The St. Johns herald., 1894-03-15
CHINESE PENAL PAINS.
Hospitals and Prisons Alike a Dis
 grace to the Celestial Land
National Ignorance Governs All the Chi nese Institutions, and Neither Decency Nor Humanity Have Place m 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 I like China. I like the 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 disgraces. On second thoughts, I withdraw the word unmitigated. The Chinese hospitals through which I 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
  A law concerns the millions and con- serves the welfare of millions. It must be held inviolate by the indi- vidual, be his whim-his personal bent whatever it may. The Chinaman who disregards any item of the Chinese law becomes a social leper. Individual ten dency, moral i'll health, inherited traits. -theyare taken into account not at all. This is cruel? Yes! But it renders existence possible in the overdensity of Chinese population, writer in the Pall Mall Budget says.
 A Chinaman is forgiven nothing be- cause of his ancestry, nor does he sui 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 venerated than in China. Nowhere does it secure to its possessor more benefits, more privileges, but it is not inherited. It is conferred by the em- 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 a rank of their own. It is high rank. It is respected. But it gives them no power of interference with national affairs. The descendants of an em- peror are never less than royal. But they have no necessary power. In brief, then, in China "every man is served according to his deserts" and it is greatly to the national credit that they who do not "'scape whipping" are so very few.
 A Chinese 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. 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 noth- 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 interpose. Otherwise the prisoners may starve. The law does not interpose.
 used to take food to the Shanghai prison yards. I was not jeered at. A Chinese crowd is, I believe, incapable of jeering at woman. But was con- demned for it. And a high Chinese. official demonstrated with my husband used to buy Chinese food at a cheap chow-chow shop and when I reached prison fence hire a coolie to feed the poor starving wretches. I 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. It is very heavy, and gals the neck. It blisters or ossifies the shoulders. The ''pig- tail 'drags heavily over it,and pulls the poor enloclzed head uncomfortably to I one side. It 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 yards of China.