The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-09-20
CRUELTY.
Terrible PunIshments In Vogue In the In
terror of China.

Terrible Punishment In Vogue In the In
terior of China.
A look at the Picking Gazette gives
some idea of the terrible punishmen1
In vogue in the interior OF China.
While / was in the country | noted 3
number of items stating that such q
man had been killed by the slow pro-
cess. / asked what this was, and was
told that it consisted OF slicing him to
death. / afterward met al English mill
itary officer at Hong Kong who had seen
a criminal sliced. He said:
81 was on q roof outside the execution
grounds, and there was such a crowd
around that I could not get away. 1t
took a full half hour to cut the man to
pieces. He was tied on a cross such as
YOU NAV see in every execution grounds.
and the cutting was done with a sword.
The first cut sliced off the checks, and
then a moment later the eyebrows were
ont of. The next cut took out the
muscles between the hand and the
| elbow, and as 1901 as this was done the
arteries were tied up. in order that the
man might not bleed to death too
quickly. and thus not feel the rest OF
the slicing. Then the flesh OF the
thighs and the calves Of the legs were
cut, and the last cut removed the head
from the body. The man was gagged
and he could not cry out. His whole
BODY seemed to be in a continued con-
~yulsion OF pain, and his face at the end
Of the first cut was horrible. After this
I could not see his features, for a fan
was held before them by an assistant
of the executioner. Such executions
take place in case OF parricides or matri'
cides, and the worst thing a man can dc
in China Is to kill his father or mother.
Insanity is no excuse for crime In
China, and a man was sliced to death
whom the courts declared was mad dur
ing my stay in China. The hanging o.
a man by the thumbs is a common mean:
of Chinese punishment, II 1t is not un
common to tie a man by his wrists OF
his toes to make him confess. The use
of the cangue l nave already described
in these letters. The cangue is \ heav.
board about four feet square with a hol'
lust large enough around in the cente,
to admit the neck of a man. 1t is made
4 of two pieces, and Is locked togethe
r about the criminals neck. You se'
people all over China wearing thes'
cangues, and in nearly every city l Wis
tied | saw one or more criminals will
I these wooden collars. In some case
the were loaded with iron, ant
/ saw some between the boards of whicl
Q we're great iron bars which made thu
collars weigh as much as n hundret
pounds, and which l was told whom tn,
prisoner received q long sentence FIRE
'-auently caused their death. / am toll,
that It Is not for some Oh
nese judges to wrap the fingers OF Grim
n inals with cotton, and then to set tn
cotton on fire, and one of the most hoI
IS rible punishments have heard Of
70 that Of the living bamboo. The bambo
B. Is a good deal like Jonah's gourd O
10 Jacks bean stalk. 1t grows very fasi
% and mon are sometimes tied over ban
B! boo shoot 80 that the plant plows II
y. way through their bodies. The stor
D. sounds rather Hshy, but | have see
d, such horrible things in hin that l al
g. ready to believe any thing.-F. g.. Cal
10 penter, in National Tribune.