Albuquerque morning journal., 1921-02-28
INSTRUMENTS Of
TORTURE SEEN BY
HUNT AND PARTY
Former Governor of Arizona
Writes About Siam: Sword
Is Used to Kill Men Sen
fenced to Death.
tBy INC Associnted Pressl


prescott. Ariz., Feb. 27-The
sword Is still used to dispatch men
convicted in capital crimes in Siam
and decapitation is the means of
carrying out the mandate that a
man shall pay with his life, accord
ing to letter from former GOV.
w. p. Hunt, now United States
minister to Siam. received here.
Concerning his recent trim to
horat' siam, in search of trees and
plants TO be used in relief of len
rosy, the governor wrote;
"Korat is situated on the table
land OF northeast siam, one If tha
most forbidding places in the
world. 1t covers many millions ~
acres of land, all in the tropics and
heariy all jungle. Owing to certain
physlcal reasons, no air currents
reaeh this section and it is one of
the hottest places in the world. In
TINS dense jungle the tiger, ele-
phant and many species of poison
Gus snakes live and no doubt win
continue in a wild state until the
end OF time. Korat is about thirty
miles from where the wild ele-
phants still roam. monarchs of all
they survey.
We We're the only white people
In that town, and when We went
out crowds of people followed rs
for some distance. No doubt il
was the first time some of them
mad ever seen a white skin. While
there ! inspected the prison. Korat
Is the capital of the state. or mon
then as they call ii here. We went
INTO the prison without any formal
lty, and found it rather primitive.
surrounded by walls on which are
the guards station towers. They
climb up on crude ladders which
are taken away as soon as thew 90
on guard. After the inspection thev
showed with a great deal of pride
the Old Instruments of torture that
We're used years ago. / have seen
the Old instruments of torture in
the tower of London, but in this
out of the way place / have seen
some of the most cruel things Of
torture | have come across. As
they took pride in showing us the
discarded instruments of torture I
realized prison reform had arrived
in Siam. for if they used them they
would not be shown with much
pride. They told me it was many
years since they had been used.
"The first instrument of torture
shown us was a great bamboo ball
with spikes driven into it. The
victim was put inside this ball and
then the elephants rolled it along.
and in this manner the victim was
mpaled until he died. This exhi-
bition was done in full view of the
populace to impress them as they
10 in Arizona and elsewhere when
hey hang a man. Then two mar
'ow boxes resembling coffins hav-
ng two small holes in them where
he victim was placed and slowly
iuffOcated. Another instrument of
horror was large iron hook which
was fastened to the lower jaw of
he victim. When the victim was
hooked he was hauled up with a
'ope, and as his weight came on
he rope the hook pierced his lower
aw and came out his mouth and
lie was left to die a slow death. An
,ther instrument was made of two
)amDOO pOleS winch We're faStene1
,ver the head and when they were
PRESSED together they pierced the
emples.
Next we were shown the mod
,rn instrument, the sword, to de-
,apitate the victim, and as this
country still has capital punish-
nent that is the method of dispos-
ng of those condemned to die.
"They have about one execution
month here in Bangkok.
"The headsman is. l believe, con-
ined to one family, and he gets 40
icals, about s16, if he cuts the
read clean off with the first blow,
,ut if it takes two strokes he re-
eives very much less, so they gem
rally take the head off with the
irst stroke"