The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-10-10
decapitated for their crimes. The

decapitated for their crimes. They
are. only cut into two pieces, how
ever, and the law provides that their
bodies need not lie on the. execution
grounds longer than two days before
their relatives can take them away
and bury them. The thief, when he
is first taken, is Aogged by the off,
GERS. He is then asked as to bis
crime, and after this is taken to the
house of the Judge. The Judge de-
mands what he has done with the
property, and if the thief replies that
it has been sold and gives the name
of the party who has it, it is con-
iscated. He is then taken to jail and
kept there for 100 days. At the end
of this time the police give him the
option of life or death. If he accepts
life he becomes servant of the jail
for the rest of his existence; If death,
he is strangled.
The strangling is done in curious
way. There is a hole in the door of
the cell just largo enough for piece
of rope about the size of clothes
line to pass through. A moose is made
at the end of the rope, and this moose
is placed around the criminals neck.
The other end of the rope is put
through the hole in the door or the
wall, and the police pull at the rope
until they bring the mans. chest and
neck above and below the hole and
until the neck breaks and the man is
dead. The question as to whether o
thief be strangled or decapitated de-
/ pends upon the nature of the offense.
Strangling is much the more respec.
| table way of dying. Sometimes this
is brought about by hanging. The
thief's neck and hands are tied to o
post, 80 that his feet are some dis
tance above the ground. About his
ankles stout rope is then fastened,
| and to the end of this stone, several
times as heavy as his body, is hung.
OF course the man dies.
Another method of execution is by
| sufocation, and this, strange to say,
is done with paper. The man is laid
fiat upon his back, and a sheet of Ko'
rean paper is spread over his face.
This has been soaked in water and fits
| over the mans face, being pressed
down 30 that it makes veritable
death mask, shutting out every bit of
air, and the man dies. Any one who
has seen the paper of Korea will ap-
preciate how easily this form Of death
could be carried out. 1t Is made by
hand. It is as thick as sheet of
blotting paper and almost as strong as
leather. When moisture is applied to
it it becomes exceedingly soft, but
does not loose its strength, and it
would make an excellent molding ma
terial.
was told of O curious custom as to
policemen who make false arrests,
They are terribly punished, and if
something similar was adopted as to
our American Sheriffs there would be
fewer mistakes made. The Korean
policeman who arrests a man as thief
when he knows him to be innocent is
liable to be caught by the mans family,
and his eyes may be burned out by
them with red hot pokers or iron chop
sticks which havs been heated in the
Goals. HIS eyes have not seen truly
in arresting the wrong man, and it is
thought to be just that they be put
out. Another way of performing this
punishment is by laying the police
man on the ground with his face up
ward. A tube of bamboo, just about
one inch in thickness and as long as q
pencil, is fitted over the eye, and the
other end of it is pounded with NAL
let until the eyes are squeezed up into
the bamboo tubes. Such cases are
not common. but policeman who in