| Show CHINESE PAINS i hospitals and prisons a dia braae to the celestial land Nt loDal leu orance governs all the CU aeo and neither ancy nor humanity have a place in the treatment of sick or sinful the chinese people are law abiding with those of their own number who are lawbreakers they have but little sympathy and the government has none at all I 1 like china I 1 like the chinese moreover I 1 respect them cut in two details of their national life they merit unqualified condemnation their hospitals and their prisons ire unmitigated national disgraces on second thoughts I 1 withdraw the word unmitigated the chinese hospitals through which I 1 went almost everything that hospitals should not be but the patients themselves would most strenuously have resented any improvements prove ments along the line of their own comfort the savanis savants of china are held back by the taut ropes of public opinion they are enchained by the general ignorance as are their prototypes everywhere else 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 must 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 besl but it renders existence possible in the over density of chinese population a writer in the pall mall budget says A chinaman is forgiven nothing 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 bank 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 no china man is noble except through personal fitness there are two exceptions to this rule two only the direct descendants of confucius have a rank s it is respected but it gives ahem 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 it Is greatly to the national credit that they who do not whipping are so very few A chinese prison is called a its outer door is barred with bamboo and is guarded by petty soldiers or policemen the contains two rooms and two yards ona room and one yard are 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 quarters and the mens 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 not interpose 1 used to take food to the shanghai prison yards I 1 was not jeered at A chinese crowd is I 1 believe incapable of jeering at a woman but I 1 was condemned for it and a high chinese official remonstrated with my husband I 1 used to buy chinese food at a cheap chowchow chow chow shop and when I 1 reached a prison fence hire a coolie to feed the poor starving wretches I 1 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 ia about three feet square it is very heavy and galls the neck it blisters or ossifies ossi fies the shoulders the pig taiT drags heavily over iland pulls the poor unlocked locked en 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 ons of the myriad insects that infest the prisons and the prison of china |
