THE FATE THAT AWAITS THE COREAN REBELS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 8994, 5 January 1895, Page 9

THE FATE THAT AWAITS THE COREAN REBELS.

The Darkest Ages Knew Nothing More Cruel. toritorino witnesses—the brutal paddle—strangling. Frank G. Carpenter in the Detroit Free Press. Treason is nowhere no terribly rewnrded as in Corea. My blood runs cold when I think of the punishment that trill be meted uut to those who have rebelled "gainst the king, should the Chinese become victorious and his majesty's corrupt officials be allowed to carry out the laws which now exist. 1 have told you bow the body of the dead rebel, Kirn Ok Kiun, was brought to Corea, how it was cut into six pieces, and how the head, the hand*, the feet and the trunk were carried over the country and hung above the gates of the cities as a war')' l, *? to rebels. Not only this man hinnelf was killed, but bis whole family and *H ot his relatives have been terribly punished. His father did ,j| be could to prevent his boy from rioiog "gainst the king ten years ago, and jfier his rebellion he weni into retirement, lie was old and blind, but after Kim'fl death he was dragged out and his head wan cut off. The men of the family, even of the third and fourth generation, were executed, and the women, including Klm'e seventeen-year-nld daughter, were given over to be the slaves or concubines of the official*. After this rebellion, the niotlieis, the wives and the daughters of all who have taken up arms against the king will become the property of the government and of the magistrates of the provinces in which they live. They will be dragged from their homes to be coucubtnes and slaves. An their beauty wanes, they will be handed from one high official to a lower until they descend to the bottom dregs of the government service. They will have no rights that anybody will be bound to respect, and their only chance of D&ppiness will be In death.

J went out one morning during my stay (n Seoul, with a Corean noble to the execution grounds. They are situated just outtide of the west gate of the city, at a <pot which is considered the most public place in the whole Hermit kingdom. There is quite a city surrounding it, though it is outside the walls of the capital, and a big business Ii done by the shopkeepers with the travellers who cross lo on their way through the country. This west gate Iβ the lowest and least honourable of any of the entrances to the Corean capital. Jt is through this that all coffins are carried out at the city for burial, and it is by this way that criminals must go on their way to execution. The Corean who went with mc was well versed in the laws of the country, and he showed mc just how traitors are executed. They are brought from the prisons In rnde carts drawn by bullocks, and their last days are filled with the refinement* of torture. The carts have no •prings, and the street through which they are carried is so full of stones that it compares with the corduroy roads of the Black swamp of Ohio. The criminal is not allowed to stand or sit in the cart. He In tied to a cross which is built up just over the wheels and nailed to the cart. This cross is so high that when his arms are stretched out and tied his toes are still six Inches from the bed.of the cart. A block Is then put beneath them, and this Work U so short that the tips of hi* toe* barely touch It. The road grow* rougher us it near* the west gale, and from thence to the execution ground it is filled with ruts and great rocks. At the wot gate the block Iβ knocked out from under the toes of the prisoner, and he hangs by his arms and hie neck. The bullock is then whipped by the driver, and the cart bounces up and down over the rocky way to the execution grounds. • Here the criminal 1* taken down from the eroaa. He Iβ stripped of his clothes and laid upon hi* back in the dust of the road. The executioner to always a murderer, and his weapon is a sword, which is so blunt that It maehea rather than cuts the head from the shoulders. There Iβ on* s«rord which has been need forjears for this purpose. Itia said, Indeed, to be five hundred year* old, and it baa hashed op thousands of neck*. The worst of the rebel* are cat into alx part*, as was Kirns Ok Klun. Men of less prominence and of leas serious offence* are simply decapitated. But the bod!e« o t all mast lie oat in the sun for three day e tef ore they can be carried away.

