The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-20
CHINESE IDEAS OF HELL.
Vivid Models In a Buddhist Temple
to Impress the Living.
(English Illustrated MaGazine)

(English Illustrated MaGazine.)
All Cinnamon are by nature wicked. 1t
is well that they get to know in this life
exactly the sort of punishment that
awaits them IN the next. so they re-
ceive instruction by Dlaster-of-paris rep
resentation. At the temple at 1unnan-
Sen YOU can behold striking models Of
the Buddhist hells In other cities are
other hells. l took a grim denght visiting
them whenever L haG the chance. One
had the same sort OF clammy satisfaction
as one feels when. depressed and out OF
sorts. you go off TO the chamber OF nor
rorS at Nine. Tussauds 10 get cheered
up bit. 1t all depends what you've
been uo to on this earth whether your
punishment under the earth is to be
sawn in two or to be sCuashed in
clothespress.
Il each of the hells sit one or two. or
maybe three elders. They are big, grew
some, ffabby-faced and sht-eyed: gener-
ally of tarished gold and twice the size
OF an ordinary man. They're all relatives
you can tell that by the same stern, cal
lous. castiron sort of countenance they
possess; by the uniform shape of the
chin, mouth and nose; but, above all,
by the irradiatinS diaboiical glee that suf-
fuses every Stucco face. They sit on a
throne ana look fiXedly at the work of
the eSecutioners and the squirms of the
executed. The figures in the pit are
little under life-size. But there's plenty
of realism and piled-up horror. The imps
engaged in flaying, boring holes through
chests. hanging men up by the toes, and
generally making things lively. have gem
orally but one glltterlng eye stuck in
the center of coal-black head, the lower
part of which is literally half mouth.
stretching from ear to ear. Their laugh
IS Sometnlng to remember in your dreams,
so that you wake up in Il tit of cold per-
SEPARATION, yelling for it to be taken away.
There was a victim being crucifed, and
the impS were slowly shortening him at
the knees with d red-stained saw. Stand
ing in front of the wooden bars that pre-
vent the live public from coming in direct
contact with this particular he'll. were
TWO young men. mapping their long Chin
ese sleeves in agony of despair swinging
their pigtailS in dismay. while tears trick
led obllquely out of their almOnd-shaped
eyes because the monk at the entrance
TO the temple had told them that was
the exact fate of their old father at that
particular moment. They grOaned and
SObbed; then they got a gong and re-
lieved their sorrow by thwacking it: they
pushed a cup of rice and some hard-boiled
eggs through the bars as suStenance 10
their relative in his trials; then they paid
cash down for a big check that would he
dispatched that night 10 the neither re-
gions, 10 conciliate the elders and cease
the saving at the knees.
Before another he'll stood an old wonn-
an rather complacently watching folks
being thrown backward INTO cauldron
and then probed with pItchforks. sic
evidently had relatives IN he real place
for she was carving an armflII of nro-
pltlatory tapers. paper, gold and checks.
Then there was a place with a long stove
liht Il rec not kltCnen EIHSe. De1unCt.
and yet tolerably lively. mortalS were
sitting on the top tying themselves into
knots, while 4 number of brutes with
heads like bulls gloated leeringly The
elders in the adjoining place owned
perennial laugh, for the imps had men
by the heels and were dashing their heads
on stones. One man was being pressed
on a row of daggers
Next door several wicked Cinnamon had
fallen on spiked mountains and there
they were impaled and writhing. There
was lake with men struggling among
Shiny. dOuble-headed snakes; there were
several creatures hung up in the air with
a hook through their vertebrae. and quite
common We're the cases of evil-doers
swung b. the pigtails and being disem-
boweled. Certainly they're pretty ingen-
ious where the naughty Chinese go. If a
Celestial has a reprobate of sire he
does not talk to him for his good, but
takes him an afternoon stroll in the
kingdom of Below lets him see for him
self what's likely to happen in the UNI
comfortable by and by. and then hints
he doesn't think he'll be able to afford
the expense of buying the imps off If
that doesn't make Chinaman turn from
his wrongdoing and make him promise to
be better father henceforth. nothing
will.