The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1895-11-22
CHINESE PENAL PAINS.
Hospitals and Prieons Alike Q Dis
grace 80 the Celestial Land
National Ignorance Govsrns All the Chi
nese Institutions. and Neither DeceBcy
Nor Humanity Have q Place N the
Treatment OF Sick or sinful.

The Chinese people are lawabiding.
With those of their own number who
are lawbrcakers they have but little
s.r3path-. and the government has
none at all ( like China. 1 like tine
Chinese. Moreover, ! respect them.
But in two details of their national
life they merit unqualified condemna-
tion. Their hospitals and theirprisons
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 i'm
provements along the line of their own
comfort. The savants of China areheld
back by the tAut ropes of public opin-
ion; they are enehained by the general
ignorance. as are their prototypes every
where else.
The depiorable condition of the
Chinese prisons is justified in the ma
tional philosophy. To the Chinese
mind a law is thing to be obeyed.
A law concerns the millions and con-
serves the welfare of millions. Ii
must be held inviolate by the indi-
vidual, be his whim-his personal bent
whatever it may. The Chinaman who
disregards any item of Che Chinese law
becomes social leper. Individual ten
dency, moral i'll health, inherited traits
they are taken into account not at all.
This is cruel? Yesl 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 its 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 a
rank of their own. 1t is a 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 ne necessary power. In
brief, then, in China "every man is
served according to his deserts, and II
is greatly to the national credit that
they who do not Escape whipping
are so very few.
Chinese prison is calleda "cangue. "
Its outer door is barred with bamboo,
and is guarded by petty soldiers OF
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 thrus
food to them through the bars of tn,
prison fence the law does not interpose
Otherwise the prisoners may starve
The law does not interpose.
used to take food to the Shangha
prison yards. l was not jeered at. A
Chinese crowd is, / believe, incapable
of ieering at woman. But / was con
demned for It, And a high Chimes,
official demonstrated with my husband
used to buy Chinese food at a cheaI
chow-ehow shop and when | reached
a prison fence hire a coolie to feed thu
poor starving wretches. l did no
| quite care to feed them myself, And i
was quite impossible for them to feeC
| themselves. No Chinese prisoner car
reach his own mouth, for his neck il
invaribly locked into board which i
about three feet square. 1t is yer.
heavy, and gals the neck. 1t blister
or ossifes the shoulders. The pig
tail 'drags heavily over it,and pulls th'
poor enlocked head uncomfortably t,
one side. Il prevents the hands from
lifting rice or water to the craving
mouth and from brushing from th'
tingling nose one of the myriad insect
that infest the prisons and the prisol
| yards of China.