The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-31
ON CHINESE TORTURE
Courts, Prisons and PunishmentS
in the FIOWery Kingdom.
THE BAMBOO AND THE CANGUE.
How Jaws are Broken and Ankles Crushed
A Talk With the ExecutiOner- Strang-
ling Respectable Death.

CANTON, CHINA, January 81, 1889
Especial Correspondence of THH HERALD
Horrible! horrible!! horrible!! are
the cruelties of Chinese justicel I grew
sick while watching the torture of a wit
ness at the courts here in Canton to-day,
and | had to leave the place for fear
should faint away. The man was brought
into the court in basket His arms were
chained behind him, His feet were man
acled so that the heavy iron had cut through
the skin, and there was a chain also about
his neck. He was thrown from the basket
on to the floor in front of tall mandarin
Judge dressed in a long silk gown, and
wearing a round black cap with button on
the crown. The irons were taken off and
the man was forced into a kneeling posture
on the stone floor He pleaded that he was
sick. That he knew nothing, and he begged
they would not punish him further. The
Judge said a word and three burly China
men grasped him. They carried him to
the side Of the court, where a bench about
four feet long and a foot wide was lying.
They put this bench on end against pill
lar and then taking the prisoner, forced
him down upon his knees before it so that
the board of the bench rested against his
back and between his shoulders. He was
bare footed. They pulled his wide panta-
looms up to his thighs and bending up his
legs tied his big toes to the top legs Of the
bench so that the bare skin of his knees
rested on the stones. The bench extended
some distance above the back of his head,
and near the end a hole had been bored
about an inch in diameter. Through this
his cue was pulled, forcing his head tight
against the board and stretching his neck
so that the cords stood out like whips. His
-,
stretched backward and upward, and held
there by strings tied to the thumbs.
heavy, sharp chain with iron links about
two inches wide was then brought and put
under his bare knees. He was to be kept
with his whole weight resting on this chain
and held up by his thumbs, his big toes and
his cue until he confessed.
THE TORTURE WAS TERRIBLE.
His eyes almost started from their sockets,
his face tWitched and his moaning made me
sick
Among the other fortunes I witnessed
was the pounding mans cheek with
leather Clapper until the blood OOZed from
his mouth. This capper was made of two
pieces of leather of the thickness and twice
the width of a harness tug, fastened to
third piece of leather as handle. The
whole affair was not more than a foot long,
but il is more brutal than though it was
made of iron. 1t is used largely in the
punishment of women, and it not infre
quently breaks the jaws and knocks out the
teeth. This prisoner was suspected of be
ing engaged in smuggling OPIUM and he
denied being guilty. He was whipped thus
on the jaws and then bambOOed. The BAN
bOOing was done by taking down his
trousers and laying him fiat upon his belly
on the floor of the court, while a turnkey
raising a bamboo club brought il down with
all bis force lor4fp and AGAIN uFtpr the hacks
of the bare yellow thighs of the offender.
This bamboo was split down the middle like
a tuning fork. 1t whiStled as it flew
through the air and it clapped the skin with
the noise of pistol shot. The bare-armed
iailer counted each blow. The long cued,
siIk-gOwned, sore-eyed judge looked com
plaCenHy on and l saw no signs OF pity IN
the stOlid faces of the crowd.
Let me give you picture Of this Chinese
court room. IL is one Of many IN Canton,
and the largest. We passed through room
after room and aisle after aisle OF low,
farr0w buildings to get to it. There was 4
cp,rt in front of it. and around this in
narrow cells sat the clerks and employees
of the Judge. The room was open at the
front, paved with stone, and it had only a
table and a chair or two. There are no
lawyers in China, and the judge has un-
limited power, provided he does not trans
rress the code. China has code Of laws
hundreds of years old, of which new
edition is published every five years, and
IN which the penalties for
THE NINUTEsT CRIMES ARE REGULATED.
It is fuller of more horrible sentences than
the Newgate calendar, and the judges Of
China have more power in the examining OF
witnesses than the most brutal Of tyrants.
There is no jury, and the court room IS as
bare as barn. Just behind where | stood
were number Of the implements of torture
ready for use, and all showing the marks Of
wear and tear. One which my guide said
was very bad, was made Of bar Of wood
six feet long supported by two upright
wooden pillars. The prisoner was made to
lneel under this with the back of his neck
touching the bar and his arms stretched out
along it. These are tied by cords to the bar
and as he lzneels with his bare knees upon
the chain, such as l saw few moments
later. for the Obdurate witness, third bar
is placed across the legs back OF the knees
and two men stand upon 1t, thus forcing the
flesh into the chains. The ankles are some
times crushed by similar bar placed across
them.
Chinese invention, which gave its people
sugar centuries before it tickled the palates
of other mortals, which brought gunpOWder
into the world, and which invented print
ing, seems to have dropped long ago the
useful arts, and devoted itself to the torture
of its criminals l believe that the Chinese
heart is naturally cruel, and in looking over |
the Picking Gazette l see that the tOrtures
of the middle ages are common here, and |
that now and then judge astonishes even
the Cinnamon themselves by the refinement
of his punishmentS. Instances are given |
where the fingers are wrapped in oiled rags
and burnt, and one magistrate, some time
ago, fastened two criminals to boards by
nails driven through their palms. Compel
ling men 10
RNHEL on POUNDED GLASS
is noted, and this kneeling on chains with
links as sharp as knives is common. VIII |
liams tells of a magistrate who put man
into a coffin and kept him there until he |
was suffocated and he gives the instance
OF Judge who used beds of iron, boiling |
water and rcd hot spikes in his cruelties. |
At Shanghai, was shown a wooden cage |
between five and six feet high, just high |
enough to enclose the body of man. 1t |
was made of four posts with thick board 1
set into the top. This board was made of !
two pieces, so arranged that it could be |
taken out, and a mans neck be enclosed in |
the hole it its centre. At the bottom it had /
cross bars several inches above the ground, |
and the top was so graduated that the man |
enclosed within 1t must stand upon his toes |
His hands were tied, and this torture is |
terrible In some instances, men are left to /
starYe to death in such cages, and this cage /
had contained a prisoner only a few DAYS |
before It had a piece of straw mating |
stretched over the top of it which the wife |
of the last criminal had put there to protect |
his bare head from the rays of the sun
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