CHINESE PRISONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9401, 6 January 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHINESE PRISONERS.

The Chinese people (says ; a writer in ithe Pall Mall Budget) are law-abiding. VV ith those of their own nomber who are lawbreakers they have but little sympathy, and the Government has, none at alt I like China. I, like the Chinese. . Moreover, ! respect them.' ' But in two details of their national life thoy merit unquahficd condemnation. Their hospitals and their prisons are , unmitigated national disgraces. ,Un second thoughts I withdraw the word unmitigated. The Chinese hospitals through which I went were almost everything that hospitals should not be. But the patients themselves .would most strenuously nave opposed, most feverishly haverelented, any improvements along the line of their , own. comfort. The savants of China are held back' by the taut ropes of public opinion, they aire enchained by the general ignorance, as are their prototypes everywhere else. J The deplorable condition of the, Chinese prisons .is justified -■ in. the national philosophy. To the Chinese mind, a law is a thing to be obeyed. , A law concerns the millions, and conserves the welfare of millions. It mast be held inviolate by the individual, be his whim—his personal bent —whatever it may. The Chinaman who disregards any item of the Chinese law becomes a social leper. < Individual tendency, - moral ill-health, inherited traits, they are taken into account not at all. This is cruel ? Yes I . But it renders existence possible in the over-density of Chinese population. A Chinaman is forgiven notbhig because of his ancestry. Nor does he suffer for that ancestry. From the moment of his birth each Chinaman has. an equal chance with every other Chinaman. v; Rank is nowhere more venerated > than in China. . Nowhere does it secure to its possessor more benefits, more privileges; but it is not inherited. It is conferred by the Emperor—conferred for,' personal merit or for personal achievement. ISo Chinaman is " noble" except through personal fitness.: There are two exceptions to this ruletwo only. The direct descendants of Confucius have a rank of their own. It is & high rank. It is raopected. But it gives them no power .of interference with national affairs. The descendants of an Emperor are- never > less than royal. But they have no necessary power. In brief, then, in China "every man is served according to his deserts,"and ibis greatly to the national credit that they who do not " 'scape whipping" are so vury few. * A Chinese prison is called a "cague." Its outer door is barred with bamboo, and is guarded by petty soldiers or policemen. The "cague" contains two rooms and two yards. One room and one yard aro for men. The other room and yard are for women. , The space set apart for women is very much smaller than that for men. But the women's quarters and the men's quarters are alike in being entirely devoid of any provision for personal comfort, or for personal decency. * ; ; Chinese prisoners are by the Government provided with absolutely nothing but the space beyond which they may not pass. If their friends thrust'food to them through the bars of the prison fence, the law does not interpose. Otherwise the prisoners may starve. The law does nob interpose. I rsed to take food to the Shanghai prison-yards. I was not jeered at. A Chinese crowd is, 1 believe, incapable of jeering aba woman. But I was condemned for it, and a high Chinese official remonstrated with my husband. I used to buy Chinese food at a cheap chow-chow shop, and, when I reached a prison fence, hire a coolie to feed the poor starving wretches. I did not quite care to feed them myself. And it was quite impossible for them to feed themselves. No Chinese prisoner can reach his own mouth, for his. neck is invariably locked into a board which is about three feet square. It is very heavy, and galls the neck. It blisters or ossifies the shoulders. The " pig-tail" drags heavily over it, and pulls the poor enlocked head uncomfortably to one side. It prevents the hands from lifting rice or water to the craving mouth, and from brushing from the tingling nose one of the myriad insects that infest the prisons and the priaon-yards of China. ' •