Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/631

 582

tion arose between himself and Wang, the latter exclaiming : " You and your yellow-red girdle! All you are fit for is to swindle! You never think of acting decently! " [N. B. — The allusion to the color of the imperial clansman' girdle implies that he was a man disgraced for misconduct.] High words con tinued between the two, until Wang, drawinga double-barreled foreign pistol, loaded and capped it, and was about to fire at Ming Hai. The latter, fearing that he was about to get the worst of it, snatched up a sharp-pointed knife, and made a threatening plunge with it in the direction of Wang, the result being that the latter was stabbed in the abdomen, and fell down with a loud cry, dying shortly afterwards from the effects of the wound. An alarm being given by deceased's mother, the parties were taken into custody, and sundry trials have been held, the result of which has been unsatisfactory. A special court has now been convened by the memo rialist's orders, at which a secretary of the Board of Punishments has presided, with the local superintendent of the imperial clans men acting as assessor. Ming Hai is sen tenced to death by strangulation, according to statute, for the act of murder in the course of a personal encounter, of which he is proved guilty, and to be confined in the prison of the Clan Court pending confirmation of his sentence. The keeper of the gambling table, Lin Siang, and the other individuals con cerned are respectively sentenced to basti nadoing and temporary banishment, accord ing to law. Referred by rescript for the consideration of the Imperial Clan Court. Archdeacon Gray, in his China, de scribes some of the filthy details of prison life, and says : " The walls of the various wards abut upon one another, and form a parallelogram. Round the outer wall of this parallelogram a paved pathway runs, upon which the gates of the various wards open.

This pathway is flanked by a large outer wall, which constitutes the boundary wall of the prison." The image of a prison god stands in each ward and is supposed to exert a softening influence upon the hard-hearted. Its birthday is celebrated by a meagre feast provided by the governor of the jail, who later makes up for his generosity by helping himself to portions of the general funds. Above the entrance door of the narrow pas sage opening into the prison is painted a tiger's head with staring eyes and gaping jaws, and inside the building the figure of this beast stands upon an altar. This is the turnkeys' god, who will help them to keep their prisoners from running away. Whole families are sometimes thrown into prison as a punishment for the flight from justice of a criminal relative. The innocent sons of a would-be assassin of the Emperor Ka-hing, in 1803, were immediately strangled. A great many prisoners die as a result of unsanitary conditions : so that a dead-house is always built in connection with a prison, and put to frequent use. Gray remarks the emaciated appearance of prisoners, who not being permitted to shave, look more like demons than men. Prison dress is red, with the name of the prison written in large characters on the back of the coat. Prisoners are occasionally released on such state occa sions as the accession of an Emperor, and there are frequent instances of officials giv ing money toward lightening the misery of the prisoners. For instance, a provincial treasurer named Ow once gave an amount to the salt monopoly, and devoted the inter est to purchasing comforts for prisoners in the principal jail of Canton. As may be judged, the prison officials, es pecially the lower grades, are well hardened, and by no means averse to sharing booty with a thief. The governor of a prison pur chases his appointment and receives no sal-