The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1895-01-23
DECAPITATlONS In CHINA,
HOW CoNvICTs ARE BEHEADED
ACCORDING TO CHINESE Law.
Sign of the Red Cross-Formidable
Sword Welded by the Execution
cr-Strangling a Prisoner.

Slgn OF the Red Cross-Formtdable
Sword Welded by the Execution
er-Strangling a Prisoner.
HHE execution of the two
Japanese spies whom we
Americans delivered up to
g the Chinese, and the decapi-
tatioD of a man of.war's captain ac-
cused of cowardice in the sea fight off
Ping Yang, we're recent notable in
stances of the use of the headsmans
sword here In China, writes Julian
Ralph in Harper's Weekly. There
have been other beheadings, for Of
fences growing out of the war and for
the ordinary criminal offences, and
these have lent a new interest to the
subject, even to foreigners resident in
China, who frequently read of such
punishment, but seldom witness them
or hear them described. 1 have been
so fortunate as to fall in with dis
tinguished European who witnessed
the legal slaughter of a number of
criminals in Pekin. The account he
has given me of what he saw is SO un-
like the popular idea of the methods
of justice here that 1 have written
down the substance Of it,
''The official on duty on the morn
ing of which l speak, having reached
the mat shed, clothed in all the glory
of a mandarin's dress-button, neck
lace, breast-cloth, and nll-ordered
the men brought before him one by
one. The law says that in such cases
the condemned men shall admit their
guilt, and ask that punishment be no
longer deferred. Like almost all good
law and almost all good logic in China,
this regulation is turned into mere
ceremony and pretence. The prison
ers neither say nor do anything, but a
man who stands behind each one
pushes him over, bumps his head on
the ground and says, Vow. This
word, or one with that sound, means
Il want, and the presiding mandarin
understands it to have been uttered by
the prisoner, and to mean, Il want to
be punished. While the official ticks
off the mans name upon the list be-
fore him, the man is pressed down
upon the ground and a red cross is
painted on his neck. This is done in
order that the right head may be fitted
upon the right body after wards, il
proof of the mans death is required
for official entry.
''The prisoner thus painted is pulled
away TO the execution ground, where
the headsman is heating his swords in
great caldron of hot water. The
swords are rather more like knives
than swords. Each is a yard il
length, half an inch thick at the edge
and an inch and half or two inches
thick at the back. If you should wel(
together nine or ten of our heavies
axes, one laid beyond the other, yoI
would make something like one 0
these knives. The victim is laid upoI
his face, and his legs are tied together
A long piece of whip-cord is loope'
under the mans jaw and tied into hi
pigtail. So much of its free end i
left that two men so off with it to
distance and pull on it with all thei
might, while third one sits on tn
condemned mans back. The execu
tioner seizes knife and stands owe
the victim, whose neck is seen to pul
out-and out-and out. The knit
falls, the head is severed, and FIRE
quently the men who are pulling tn
whip-cord fall backward and roll hal
over, like tumblers in circus. TIL
executioner picks up the head >
holds it towards the marsoi'' you
looks at it carelessly Ill sic one
makes a mark 2.
front of him, Aid-of-water (placidly)
he. .se sre fat dog on big Iniun;
a1m heap glad. Judge.