All sorts of crimes are terribly punished tn Corea. Tbe truth about such matters Is kept, as far as possible, from the foreigners, and you will find little Information about prisons and punishments in any of the books of Cores, There Iβ, in fact, but little published on the country, iod the information which I give you was only accessible to mc on account of the letters of introduction which I carried and the risks which I took In going right In among the people and persisting hi my uoestions and investigations, notwithstanding the objections of ihe officials. I km, I believe, the first American who has ever risked the Corean prisons. They are, as bad almost as the hells into which I looked in some of the interior title* of Chins. I can't reconcile the jrrieitfea 1 saw with the many noble qualities which I find among the Coreana. They are in some ways the most polite aad most refined people. They are lovers of poetry aad flowers. They are particular as to etiquette, and their souls in most ways are as refined as ours. St 111, these punishments are such that they would be a disgrace to tbe most ignorant and savage nations of the African wilds. Corea is in the same etste that China was in about MO years back. Corean thieves are decapitated for their crimes. They are only cut into two pieces, however, and the law provides that their bodies need not lie on the execution grounds longer than two flsya before their relatives can take them sway and bury them. The thief, when he is first taken, is flogged by the officers. He is then asked as to his crime, and after this is taken to the house of the judge. The judge demands what he has done with the property, and it the thief replies that It has been sold and gives the name of the person who has it. it is confiscated. He is then taken to jail and kept there for a hundred days. At the end of this time ibe police give him the option of life or tath. It be accepts life he becomes a tenant of the jail for the rest of his exbttaee: if death, he is strangled. j Joe strangling is done in a curious way. j rhw «b*holeinthedoor of the cell just >»rß»eaongh for a piece of rope about the 6of a clothes line to pass through. A noose U made at the end ol the rope, and "is noojjfc placed around the criminal's neck. The other end of the rope is puc through the hole in the door or the wail, tod thepoltee pan ht the rope U ntU they bring the man* Bec k Md t he hole and eatil the neck breaks and the man is dead. T oe question as to whether a thief be strangled or decapitated depends opon the nature of tbe offence. Strangling u> moeh the mors respectable way of dying, oomstimei this is brought about by bang"ft The thief a neck and hands are tied to a post, so that his feet are some distance above the ground. About his ankles * etout rope is then fastened, and to the •nd of this a .tone, several times as heavy mWβ body, is hung. Of course tie man ' dies. Another method of execution is by suffoe»»lon, and this, strange to say, U done With piner. The man is laid flat upon j»» back, and a- sheet of Corean paper » «pread over his face. This baa been •osked in water, and fits over the man's «cc, being pressed down so that it makes a veritable death mask, shutting oat every bit of air, and the man dies. Any °ne who ha* seen the paper of Corea ;,. will appreciate how easily this form m>:

of execution could be carried out. It is made by band. It Is as thick aa a sheet of blotting paper and almost as strong as leather. When moisture is applied to it it becomes exceedingly soft, but does not lose its strength, and it would make an excellent moulding material.

Among the moat terrible of Corean Crimea are those against parents or ancestors. There ii a prison Iα Seoul that Is devoted entirely to prisoners who commit crimes against their parents. If a rich son refuses to support his father he can be sent; to gaol, and the 067 who strikes his father can be whipped to death. The parricide is burned to death, and it is in Core* much the same as in China, where the killing of one's parents subject* the child to be sliced into thirty-odd pieces or carved up by inches. I heard of a curious case which happened last spring in Corea, which shows the power of the officials and the terrible vengeance which they sometimes visit upon those whom they hate. A certain magistrate bad his ancestral tablets stolen, an offence somewhat similar to the stealing of a man's grandfather's gravestone in America, but a really terrible thing in thin superstitious land of Corea. Shortly after the theft wan committed he received a notice that if be would go at a certain time and leave a certain amount of money at a certain place the tablets would be returned to him. He followed the directions in the note, but instead of carrjing a load of copper cash, he filled his. bags with stones and bad men in ambush to watch the thieves when they came to get the money. As the robbers came forth these men sprang from their hiding places and attempted to catch them. They did not succeed in either recognizing them or capturing them, but one of the thieves dropped his pipe as he ran. This pipe was shown about to the people, until finally one man said that it looked like that of a prominent noble. The magistrate at once arrested the suspected man and charged him with the robbery. He replied that he had had nothing to do with it. He was pat to torture. His bands were tied beLind him, and he was hung up by his elbows while bis feet were whipped. He refused to confess. The magistrate became angry, and he had the man's whole family brought out and stoned. ' The man still refused to confess, and he actually buried the man and hie family alive. This was such a horrible outrage th»t the people complained of the matter to the government. The magistrate, however, had a friend at court, and through the influence of the prime minister nothing was done to him.

The torturing of prisoners to make them confess i» common in Corea, and it ie wonderful what inventions of torture are sometimes in use. Think of tying a man's bare feeb to a stake in the ground and burning bis toes with powder. Think of all torts of flogging and pinching and cutting, and you can get some idea of the powers of a Corean magistrate. In the prisons you will find Iron chains, stocks., and all sorts of manacles. These Corean t> know bow to whip so that the flesh iraveled off the bones, and I have a photograph of a man tied in a chair, with hitknees bare, and a jailer whipping hibare shins. In one of the prisons whic) I visited I saw three men fastened ii. stocks. The 'stocks consisted of v log of wood about fifteen feet long and at least a foot Iα diameter. This hao been split in two, and holes had been bored through It just large enough to hold the bare ankle of a man. The three criminals each had one foot fastened in tbilog, and the jailers, when I appeared with my soldiers and photographer, tried to move them out Into the sun so that I migln get a good photograph of them. As they pulled them along I beard one of them utter a cry of pain, and I saw that the feature* of' all we re contorted with agony.It made mc tick and I desisted. I teld the jailers to let the men be, and that I would not take their pictures. I took a photograph, however, of one of the prisoners, who was wearing the Corean cangue. Thin ie different from the articles need in China, and I have never heard ft described, nor read of it anywhere. You will find no description of it in the books of travel. Ido not suppose that many know of its existence. The Chinese cangue consists of a square framework or board, in the centre of which a man's head is fixed, and which rests upon his shoulders jutting about two feet out from hi* neck on every side. The Corean cangue is a plank, often longer than the man himself, with a hole in one end of it, in which the neck caa be locked. If the men wishes to move about he must hold up this plank with his hands, and when he sits down its heavy weight rests upon his neck. I found it in the jails of many of the magistrates which I visited In the country districts, and it is by no means a mild instrument ot torture.

