Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-03
CHINESE JUSTICE.
The Native Avoids The Courts, and He
Has Sufficient Reason.

From the China Gazette (shanghaD.
There is a remarkable contrast In China
compared with the west to the indlffer-
ence which is shown against attacks on
property, especially in the towns, ~ the
whole population as far as they are not
Greet sufferers. With us the cry stop
thiefr' finds most people ready to assist
the injured persons and help In the arrest
Of the thief the Chinaman. on the con-
trary, shows not only great Indifference,
but even disaT pears rapidly as possible
from the scene OF action. On one hand
it Is always consider ed dangerous to make
an enemy of the thief; on the other. to be
witness IN criminal Gaze is nearly as
bad AS to be the accused himself. A witness
is thrown into prison, bled to the last
farthing by turkeys and runners, and
is finally / ,aten to remind him that he
has to speak the truth. The more serious
case the moro rapidly everybody hastens
away, in order to avoid being implicated.
The distrust in the administration of
Justice IS deeply rooted in the minds OF
the penpl.' I'm life beware Of yamens.
in death of hell" IS one proverb. Cash
for runners and cash for clerks" is an
other. IF but word CT information
against man get into tho court, nine
ming cat you lose a cow" IF one fam
lily has law suit ten families are
involved in calamity" Tigers and SER
penis are better than Judges and run
show how the Chinese think about the Of
ficials and their doings.
The fact that any one who falls into the
clutches OF the courts of justice saves gen.
orally little more than his bare life has
given rise to singular customs. People
who seek revenge upon others commit
suicide In such a manner to involve
their enemy in n criminal case, out of
which he energies, If at all. as a ruined
man. A beygar to whom aims are refused
hangs himself at the shutter Of the shop
where this has happened a debtor of
whom his creditor demands payment kills
himself, laying his suicide at the door of
the latter. and the ruin of the person SO
accused is certain.
PeriIs of Arrest.
Some years ago at Picking two persons
qrarreled about a debt Of little more than
80 cents. The debtor, IN his rage, jumped
from bridge into a dry canal, and injured
his spine very severely. Some foreigners
who happened to pass at the time had
him carried to hospital kept by mis-
siOnaries from which, however, he was
removed by his family, as the complaint
against the other man might not have been
accepted If he had died there. The in
tured man, the lower part of whose body
was completely paralyzed, was carried
back to the bridge, the scene of the orig
inal quarrel, and there deposited under
an improviSed mat shed; two days later
he killed himself by ripping open his belly
with a piece Of the pot in which his fam
lily had sent his food. The creditor,
though entirely innocent, was arrested,
and died in prison.
The concubine of a rich man died sud-
denly. and 1t was rumored that she had
taken poison in order to escape ill-treat-
ment from the mother of her master. Some
days before her burial two persons who
declared themselves to be relatives Of the
deceased called upon the man for the pay
ment Of a large sum. threatening that il
this demand were refused they would
lay the matter before the authorities. No
Eotice having been taken of their threats
they stopped the funeral procession a few
days later at the moment when it was
passing before the police station at the
Hata gate. The coffin was laid under
mat shed on the roadside, complainants
and accused sent to prison and some time
after post-mortem held on the body by
female coroners. Five or six months later
Judgment was rendered. the accusers con-
demned to Punishment and hard labor
for life, and the accused liberated, but the
family was ruined.
At the Mercy of JailOrs.
G. Stent gives a very amusing and faith
full description of a similar case In his
translation Of the Chinese ballad:
DON'T MAKRY A WIDOW.
Having vented her rage in this terrible
style,
She smiled on her work demonIac smile;
And while l stood there contemplating the
wreck,
She ran off and hung herself up by the
neck.
/ wrote to her friends of her felo de Sc.
They came, and, Of course. laid the blame
upon me;
They rushed Off at once to the magis-
trates court,
And made of the case a most awful report.
1 bribed right and left-the magistrate
He was bad. 1 admit, but he wasn't the
worst;
His lictors and runners and writers-what
Soon managed to fleece me Of all that I'd
got.
Fields, gardens and orchards-in short, my
All went-my two carriages shared the
same fate;
My three mules my donkey, pigs, fowls,
ducks and geese
I sold, In the hope their proceeds would
Twas settled at last. but found to my
cost
In gaining the case I'd my property lost.
The reason why the Imprisonment dur
ing the trial-and 1t is the only one the
Chinese criminal code knows-produces
such far-reaching effects. lies in the fact
that the prisoners are handed over to the
tender mercies of the jailers without any
means of help or redress. There are only
common cells. in each of which a number
OF prisoners are kept confined often chain
ed together, the stencil and filth in these
VI HOiTOTS making them unit
for human beings even in the lowest state
of degradation, and little or no food is
doied out to the prisoners, who have to
provide for their own sustenance. Every
deviation from these rules separation from
the other prisoners, a private room, and
better food have to be paid for, and the
richer the prisoner the higher the price
which is demanded. When Chunghow, the
former Chinese minister to Russia, was
inpeached for the conclusion of the treaty
of Livadia and thrown into prison it was
said that the first week Of confinement
had cost him $1,000 taels, and nobody
found tho statement improbable or incredi-
BILE.
The picture drawn here and elsewhere
OF the Chinese administration Of Justice is
very sad and dark ono. but We ought
not to forget that We were hardly better
off in Europe less than a century ago.
What dens of misery We're the prisons for
criminals and even those for debtors not
to speak of the HOSPITALS! Was not tor
tIre. in it's most horrible FORMS of daily
legal USE and did not the punishments IN
ficted by European judges surpass In cruel
ty anything ever invented by the inge-
nuity Of the Chinese?
The People Victoria Likes,
From the Woman at Home.
Although 1t has freouentlv haon .,ot.o