The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1895-04-12
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 n Place IN the
Treatment of Sick or Sinful,


The Chinese people are lawabiding.
With those of their own numoer who
are lawbrealers 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-
tion. 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 inn
provements along the line of their own
comfort. The savants of China are held
back by the tdut ropes of public opin-
ion; they are enchained by the general
ignorance, asare 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 obeyed.
A law concerns the millions and con-
serves the welfare of millions. 1t
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
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
Chinaman. Rank is nowhere more
venerated 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 mobile" 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 high rank.
1t 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
brief, then, in China every man is
served according to his deserts" and I,
is greatly to the national credit that
they who do not escape whipping
are so very few.
A Chinese prison is calleda ''cangue.
Its 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. 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. l was not ieered at. A
Chinese crowd is, | believe. incapable
of jeering at woman. But | was con-
demned for it, And high Chinese
officialremonstrated with my husband.
used to buy Chinese food at cheap
chow-chow shop and when | reached
a prison fence hire eoolie to feed the
poor starving wretehes. 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 ossifes the shoulders. The pig
tail'drags heavily over it.and pulls the
poor enloclxed 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
yards of China.