The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-04-16
CHINESE CRUELTY.
Horrors of the Place of Public
 Exc cution.
The Terrible Butchery of Criminals Re- garded by the People as an Occasion for Joking and Rejoicing
 Work of the ueadsman.


 Some four years ago spent four days in Canton, the metropolis of southern China, on special mission to investigate Chinese justice, and the re- suits surpassed my most ghastly an ticipation, says writer Tn Harper's Weekly.
 What 1 witnessed was nothing un- usual, and is the daily practice of the country, but am compelled to tone down the details to make them pre-. sentable for publication. Nothing but the strongest spirit of inquiry, sup ported by an iron resolution, carried me through the horrors of those days, and for weeks afterward l suffered from perpetual nightmare.
 The place of execution, or "Matou," as it is called by the Chinese, is filthy yard, long and narrow, like blind alley, and, singularly enough, it is used as a potter's field when not re. quired for execution.
 On cold January afternoon pro- ceeded thithcr to witness the final re. lease of batch of poor wretches who had already undergone a prolonged course of torture.
 On this occasion the death squad consists of thirteen, who are tightly bound hand and foot and carried in, huddled up in baskets slung on bam- boo between two coolies. On arriving at the center of the ground these living loads are pitched out unceremoniously, and immediately seized by the eXecu- tioner and his assistants, who arrange them in two lines in kneeling posi- tion.
 At a nod from the presiding manda- rin, and with incredible swiftness, the butchery commences. The assistant seizes the first victim by the shoulders from behind, whHc the exccutioner steps up to his left side, armed with an enormously heavy short sword with a broad blade and q ra2orlike edge. With out any compulsion, the victim, still kneeling, bends his head forward, and almost instantaneously it leaps from his body, severed by one swift stroke. The assistant pushes the trunk over forward, and a shrill burst of approving "Hi-yahs" goes up from the crowd.
 After the uncertain and clumsy oper- ations of the medieval headsman, one had been led to suppose that human head required great deal of sever ance; but so adept arc the Chinese ex- ccutioners that they seem to display no more effort or emotion in cutting off a head than they would in looping Q poppy from its stalk.
 With fearful rapidity the slaughter proceeds, and not five seconds elapsc between the fall of each head. One unerring stroke ends each life, and the victims are so arranged that each can witness the fate of all those in front of him before his turn comes.
 The crowd is now in the most jovial humor, and signifies its light-hcarted enjoyment by ribald chaff at the cx- pense of the remaining victims, who frequently retort defiantly, and exhibit the most stolid indifference to their fate.
 Suddenly burst of merrimcnt arises in one corner. A portly merchant has approached too near, and his long white coat is splashed with blood. How the bystanders laugh! Was there ever such good joke!
 The last few heads are falling now, when my hand is plucked by an ex- cited youngster of ten, dancing with delight, who cries, eagerly: "Ho-tai?" Qsn't it beautifully l repress fierce desire to throttie him, and in few sec onds all is over. Justice is vindicated. and the crowd quickly disperses, all but the city ganins, who remain behind to rehearse t,se whole proceedings and to skylark witsl the bodies.
 Horrible thoaga thc sight has been. death bas, at any rate, being swift and mercifa1, but anet:ler day the supreme horror of Chinese justice is revealed to us.
 For certaia offenders, notably parri- cides and women who k'l their hus- bands, the penalty is the "Ling-chee," or thousand cuts" This is too ghastly for detailed description, but suffice it to say that the victim is first crucified to low cross, and then slowly sliced to pieces with knife.
 So skillful is tac cxecutioner that al. though his vio.iEa soon becomes un. recognizable as.a human being, yet no vital wound is inflicted till perhaps half an hour of this torture has elapsed, when the agony is ended by dccapita- tion.
 So superior an entertainment as this is naturally rewarded by full house, and even greater merriment prevails than at mere head-chopping displays, which savor somewhat of monotony to the blase Cantonese. 1 Men and Women Patrons.
 There is a great difference in men