The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-10

Annston, June 9.-(Special )-Dr. T. W. Ayers, whose letters from China have been greatly enjoyed, continues his dis cussion of the Chinese mandarins in a letter received today.
 Dr. Ayers writes from Hwanghien, in North China. The city has a population exceeding 100000, and was founded before Christ. In view of this fact, the state ment of Dr. Ayers that only two men have been killed by robbers in that time is considered remarkable.
 His letter in part is as follows:
 "I was impressed a few nights ago that the mandarins in China have their troubles as well as other people. While they have the right to have beaten any person in their jurisdiction without really trial yet the mandarins are held re- sponsble for all the crimes committed in their jurisdiction to the extent that the people have the right to report them to the higher officials for carelessness or incompetency, and when the people of county say an official Is bad it leaves him without face and frequently leads to his suspension, or results in his being given a place in another county which pays him less money.
 '"The people have no voice in the selec- tion of their officials, but by protest sometimes have some influence in the removal of an official.
 "A few nights ago a robber entered one of the business houses in the city here and shot and stabbed the proprietor and carried away about 800 silver dollars. The mandarin was notified. and with guard of soldiers soon appeared upon the IT.. e.. f1 nNad wounded man, but when l reached him he was in a dying condition and soon passed away. His home was in the coun- try, and as soon as his family arrived they went to the "yamon,'' police head quarters, and called for the mandarin and demanded that he have the robber ar rested, charging that if the mandarin had been faithful in the discharge of his duties a crime like this would never have been committed. The mandarin had no face as the robber had escaped He realized that he must do something to appease the family of the deceased. So he brought in two constables and had them beaten for failing to arrest the robber This is said to be the second man ever killed by a robber in Hwans- hien. China, and has attracted much at tention.
 "The arrestng officers here are indeed bad set. The officials act on the idea that it requires a thief to catch thief, and nearly all the arresting officers are men who have been punished for crime. It is their duty to arrest criminals, and if they fail to do 1t, they must suffer. Frequently in cases of stolen goods the arresting officers have to pay the value of the goods stolen if they fail to arrest the thief and recover the goods. It is true that the officials here can largely suppress crime by strict vigilance, which is also true in other countries.
 q had a striking Illustration of this a few years ago. The hospital had been broken into and goods stolen on four different occasions during a period of two ,nonths. I reported each case to the mandarin. and he made the arresting of- ficers each time pay for the value of the goods stolen. I insisted that this was not what I wanted. and I wanted the thieves arrested and the crime stopped. After the fourth time I reported the case