PRISON HORRORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2006, 5 April 1878, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRISON HORRORS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

A contributor to the Melbourne Argus ■ gives a graphic description of the City of 1 Canton m China, the fidelity of which, 1 all who hfcive visited that place will recog- " nise. Rfeferring to the prison of Canton, " he writes : — ' " From the Temple of the Five Hundred I passed to the Gaol of Canton, j This place is like, I suppose, what gaols 1 were m Europe before the efforts of 3 Howard had called attention to their disgraceful state. Anything mora disgusting - than the gaol of Canton cannot be im--9 agined. My squeamish guide refused to - go into it. The nasty smells that came 3 betwixt the wind and his gentility made 3 him sick, he aaid. I might go mif I liked, I but was likely to catch gaol fever if I did. • As no prophecy was ever fulfilled m me, 1 I regarded them not, and passed through | a rotten old gate into a dirty courtyard. : In this place men were standing about ; with heavy stones chained to their feet. ' That and the greater misery o* . idleness, is one of the pimi^ ments . i Passing tbro ugb anam>w filthy passage , I look ir>to what appears to be an old i fitable, but is an apartment of about 25ft. j square. Through some iron bars that i helps to keep it out, I look upon a sight i that cannot be forgotten. The smell of : the dungeon was very foul, >and the ' sight more so. About fifteen men were i here cooped up, each with his head > thrust through a heavy wooden collar, ' made of several pieces of planking ' nailed on each other. This strange instrument of torture was about three feet ' square, projecting over the shoulders * on each side. With that on there is no lying down for the wearer, and no rest to [ be had m any position. Its weight must I be considerable, and its torture also. It , is worn for a fortnight or three weeks at i a time, and is equivalent to the British , punishment of hard -labor added to short s sentences. Hard labor would be no punishment to add to a Chinaman's sen- > tence, if of the lower orders. His whole ; life is made up of that. The poor > wretches crowded up to the bars of this " pen with outstretched hands. What ' good money could do them m such a place I could not imagine, but they had what change I possessed. If it made \ them less miserable for a moment only, it was well given. " In another part of the prison I found other punishments m progress. Culprits were receiviug heavy blows on the face with leather thongs made liko the sole of a shoe. The jaw is frequently broken by this punishment, but that matters not. It is left m a broken state. Others were tied m a kneeling position, and one with outstretched arms tightly bound by cords to bars of wood. I did not ace the thumbscrew or the scavenger's daughter, or the iron boot anywhere m use. . The Chinaman is too conservative to adopt European customs. "A gaoler Bat at a door, which I asked him to open. He did so, and I walked into a quadrangle, m which about 20 men were walking or sitting or lying about. The cells were all around. They were not bound or ironed m any way. I thought that it might be the hospital or lunatic ward that I had got into, and went out to enquire from the guide, who was playing with his toothpick outside. I learned that this was the condemned cell. He said — ' Those men you see there are not punished beyond imprisonment. They are to have their heads cut off next week ; you stop* and see it. I will take yov to the execution ground this afternoon ! ' " These men were then condemned to , die — as we all are — but these knew when it was to happen. I went back to see ! them and took them some tobacco, which . Ah Hume suggested as the most likely { thing wanted. Though knowing when ( their lives were to be ended, they all ■ seemed quite careless about the matter. < Life is not a very dear thing to a China- ] man m poor condition. The waiting a i week for death was, I think, their chief misery. The tobacco waa a rare gift for ( them. They all seemed ready to die then and there to get a share of it. Walking about among twenty condemned criminals is not an every day occurrence. Their hands are not, however, stained with murder. People are hanged m China j for things which the Insolvent Court t dears them from m the western world. I c had no doubt that among these twenty c man there were am good aa among any t

other twenty that I had passed amongst anywhere. "From the gaol to the temple of horrors waa an appropriate progression. It is a temple fitted up to represent the punishment of the wicked, whether here or hereafter I could not well make out. There Jcannot, however, be much difference. A man was represented as sandwiched between two planks, and being sawn through down the middle. This is a death still m fashion m China. Others are being mangled m their way, and that too horrible to look at. Yet this temple is more crowded with visitors than any other others. It is to be hoped that the moral lesson intended is not lost. "