The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 22, 1900, Page 20

20 THE SUNDAY CALL An Euewitness Tells of Regent Frightfll O AT AT AT A TR TR R K A AT AT AR TR @ S < 0 Statement of William ). Gorham, ¢ President of the Gorham & ¢ Rubber Qompany, Just ¢ Back From Canton. g * . 5 * 4 * * * % i ' ; * * 3 * O TR TEDT R XS FOFTRETIETEIE @ T is one thing to sit at home and plan one's battles and quite another to go abroad and fight them. That is why Willlam Gorham, president of the Gor- - ham Rubber Company, says that he is not & pessimist when he makes the discourag- g personal statement given on this page. Mr. Gorbam has just returned from hinese China, and though he did not actually en- gage in the fighting, he has been obsery- ing some of the conditions that go to make up the difficulties in battles. Here ortlres. are some of the experiences he met with recently just before the last return trip of the Gaelic from Canton. “My friend, Harry Williams, and myself were desirous of witnessing a Chinese pi- rate execution, and one day, by tipping an under officlal at a Chinese jail, we managed to arrive on the scene in time to see eleven prospective victims lined up for punishment. It was in what is known as the ‘execution grounds,’ merely an un- usually wide street, with no ropes, rail- ings or walls of any kind surrounding it. On the ground, kneeling in a row, were eleven pirates brought to justice. Their hands were loosely tied together with pleces of rope, and their queues all hang- ing down their backs. They seemed not in the least sorrowful or perturbed, even almost bored. As the .executioner ad- vanced to his duty an assistant preceded him, carrying a stake sharpened at both ends to a point. One end of this stick was driven into the earth just in front of the criminal; then the executioner's assistant caught hold of the Chinaman’s queue and slowly drew him forward and downward, taking care not to use undue consideration in shortening the process. When he had drawn the body sufficlently low over the sharpened stick he gave the queue a auick tug, driving the stake into the criminal's abdomen and impaling him firmly. Then he held the queue unconcernedly while the executioner raised his weapon and brought it down swiftly on the crimina neck, severing the head from the body. Assuredly, the man would sail pirate seas no more. ““While the process of execution was go- ing on a host of indifferent and uninter- ested Celestials were standing about. Here and there was' & Chiese ~ po- liceman whacking any one he chose, regardless of offense, and the hoodlum element was busy teasing and tossing little stones at the condemned. The men who were yet to dié casually watched the performance and the eleventh calmly looked on while the other ten were dispatched and thelr heads thrown in a pile to one side. Of all of them the elev- enth man held the least enviable position, but he seemed to be little aware of the fact. Probably he enjoyed the good show up to the last and considered himself for- tunate to have been allowed the enter- m;ng\vnl of seeing his companions exe- cuted. “Some of the heads were chopped off evenly, leaving little stumps attached; others were cut off close behind the ears, but one of them was sliced off at a slant angle. The criminal before him had just been executed and his feet were still kick- ing about and his body writhing. As the executioner raised his ax the man who was being executed turned his head, with leisurely curiosity, to observe the death throes of the former victim just as the ax fell, so his own head was sliced off smoothly, but in such a manner that it would have to be set upon a steep incline to bring the face level. Later relatives and close friends came and carried away the heads of the criminals, dangling them by means of the queues. The bodies were considered less important and were left to the hoodlums. “‘The hoodlums, the same element as the interior class termed ‘Boxers, occasioned Printed Uk soms lively trouble. ried to the execution grov by coolles and were at to our own b nis 4id not suffice. Present ods and stones began to tap the cheek: then followed 1 came closer and jostled u . us roughly off our chairs, and t in our faces. Thers was no al 800d naturedly, as any would have provoked t no use appealing t he is simply a p cising his wrath up humors. We gave directions to the soolies to move on, and the hoodlums began fol- lowing, growing rougher and more dan- gerous. A battery of stones halled from all sides and we were continually being upset. A devoted guard of some half- dozen hoodlums attended us om either side and spat into odr faces, scant vocabulary of English, White devil!” and shaking their fists in our faces. We had begun to despalr of ever escaping from them and wers in mo- mentary fear for our lives. There was one immense big ugly looking brown fel- low who hounded us viciously, and T had to content myself with hurling English maledictions at him and telling him English what I would do with him in case I could with discretion have handled him. As he bent his hideous face close to mine and viclously spat again I accidentally hit upon the trifls that saved us. I have only one good eys. Over the other I then wore a large dark green mask, and as the hideous fellow stooped I clossd my §00d eye and peered with the green maasik into his face. A moment later I opened my eye and observed the terrified Celes- tial leaping backward, his face pale, his eyes bursting from thelr sockets, and his whole expression one of the most abject fear and horror. Landing a dozen feet away he shrieked, ‘Holy devil! Bad eye; look see!” “In a moment every Chinaman presept- ed a pair of heels and a I o cross his 18 queus. When they had put a respectful distance between u v iperstitious tear, ana ing advantage presently th a with talk- came green m head o was w of the only effective c They s 1 and dwi had a . poisoned. His wife accused of the mu trial was procee; torture wi being a ¢ kles. Two together a held loose] around th screw was ankle be y were guilty. No one in China ished and from confes tortur, were taken stripped nude. upon the rough woc executioners bega them with sharp to make a thou before the fatal Each joint of fingers away, the limbs were hack clipped oft in a dozen pleces, slashed and _every atroeity committed. Throu it cutioner endeavored cause as mu pain ®ith as lttle danger as possible; rolong the life of ing left uninjured t death approached thet ima out. Long before t z made the two delic n were dead but when we saw es still hang- ing by ropes two days later it was a sight of indescribable horror. It is with four million of such flends or foes capable of. such that the allied powers are now rying to cope. NG came along the river and saw the famous old water clock, which tradition claims to have kept perfect time since Confuctus gave out his benigh edict, ‘Walk in_the trodden pat the historical old hogshead the wat slowly rising, floating the worn T was pearer and nearer the top to complete t twenty-four hours of ine Chinese day. will mark many a dark age still before the cruelty, the viciousness and the atr: e nation is el clousness of the Chin seems to me that to talk of a people by force of arms other way is arr 80 many horri in the cour that I have f down their hideous of law and order t based upon his own ture. All about th be seen cripples b themselves ‘wise mutilated have withstood fused to confess never be known wh cent or guilty. If bit of w chair horrible h: nec for forty self, and t pelled to T their bowl of upon_the block oner s n from slic lost and the neckb scene of his templation death by im left to slowly his_body, well ipon_ea rice tow aleme ing verr stings or horror avenged by a I the price of a ere he can buy hi g by the simple proc ver to the officers, who sele ng the a man to be place. lives to be t e of twenty their money in the luxury at the expense of the place they take.” These, and many more, are the or their f f an opium t criminal whose orrible tales that Mr. Gorham has to tell of his life in China. Those inclined to be op- timistic do not agree with hi in all things, but to these he re “Go and The impression of Chinese horrors 1l strong within and he Is glad to be out of the empir n empire that he says can never be conquered though all the powers of the globe join forces against its hundreds of milllons of yellow men. with their innumerable and un- namable propensities for barbaric evil,