The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-06
CHINESE PENAL PAINS.
and Prisons Alike a Dis
grace to the Celestial Land.
Satiosa; ignorance Governs All the Chi
nese Institutions. and Neither Decency
Nor Humanity Rave . Place In the
Treatment OF Sick or Sinful.


Treatment Of Sick or Sinful.
The Chinese people are lawabiding.
With those Of their own number who
are lawbreakers they have but little
sympathy. and the government has
none at all. l like China like the
Chinese. Moreover, respect them.
But in two details of their national
life they merit unqualified condemna-
ton. Their hospitals and their prisons
are unmitigated national disgraces. On
second thoughts, withdraw the word
unmitigated. The Chinese hospitals
through which / went were almost
everything that hospitals should not
be. But the patients themselves would
most strenuously have resented any i'm
provements along the line of their own
comfort. The savants Of China are held
back by the tAut ropes of public opin-
ion; they are enchained by the general
ignorance, as are their prototypes every
where else.
The deplorable condition of the
Chinese prisons is justified in the na-
tional philosophy. To the Chinese
mind law is thing to be obeyed.
A law concerns the millions and con-
serves the welfare of millions 1t
must be held inviolate by the indi-
v;dual, be his whim-his personal bent
whatever it may. The Chinaman who
disregards any item of the Chinese law
becomes social leper. Individual ten
dency, moral i'll health, inherited traits
-they.are takeninto 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 Chinaman is forgiven nothing be-,
cause 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
ChinaInan. Rank is nowhere more
~enerated than in China. Nowhere
does it secure to it's possessor more
benefits, more privileges, but it is not
inherited. 1t is conferred by the en-
peror-conferred for personal merit or
for personal achievement. No China
man is noble" except through per-
sonal fitness. There are. two excep-
tions to this rule-two only. The di-,
rect descendants of Confucius have q
rank of their own. 1t is q high rank.
It is respected. But it gives them no
power of interference with national
affairs. The descendants of an en-,
peror are never less than royal But
they have no necessary power. In
served according to his deserts" and it
is greatly to the national credit that
they who do not escape whipping
are so very few.
A Chinese prison is called "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. One 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 men. But the
women's quarters and the mems quar-
ters are alike 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. II their friends thrust
food to them through the bars of the
prison fence the law does not interpose.
Otherwise the prisoners may starve,
The law does not interpose.
used 10 take food to the Shanghai
prison yards. was not jeered at. A
Chinese crowd is, believe, incapable
of jeering at a woman. But was con-
demned for it. And a high Chinese
official demonstrated with my husband.
] used to buy Chinese food at cheap
chow-chow shop and when l reached
a prison fence hire coolic to feed the
poor starving wretches. l did not
quite 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. 1t is very
heavy. and gals the neck. 1t blisters
or ossifies the shoulders. The pig
ail"drags heavily over it,and pulls the
poor snlocked head uncomfortAbly to
one side. 1t prevents the hands from
lifting rice or water to the craving
mouth and from brushing from the
tingling nose one of the myriad insects
that infest the prisons and the prison
wards of China.
How She Knew.
Mr. Saplead during the honey.
mooa)-When did my little duckie
darling first discover that she loved