Times-promoter. (Hernando, DeSoto County, Miss.) 1898-1970, 1909-07-01
cHINAMAN NOT TO BE TRUSTED
Comes Of Race Noted for Cruelty. Which
Holds Woman in Contempt.

Chinese has arisen to say that, as a
rule, the Chinese in this country are
harmless and inoffensive, and that the
only crimes of violence they do are
crimes against their own countrymen.
Permit me to call your attention to
the fact that from time immemorial
the Chinese have been known as the
cruelest race on earth, the only race
that invariably looks upon human suf-
fering with ,callous Indifference.
AS torturers today, the Chinese have
no equal, nor has there ever lived,
within historical times, people who
have carried the science of inflicting
physical suffering to the degree that
the Chinese have.
One of the commonest forms of pun
ishment applied for offenses of a really
trifling character, such as disrespect to
superiors, and discussion of govern
ment that borders on the seditious, is
the Ii chez, or death by one thousand
cuts.
In infiicting this punishment, the ex-
ecutor, under penalty of punishment
himself. is compelled to slice one thou
sand pieces of the victims body with
out bringing death, and when the poor
wretch, who is really fayed alive, is
left in the sun to. die by the stings of
insects and the frightful pains Of iiis
wounds.
In China debtors, for trifin g
amounts, are placed in bamboo cages
and hung suspended until their debt
is satisfied or death supervenes, and
no food or water is given to them, ex-
cept by the charity of passersby.
Petty delinquents are punished by
having the neck encircled in huge
wooden yoke called a caique, which
makes it impossible for them to lie
down, and in what are considered Sc
rious cases, such ssthe destruction Of
government property, the victim is
killed by being kept without sleep.
In some cases the victim is inocu-
lated with the germs of certain dread
full diseases.
Among even the enlightened and ed
ucated Chinese, it is almost an inva-
riable practice to abandon the one not
expected to live. Even in the United
States of America, where there are
large bodies of Chinese dwelling, it is
the custom to remove the dying to
what is euphemistically called the Hall
of Tranquility, generally, a subterran-
can vault, where, without water, food
or attention, the victim suffers the
death agonies alone. :
Even in the treaty ports. where the
British residents are supposed to keep
an eye on things, infanticide is regu-
lar practice. Perhaps in many cases
the mother is not SO much to blame for
this as Western people would think,
and what appears to be a barbarity is,
under Chinese conditions an act of in
finite mercy.
The great Emperor Kwang, angered
at the stubborn resistance to his forces
made by the maritime provinces, pass
ed an edict which stands unrepealed
to this day, that all of the women of
those provinces were from birth de-
prived of all rights. They were made
by this edict in law members of the
most shameful profession; they We're
made the property of their husbands
or fathers, and could be sold in sla-
very from one to another without
right of appeal or protest. Any form
of punishment or brutality which the
slave owner, whether faqher or pur-
chaser, chooses to infict, is legal and
unpunishable.
Taught from earliest childhood to re-
gard woman as an unspeakable thing,
is tito be wondered at that the Chinese
in the United States who mostly come
from the maritime provinces, hold all
women utter contemptexcepting for
the value they may possess as human
chattels?
Many years. journalistic experience
naturally brings one into contact with
much of the seamy side of life. Crimes
committed with peculiar atrocity are
unfortunately not uncommon in the
United States, but the most fendish
crime have ever heard Of was COM
mitted by Chinaman in California
some years ago.
He was cook and general servant
for an old couple living on farm in