Show CRIME IN COREA I Copyrighted by Frank G Q Carpenter 1894 1 4 8 REASON IS NO NO- NOwhere NOwhere H where so terribly y I rewarded as a s i ie in n e l Corea My blood bloo blood d runs cold when I I think of the pun pun- punishment punishment punishment which will willbe willbe be meted out to those who have rebelled against the king should the Chinese become victorious victoriou s and his majesty's corrupt officials be al- al allowed al allowed allowed lowed to carry out the laws which now exist I have told you how w the body of the dead rebel Kim KimOk KimOk Ki KiOk m Ok was brought to Corea how it was cut into six pieces and how the bloody head the hands the feet and the trunk were carried over ove r the country and hung above the gates gate s of the cities as a warning warning to rebels Not No t only this man himself was killed but buthis bu buthis t his whole family and all of his relatives relative s have been terrible punished His father fathe r did all he could to prevent his boy from m I rising against the king ten years ago and after his his rebellion he went into int o retirement He was old and blind but bu t after Kims Kim's death he was drag dragged d out ou t and his head was cut off The men of o othe f the family even of the third and fourth Iou generation were executed and the th e women including Kims Kim's year seventeen seven year seventeen old C daus s ter 1 ter were ever er to be the th slaves or concubines of the officials After this rebellion the mothers the wives and the daughters of all who have bave taken up arms against the king will be- be become become come be-come come th the common property of the gov gov- government government government and of the magistrates of the provinces in which they live They will willbe willbe willbe be dragged from their homes to be concubines and slaves As their beauty wanes they will be handed from one high official to a lower until they des des- descend descend descend to the bottom dregs of the govern govern- government government government ment service They will wul have no rights that anybody will be bound to respect and their only chance of happiness will willbe willbe willbe be in death AT THE EXECUTION GROUNDS I went out one morning during my stay in Seoul with a Corean noble to the execution grounds They are situ situ- situated just outside ol of the west gate of the city at a point where the main roads crossing Corea from the no noi th to the south meet and at a spot which is con con- considered considered considered the most PUI public place in the whole hermit kingdom There is quite a city surrounding it though it is out out- outside outside outside side of the walls of the capital and a abig big abig business is done by the shopkeepers wIth the travelers who cross it on their way through the country This westgate west gate is the lowest and least honorable of any of the entrances to the Corean capital It is through this that all the coffins are carried out of the city for criminals burial and it is by this way that crim crim- crim- crim must go on their way to execution The Corean who went with me was well versed in the laws of the country and he showed me just how traitors are executed They are brought from the prisons in rude carts drawn by bul but locks bullocks and their last days are filled with the refinements of torture The carts have no springs and the streets through which they are carried is so full of stones that it compares with the cor cor- duroy corduroy roads of the Black swamps of Ohio The criminal is not allowed to stand or sit in the cart He is tied to a across across across 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 block is so short that the tips of the toes barely touch it The road grows tougher as it nears the west gate and itis from thence to the execution ground it is filled with ruts and great rocks At Atthe 4 the west gate the block is knocked out from ands under the toes of the prisoner and he hangs bangs by his arms and his 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 is taken down from the cross He is stripped of his clothes and laid upon his back in the dust of the road The executioner is always a murderer and his weapon is a sword which is so blunt that it mashes rather than cuts the head from the shoulders There re i if one sword which has been used for years for this purpose It is said indeed to be five hundred years old and it has hashed up thousands of necks The worst of the rebels are cut j into six parts as was Kim Ok Men of less prominence and of less seri seri- serious serious ous offenses are simply decapitated But the bodies of all must lie out in the sun for three days before they can be carried away HOW HO HOW THIEVES ARE ARX ARE W TREATED TED All sorts of crimes are terribly pun pui punt t f is d ih Corea The troth truth about such i is kept as far as possible from tI th foreigners and you will find little information about prisons and punish punish- punishments ments in any of the books on Corea There is in fact but little published on othe the the country and the information r I five give you was only accessible to me ort orf f account of the letters of introduction