Connecticut western news., 1889-04-17
BURNED ALIVE.
A Savage Punishment for Stealing
 Revived in China.

The Peking (China) Oticial Gazette gives the following report of the bar barous punishment for theft in Yunnan and the death penalty dealt out to two men responsible for the victims fate:
 The Governor of Yunnan states that in some of the country districts of that province the villagers have horrible custom of burning to death any man caught stealing corn or fruits in the fields. They at the same time compel the mans relatives to sign Q document giving their consent to what is done and then make them light the fire with their own hands, so as to deter them from lodging a complaint afterward. Sometimes the horrible penalty is ex acted for the breaking of single branch or stalk, or even false accusations are made and men put to death out of spite. This terrible practice, which seems in credible when heard, came into use during the time of the Yunnan rebel lion, and the constant efforts of the au- thoritieshave not succeeded in extirpa ting 1t since. Last autumn case of the kind occurred in the Oh 'uching Pre- lecture. One evening a man named Peng Choa-sheng was going down to watch his own field. His path led him along the side of Q patch of maize be- longing to another man. As he passed he pulled off head of corn. The owner saw him and shouted out, upon which he dropped the corn and fled. The owner went and told his landlord, upon which the latter proposed that the pill ferer should be burned.
 The two men having agreed, next morning they laid the matter before an assembly of the villagers. As the mat ter was so trifiing, some advised that it should be let drop, but their opinion was not listened to. On the following day the two men seized their victim and bound him. The poor mans mother came with all her relatives and begged for mercy. She offered to make atone ment by forfeiting the whole of her property to the community, but all she could say was of no avail. The men re- fused to give way, and ordered her to give her consent to the murder in writ ing, threatening her that otherwise they would put her to death also. Overcome by fear she asked a stranger, travelling doctor, who cannot be identified, to write the required paper for her. They then piled up a heap of brushwood i'll an empty place outside the village, and tue next day at noon carried the man out laid him bound upon it. The wo- man was compelled to set fire to the faggots, and her son was burned to death.
 Afterward, as soon as she could, she stole away to the town and gave infor- nation to the authorities. The two men were immediately arrested. One of them, the landlord, died ill prison; but the other was sent to the provincial cap ital for trial. Tho Memoralist finds that in the fifteenth year of Ch'ien Lung, A. D. 1750, at the request of the Gov ernor of Szechuen, it was decreed that in the case of any person being burned to death by body of men, the princi- pal offender should be executed by the lingering process and the participants in the crime be beheaded. The land lord, who in this case was the principal, has already diod His fellow offender has been condemned to immediate de capitation, and tho sentence has been carried into effect without delay.