WESTERN VENGEANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

WESTERN VENGEANCE.

EXECUTION OF ANTI-FOREIGN CHI

NESE OFFICIALS.

A TERRIBLE SCENE

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, May IT.

"Scarcely a day passes now which has not Its complement of executions," writes Mi Angus Hamilton, the war correspondent ot the- "I'uii Mall Gazette" in China, from Peking on March Ist, in his graphic description of the beaeadliig of the two notorious officials, Chi Shiu und Shi-Cheng-Y*i, prominent supporters ot the anti-foregn movement, and primarily responsible for man}' of the more abominable outrages perpetrated aguinst Europeans in Peking. The execution took place at 8 o'clock, in the vegetable market, which has been the execution ground since the establishment of the dynasty and which is surrounded by shops of. some pretension. The market was crowded and In an uproar; at 10 o'clock the people were already standing in the neighbouring alleys closely packed—a screaming, jabberlug crowd of Celestial sight-seers. People scrambled to the roofs of the houses, conducting animated discussions with those below them who were neither so fortunate nor so energetic. The cuke-sellers sold their cakes, Chinese street acrobats cleared spaces for their tumblings, conjurors bewildered ■'hundreds with their sleight-of-hand, and as ouo looked upon the happy, laughing gathering it was impossible to believe that a crowd which had gathered for the purpose of watching the deaths of two people could be so easily amused. From the beginning until the end the atmosphere of the place suggested rattier the preparation for a carnival than the elements of a funeral.

In the centre of the crowd was a small opeu space, which was kept clear by the efforts, of a guard of 30 Americans with fixed bayonets. It waa here that the execution was to take place, and here in the centre were two small straw mattresses, one covered with a square of red cloth, the other bearing a board hidden with black cloth. It was a slight distinction, but the presence of theße two mats was sufficient to remove the prisoners from the ranks of common malefactors. This wa9 the only pretence at a scaffold which the spot held, and It had been secured by the friends of the condemned from the executioner. A little distance from the mattresses were two cominon^unpainted coffins, and that was all.

Tht*Bcene waa dramatic enough In Its detaiLiJ/.jeneef&ul enough in Its crowd, mournful eli'oNigh/n Its subject The executioner himself was the most animated of anybody. He stood chatting with many friends, smoking Uls pipe, or posing as a subject to the Innumerable photographers who had been attracted to the scene. His swords were lying by him—one was bloodstained and dirty, another was chipped in the blade, a. third was bright and sharp, Its edge unturned, Us glistening surface unspotted. It had not been used that morning. THE END OF CHI SHID. Presently there was a movement In the rear of the crowd, and the Chinese turned jipon their heels and craned their necks as the tops of two Peking carts could be seen threading laboriously a tiny passage through the crowd. It was with difficulty that they advanced, but they moved slowly forward until the centre of the square was reached. It was now 3 o'clock, and the prisoners had come from the Board of Punishments, where their misdeeds and sentences had been read to them. A- detachment of Japanese Infantry surrounded the carts, whose hoods had been drawn down in front, and Chinese officials, wearing buttons of vfuious colours upon their hats, led them. The execution was a Chinese affair and was carried out in the Chinese style.

Chi Shiu was In the first cart, and as he came on to the ground he peered through the little window In his cart at the thousands around him. At this moment someone passed a letter Into the cart, and as he read It he glanced towards the roof, and, pressing his hands together in the Chinese style, bowed politely. The last greeting of a friend had reached him,and his face lighted with a smile of singular sweetness and aiiiiublllty. He was elderly in appearance, of intelligent expression, and a man who by his bearing seemed resigned to his inevitable end. Upon the morning of his death he had held a levee of his friends, where he was cheerful and dignified, and where, as h<i drank the champagne that had been seat him by a Japanese officer, and talked without reserve upon the punishment which' ho was so soon to endure, It was Impossible not to appreciate the principles which moved him. He had stated then that he was unable to understand why the foreigners shoulu wish him to die. It was a point that n) European would discuss at such an hour and under such circumstances,and the question was itself begged and the difficulty saved by the happy tuct of v Japanese officer who cavchiug the words' of the prisoner, said, "It is for the honour of China." Chi Shiu accepted the remark, and said nothing further;; but as he was assisted from the cart th'S contrast between that scene in the early morning at his house and the place of execution made one almost wish that the honour of China might be upheld In a less horrible fashion. Chi Shiu, supported by the assistants of the executioner, walked the short distance which lay between the cart and the straw mjattress. His composure was remarkable,and as he passed with- * in a few feet of many hundreds of foreigners, Ignoring the ill-bred persistency and coarse enterprise of the camera fiends, he looked neither to the right nor to the left of him. As he "knelt upon his mat, his neck and shoulders were hurriedly stripped ot clothing, and a piece of thin string was bound rounds his head, so that the head might be dragged away when It had fallen. An assistant colled his queue round his head and pressed down the shoulders until the chin was almost touching the ground. Chi Shiu was then prepared for execution, and as he knelt there, his. shoulders bowed down, his head outstretched, his neck bare, the horrible manner of his death' was almost stupefying. A sudden silence fell upon the crowd. The executioner took his pipe fro'ui his lips, tapped it upon the side of the Coffin, and thrust it in his girdle. He then threw his coat from him, and, rolling it Into a ball, tossed It towards one of his assistants. As he picked up a sword, a thrill pulsated the crowd. With his sword tucked under Ills arm, and his hands busilyjrolllng tfs sleeves upwards, lie slowly walked across to the mat upon which the condemned man was kneeling. His deliberation was ghastly, and I felt my nerves throbbing with horror, while I vainly strove to get away. At last he reached the prisoner, and stood over him. Balancing the sword in his hands he slowly raised It. It came down quickly, and, falling short of the neck, stopped. It was but the preliminary measure of the stroke. Again he raised the sword; slowly it fell, never stopping—the same gra. dunl descent, until the neck was completely severed from the body. In Itself the act was rapid, since the sword was so heavy

and sharp that scarce a second could have elapsed before it had forced its waythrough the neck.

The headless body swayed for a moment, and then, as two spurts of blood leapt iuto the air to meet iii one graceful, curving column,the shoulders sank upon the ground. The end had come. One criminal had thus been disposed of; but the spectacle was so horrible—indeed the most awful thing I have seen in my life—that I again turned to fight my way through the crowd. Long before I reached Its outer edge, the almost inarticulate ejaculation of some one near me told me that the turn of the other hud also come. In his case, Shi-Cheng-Yl had been drugged, and his senses had been already numbed with opium before his death took place. His eyes were closed as they carried him to the mat, and he was no longer eoucious of the fate which was to meet him.

The crowd broke up rapidly when the executions were over, and the camera fiends took a few final snapshots of the coffins as they were borne away by the officials, thus accentuating, to my mind, the horror of a depressing and degrading spectacle, while I am not certain that the very depth of de gradation was not reached by the large numbers of Europeans who had gathered on the spot in pleasurable anticipation of so repulsive a sight. ANGUS HAMILTON.