which I carried and the risks which I took in going right in among the people and persisting in in my questions and in- in investigations in investigations notwithstanding the objections objections objections of the officials I am I believe the first American who has ever visited visite the Corean prisons They are as ba bad almost as the hells hens into I looked looke in some of the interior cities citie of China ChinaI I cant can't reconcile the cruelties which I find among the They are in some ways the most polite and most refined people They are lovers of r poetry and flowers They are particular as to etiquette and their souls in most t ways are as refined as ours Still these thes punishments are such that they would woul 1 be a disgrace to the most ignorant and an 1 savage nations of the African wilds and andI an anI 1 I I wonder if after all our humanity is inot not civilization veneer and whether we would not Bot be quite as bad had we not Dot t for or generations been studying how to todo todo t do do- i better Weare We are the same Christian i people who burned witches at the stake only a generation or so ago and our ourt great r t great great-great grandfathers punished the ther least stealing with death What was r common in feudalism would be dis- dis disgraceful disgraceful gr graceful now Corea is practically a feudal nation today and it is in fact in inthe inthe i the same state that China was about four hundred years back Corean thieves are decapitated for their crimes They are arc only cut into two pieces how how- ever ver and the law provides that their bodies need not lie on the execution i grounds longer than two days before their r relatives can take them away and an bury bwy them The thief when he is first taken is flogged by the officers He iiA- iiA is i then asked ked as to his crime and after r r this is taken to the judge The judge demands what he has done with the property and if the thief re- re ref replies re replies plies that it has been sold and gives the name of the party who has it it is is con con- confiscated confiscated confiscated f He is is then taken to jail and kept there for zoo loo days At the end of thIS time the police give him the option of life or death It If he accepts life he becomes a servant of the jail for the ther r test rest of his existence if death he is f strangled l QUEER METHODS OF STRANGLING This strangling is done in a curious way wave There is a hole in the door in the cell just large lage enough for a piece of rope about the size size ofa of a clothes tine line to to pass through A noose is made at the end of the rope and this noose is placed around the criminals criminal's neck The other end nd of the rope is put through the hole in the door or the wall and the police pull at the rope until they bring theman's the theman's theman's mans man's chest and neck above and below the hole and until the neck breaks and the man is dead The question as to whether a thief be strangled or decapitated decapitated decapitated depends upon the nature of the offense Strangling is much the more Ies respectable way of Sometimes this is brought about by hangin hanging The thiers thiefs neck and hands are tied to a aP apost P post Jt so th that t his feet are some distance above the ground About his ankles ut rope rope i is the then fastened ned and to the f end ead of a sf s e several se times as ji J i If I heavy as his body is h hung g Of course the man dies KILLED BY A SHEET SHIFT OF PAPER Another method of execution is by suffocation and this thic strange to say is idone done with paper The man is laid flat upon his back and a sheet of Corean paper is spread over his face This has 5 been soaked in water and fits over the theman's th 6 mans man's face being pressed down so that it makes a veritable death mask shut shut- shutting shutting shutting ting out every bit of air and the man ma dies Anyone Any one who has seen the paper of Corea will appreciate how easily this form of execution could be carrie carried out It lt is made b by bj hand It is as thick as a sheet of blotting paper and almost as stron strong as leather When moisture is applied to it it becomes exceedingly exceeding soft but does not lose its strength an and it would make an excellent molding material THE TORTURE OF UNFAITHFUL POLICE POLICE- POLICEMEN POLICEMEN MEN I was told of a curious custom as to t policemen who make false arrests They The r are terribly punished and if something similar was adopted as to our American sheriffs there would be fewer mistakes mistake made The Corean policeman who ar- ar arrests arrests ar rests a man as a thief when he knows know him to be innocent is liable to be caught caugh by the mans man's family and his eyes maybe mayb burned out by them with red hot pokers or iron sticks chop-sticks which have been heated in the coals His eyes have no not seen truly in arresting the wrong man and it is thought to be just that they be b put out Another way of performing this punishment is by laying the police police- policeman policeman man on the ground with his bis face up- up upward upward up ward A tube of bamboo just about abou one inch in thickness and as long