
sloppy, there was no place marked off for exc
cutions, and stepped down to little hut at the
end of a lane to make the acquaintance of the
executioner, who. learned lived there before l
found out that the beheading was performed
wherever there was a vacant space.
The functlonary was not at home. and his wife
was showing me the heavy two handled, broad
bladed knife with which he operated. Offering in
fact, to sell it for 81 when little crowd appeared
In the lane and man bound at the arms was
led to an open space among the pots Ny idea
that an execution was about to take place was
now confirmed by the owner of the hut coming
for his knife. The culprit was evidently also in
formed of the nature of the ceremony about TO
take place, for he looked very melancholy
though | afterwards learned that some opium
had been given him As the executioner came
up, couple of policemen pushed the victim
down upon his knees in the mud and bound his
legs to his arms as he knet; then. pulling back
the collar of his shirt, forced his head forward
while the eXecutoner with much care selected
an earthen pot in which to catch the prisoners
skull.
These preliminaries having been settled the
headsman stood over the prisoner and with two
cuts completely severed the neck-one indeed
had put the criminal beyond all pain. The
head, which had fallen into the pot, was covered
up, and the bleeding trunk was picked up the
relatives of the convict the crowd separated and
after some financial transactions between the
officer who superintendent the execution and the
eXecutioner, the latter walked off to the hut for
all was over, the whole affair not having occu-
pied ten minutes. | was told that Just then exc
cutions took place at about the rate of one a day
Generally they took the form of beheadings but
occasionally people We're submitted to the slow
death upon the crosses against the wall, when,
of course, the spectacle was more barbarous A
woman was executed the next day for killing her
husband and received eight wounds from the
knife Of the execution before she was finally put
out of her agony; but | could not find that hers
was frequent case nor did | meet any one in
China who had seen more cruelty practiced than
that. The cutting into thousand pieces now
generally resolves itself into some such mode
of dispatch.