Paddling and flogging are the most common punishment. This prevails everywhere and the official is very low indeed who cannot order tbe common man down to be paddled. Every magistrate has his professional paddlers, and many officials/ when they go about, have officers who «© with them, carrying the instruments of torture. In passing the front gate of the.palace one afternoon I saw a number of these kesos, as they are called, with their paddles beside them. Their roasters had probably gone in to see the king, and they were waiting outside. These paddles are about six feet long, five inches wide, and perhaps an inch thick in the centre, tapering down to a thickness of perhaps threeeighths of an inch at the end. They have small handles, and are made of a white, hard wood, which is very flexible and elastic These paddling kesos have a regular guild of their own, and the guild of ten descends from father to eon. They are wonderf ally expert In the use of the paddle, and the officers carry from two to a hundred of them with them, according to their rank. I had one or two with mc daring a large part of my tours, but I, of coarse, did not use them.. I can't describe the horrors of this paddling. Many foreigners have witnessed it, but few Have been able to get a photograph of it. I have taken two; one was of one of tbe chair bearers, whom I had my keso tie to the tack to show mc just how the paddling was done. He was, of course, not struck, botJne was very angry at being placed in what he called a compromising position, and we had quite a row about the matter after we returned home.

The other photograph represents the paddling actually going on. The man is tied to a board, which lies on the ground on two small blocks of wood. His body is bared from the waist to bis ankles, and he lies face downward on the plank. There is a rope around his waist which Is fastened through a hole in the board, and there are also ropes about hie feet, which bind him so tightly that he cannot move. The keso stands behind him with his paddle and the officers ■ look on to see that he is properly whipped. Often a half dozen men are paddled at the same time in this way. If there are no planks handy, they are laid flat on the ground on their faces, and their feet are sometimes fastened in this position in wooden stocks, so that they cannot move. They are laid out in rows, and each man had his paddler beside him. Each peddler's arms are bare to the shoulder* and they work in unison. They have their paddles raised back over their beads as far as their arms cam reach, when they are ready for action, and they bring them down at the cry of the under officials, who> with swords at thslr sides, stand at the head of the line of half naked . men and yell out a sort of a chant, which sounds eoeae thing like this: La-hoo-aa-hoo-00. The paddles are raised at the first la, and as the final 00-oo is uttered they are brought down with a crack like a plstol on the bare

skin of the men, and the executioners grant with the exertion. They have a way of pressing the paddle down on the quiverlog flesh, and of pulling It off with a rub before they raise it.

The first strike usually makes a blister, and at the close of the second the paddle is wet with water or blood. Aβ these executioners drag it off they rub it into the sand, pressing it there until the keeos again cry La-hno-aa-hoo-00. Then the paddles are raised again, and as they are brought down this time they are covered with sand. They pound the panicles into the flesh and as the men drag them off they take away the skin as though it were sandpapered. I can give you no conception of the punishment, and when you remember th»t any official has the righc to paddle any man below him, and almost anyone of prominence can paddle those of lower rank, you can get some idea of condition ct the affair* in Corea. I believe the people must be naturally kind or life here would be a hell to the masses. As it is, sometimes men are killed by paddling. Fifty blows would surely do ir, and the ordinary dose is about twelve strokes. Much paddliog will reduce the flesh to a jelly, and even after Might punishment men have to be lifted up and carried away. They cannot rise themselves. This paddling goes on in the nrmy. and a general or a colonel can paddle a private, and the privates paddle toe citizens, and so it goes. There is such a thing as bribing the paddlers, so (hat they pretend to kill the man, but moderate the Rtroke as it comes .down, and only puni*h htm slightly. ' In fact, bribery is possible from the top to the bottom of Corean official life, and there will have to be an entire reorganisation of the whole system of government here befcre the people can know prosperity or pence. The king, it must be remembered, knows but little of the horrors which goon under bis government. He has been doing the be»t he could for his people, and the rebellion has been against the officials and not against him.