The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-02
CRIMINALS.
HideOus MutiIations and fortunes, Legal
and Illegal.

Hideous MutiIations and fortunes, Legal
and Illegal.
San Francisco Chronicle.
The punislments for criminals of the first
class are, first, lingchi or slicing process, where
the culpr1t IS pinioned to a stake and twenty
hve gashes cut on the face and breast. the coup
de grace being a stab at the heart. Regicides,
parr1eldes, etc, when convicted suffer this fate.
second, beheading with a long. heavy knife,
where the culDrit kneels and receives the stroke
with bent head, which is usually taken off at
one blow. The writer once saw ten pirates
executed with ten strokes, in exactly one minute.
Third, strangulation on a cross until the
eyes start out of their sockets. Female
%convicts often suffer death in this way.
Fourth, Punishment. 1000 Ii, for lifc-a mild
punishment melted out to political prisoners or
the lighter crimes of blood. After a criminal
has been beheaded, his head is put into a stone
Jar containing lime, several of which may be
seen. on the execution ground, and are called by
foreigners ported skulls" Sometimes the
skull is taken to the scene of the mans crime,
and there exhibited on the top of a pole to
bleach IN the ummer's sun. The headless trunk
IS taken to the criminals grave yard, where it is
often only half buried, and becomes a meal for
the half starved hounds that frequent these
places. Sometimes a compassionate friend saves
the corpse from wondering in hades as a head
less ghost by providing it with an artificial head
and burylng it in a decent coffin.
Every criminal must be brought to confess his
crime before sentence of death is passed, and to
eXtort this necessary confession the most horri-
BILE fortunes are practiced. The mandarin sees
over his doorway as he goes out a device written
by the imperial hand to influence his daily con-
duct; Your salaries and living are the marrow
ana tat OF the people; men below can easily be
oppressed, but high heaven cannot be deceived"
Lutte need, however, is paid to the Emperors
maxim when a stubborn criminal stands before
them. The longer his confession is delayed the
longer he remains on their hands to be fed and
guarded So severe are some of the torments
inflicted that many an innocent man has CON
fessed crimes he never committed, glad to put
an end to his misery.
We take up a recent number of the Picking
Gazette, and find a mandarin e%xtorting confess
sion from a lad of seventeen, by tying a bundle
of burning incense sticks to his naked breast.
The lad confessed, but when on the execution
ground recanted, and was taken back to prison
and torture. Some humane bystanders memo
flallzed the throne, the case was investigated,
the lad was declared innocent. and the official
was degraded and bambooed. The magistrate
put a contumacious pirate into a coffin and suf-
focated HIM IN open court, because he had
abused his worship and struck the lictor who
was torturing him. In official ~gazettes we read
of brutal magistrates mailing criminals by
the hands and feet to boards, compelling them
TO lie on spiked beds, or heated iron, or scalded
with boiling water. and such soul-harrowing
fortunes as were never %placticed in the worst
days of the Spanish Inquisition. Sometimes the
culprit is made to kneel for hours on chains, or
his unconfessing lips are beaten to a Jelly, or he
is suspended by the fingers and toes or ears, or
his neck is placed in a stock like a barrel, only
the head being seen, and the wife or children Of
the poor wretch bring him food to save him from
starvation.
Many of these fortunes are illegal, but the
legal orments are in all conscience cruel enough,
as, for instance, the use of three boards with
grooves for COMPRISING the feet and ankles, or
five round sticks for squeezing the fingers, or
beating with the heavy bamboo, under which
criminals often die. The writer has often seen
these %tortures administered and can testify to
the agonizing shrieks which ring through the
chamber of torture, but never move the placid
countenance and relentless heart of the i'm
perturable mandarin. 1t is satisfactory
to find that a healthier public sentiment
and humaner feelings are beginning
to prevail. The throne has already published a
decree, on the advice of the censors, suppressing
all Illegal torture before condemnation. What
the effect will be remains to be Scent The fear
that their cruelty may be reported to Picking has
already deferred some magistrates from resort
ing to these tortures. The spirit of the nation is
still barharic and vindictive, and until ''nobler
modes of life, sweeter manners, purer laws pre-
vail in the hearts of the people, we may still ex-
pect to find in China such acts of brutality as
recall to our minds the darkest days of medieval
times and the blacklist pages of European his
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