The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1894-08-03
CHINESE PENAL PAINS.
Hospitals and Prisons Alike a Dis
grace to the Celestial Land
National Ignorance Governs All the Chi
nese Institutions, aud Neither Deeeney
Nor Humanity Have a Place IN the
Treatment OF SEX or sinful.


The Chinese people are lawabiding.
With those Of their own number who
are lawbreallers they have but little
sympathy, and the government has
none at all. l like China. | like tho
Chinese. Moreover, ! respect them.
But in two details of their national
life they merit unqualified condemna-
tion. Their hospitals and their prisons
are unmitigated national disgraees. On
second thoughts. withdraw the word
unmitigated, The Chinese hospitals
through which l went were almost
everything that hospitals should not
be. But the patients themselves would
most strenuously have resented any inn
provcments along the line of their own
comfort. The savants Of China are held
back by the tdut ropes of public opin-
ion: they are enehaired by the general
ignorance, as are their prototypes every
where else.
The deplorable condition of the
Chinese prisons is justified in the ma
tional philosophy. To the Chinese
mind law is thing to be obeycd,
A law concerns the millions and con.
serves tie welfare of millions 1t
must be held inviolato by the indi-
vidual. be his whim-his personal bent
whatever it may The Chinaman who
disrcgards any item of the Chinese law
becomes q social lepor, Individual ten
deney, moral i'll health. inherited traits
they are taken into account not at all.
This is cruel? Yes! But it renders
existence possible in the overdensity
/ of Chinese population, q writer in the
Pail Mall budget says.
A Chinainan Is forgiven nothing be-
cauee of his ancestry, nor does he suf-
fer for that ancestry FROM the mo-
ment of his birth each Chinaman has
an equal chance with every other
Chinaman. Rank is nowhere more
veneratcd than in China. Nowhere
does it secure to its possessor more
benefits, more privileges, but it is not
inherited 1t is conferred by the en-
peror-confcrrcd for personal merit or
| for personal achievement. No China
man Is mobile" except through per-
sonal fitness. There are two excep-
tions to this rule-two only. The di-
rect descendants of Confucius have u
rank of their own. 1t is high rank.
1t is respected. But it gives them no
power of Interference with national
affairs. The defendants of an en-
peror arc never less than royal. But
they have no necessary power. In
brief, then, in China "cvcry man is
served according to his deserts" and y
is greatly to the national credit that
they who do not " Escape whipping"
are so very few.
AChinesc prison is calleda "cangue." :"
It's outer door is barred with bamboo,
and is guarded by petty soldiers or
policemen. The 'cangue' contains
two rooms and two yards. Une room
and one yard are for men. The other
room and yard are for women. The
space set apart for women is very much
smaller than that for mon. But the
women's quarters and the mems quar-
ters are alilSc in being entirely devoid
of any provision for personal comfort,
or for personal decency.
Chinese prisoners are by the govern
ment provided with absolutely moth
ing but the space beyond which they
may not pass. If their friends thrust
food to them through the bars Of the
prison fence the law does not intcrpose,
Otherwise the prisoners may starve.
The law does not interpose.
used to take food to the Shanghai
prison yards. l was not jeercd at. A
| Chinese crowd is, l believe, incapable
Of jeering at a woman. But | was con-
demnel for it. And high Chinese
official demonstrated with my husband.
| | used to buy Chinese food at q cheap
ehow-ehow shop and when | reached
prison fence hire q coolie to feed the
/ poor starving wrctchcs. / did not
quito care to feed them myself. And it
was quite impossible for them to feed
themselves No Chinese prisoner can
reach his own mouth, for his neck is
/ invaribly locked into board which is
about three feet square. it IS very
heavy, and calls the neck. It blisters
or ossidcs the shoulders. The pig
tail"drags heavily over it,Gnd pulls the
poor cnloel5ed head uncom 'ortably to
one side. 1t prevents the hands from
/ lifting rice or water to the craving
mouth and from brushing from the
! tingling nose ono Of the rnyriad insects
that inicst tho prisons ana the prison
yards Of China.