as a lead pencil is fitted over the eye and an the other end of it is pounded with a mallet until the be eyes are squeezed up into the bamboo tubes Such cases are not common but a policeman who wh intentionally arrests arrest's an innocent man is i liable to this treatment I IA A FAMILY BURIED ALIVE Among the most terrible of 01 Corean crimes are those against your parents or ancestors There is a prison in Seoul that is devoted entirely to prisoners who I commit crimes against their parents If Ifa 11 IIa a rich son refuses to support his father he can be sent to j jail and the boy who strikes his father can be whipped to death The parricide is burned to death and it is in Corea much the same sam as in China where the killing of ones one's parents subjects the child to be sliced into thirty- thirty odd pieces or carved up by inches I heard of a curious curious case which happened this spring in io Corea which shows the power of the officials and the terrible vengeance which they sometimes visit upon those whom they hate A certain m magistrate had his ancestral tablets stolen an offense somewhat similar to the stealing of a mans man's grandfathers grandfather's gravestone in America but a really ter ter- terrible terrible terrible thing thine in this superstitious land of Corea Shortly after the theft was com com- committed committed committed he received a notice that if it he be would go at a certain time and leave a certain amount cf money at a certain place the tablets would be returned to him He followed the directions in the note but ut instead of a load of copper cash he filled his bags with stones and had men in ambush to watch the thieves when the came to get ti th the timoney money As A the robbers came tame forth these men sprang front from their hiding biding b places and attempted to to- catch them They They did not succeed in either recognizing recognizing recognizing them or capturing ng them but one ot of the thieves dropped his pipe as he heran heran 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 robbery He replied that he had noth- noth nothing nothing ing to do with it He was put to torture torture tor- tor torture ture His hands were tied behind him and he was hung up by his elbows while his feet were were whipped He reo re- refused fused to confess The magistrate became became be- be became came angry and he had the mans man's whole family brought out and stoned The man still refused to confess and he actually buried the man and his family alive This was such a horrible outrage that the people complained of the matter to the government The mag mag- magistrate magistrate magistrate istrate however had a friend at court and through the influence of the prime minister nothing was done to him TORTURE AND THE STOCKS The torture of prisoners to make them confess is common in Corea and it is wonderful what inventions of torture are sometimes in use Think of tying aman's aman's a mans man's bare feet to a stake in the ground and burning his toes with powder Think of all sorts of ot flogging and pinch pinch- pinching pinching ing and cutting and you can get some idea of ot the powers of a Corean magistrate magistrate magis- magis magistrate In the prisons you will find iron chains stocks and all sorts of manacles These know how to whip so that the flesh is raveled off of ot the bones and I have a photograph of ot a man tied in a chair with his knees bare and a jailer whipping his bare shins In one of the prisons which I visited I saw three men fastened in stocks The stocks consisted ot of a log of wood about fifteen feet long and at least a foot in diameter This had been split in two I and holes had been bored through it just large enough to hold ankle of a man The three criminals each had one toot foot fastened in this thil thi log and the jailers when I appeared with my sol sol- soldiers soldiers soldiers diers and photographer tried to move them out into the sun so that I might get a good photograph of them As they pulled them along I heard one of them utter a cry of pain pain and I saw that the features of ot all were contorted with agony It made me sick and I desisted I told the jailers to let the men be and that I 1 would not take their pictures I took a photograph however of one of the prisoners who was wearing the Corean Gangue This is different from the articles used in China and I have never heard it described nor read of it itI anywhere You will find no description of it in the books of ot travel I do not suppose that many know of its exist exist- existence existence existence ence The Chinese consists of ofa ofa ofa a square framework or board in the center of which a mans man's head is fixed and which rests upon his shoulders jutting about two feet out from his neck on every side The Corean is a plank often longer than the m man n him him- himself himself himself self with a hole in one end of it in which the neck can be locked It If the theman theman theman man wishes to move about he must holdup hold holdup holdup up this plank with his hands and when he be sits down its heavy weight rests upon his neck I found it in the jails of many of the ma magistrates strates which |