The Pacific Commercial Advertiser

CRUCIFIXION IN MUKDEN

BY KARL BARON BINDER.

Mukden. Manchuria, June 1.
Ten crucifixions and one beheading is the record of Chinese justice I witnessed today. The crucifixions, though, are only means for "securing" justice; as to the beheading. it is a means, or supposed means, for rooting out the bandit evil of which all Manchuria is suffering. The battlefield of justice is an open square outside the western gate, in the center a stone slab where the delinquent kneels to receive the death stroke, and nearby a well, surmounted by a half demolished pagoda. The latter is the receptacle for the heads. The bodies, or trunks, are thrown into a doorless vault, fodder for the dogs. Chinese charity puts the head, seat of the God-given brain and root of the much honored pigtail, out of reach of animals; about the rest of the cut up human beings it does not concern itself.
As the procession with today's victims was not yet in sight, there was time to pay a visit to the open air torture chamber, situate on the other side of a low wall which we scaled standing on the backs of our coolies. No less than ten Chunchuses (brigands were undergoing torture and slow death by crucifixion there may I never be forced to see anything so horrible again. The crosses were secured horizontally on piles, rising about four feet from the ground, a pillar under each of the four ends. The victims were nailed to the wood with one hand and one foot-they must be able to eat and drink. says the law. Yet these terribly tortured human beings were innocent in the eye of the law, according to the American way of thinking. The Chinese law provides that no person durst be executed until and unless he confesses to the crime of which he stands accused.
Today's batch of criminals, charged with brigandage, had refused to do so-hence the attempt to coerce them. For, awful as the punishment must be, it is not unendurable.
Witness one man who stood it for two long years. The latter I would not believe, but the Dsonsun, Chinese viceroy in Mukden corroborated the story after consulting the official records. The cross to which the two years' sufferer was nailed stood aloft, overlooking the place of execution. Permission having been secured, through a large bribe, the delinquent's friends raised the awful instrument of torture in the hope that the vista of quick executions beyond the wall might induce their relative to give up his struggle against fate, confess and allow himself to be beheaded. Horrible to relate, the crucified man, though he has seen many hundreds of heads cut off within the last twenty-four months, persists in prolonging his myriads of agonies.
Twice a day his faithful wife supplies him with food and drink at the end of a long stick. His partners in misery obtain their nourishment more directly, the jailers placing it within reach of their free hand. I purposely drop the subject, omitting all details of what I saw and heard, passing by the agonized appearance of the victims of this strange savagery, the rehearsal would be unfit reading for civilized people.
From the top of the wall a fellow correspondent left behind to watch proceedings, shouted, "They are coming." whereupon we returned to the place of execution.
But only a big cloud of dust was visible in the direction of the city. "I called you back to help me drive off these confounded dogs," said our colleague, "there is a heap of stones, let's give it to them."
I counted seventeen gaunt, haggard curs feeding off the bodies of three men, executed the day before. With their teeth they had dragged the headless trunks from the vault, and despite our persistent fusillade were unwilling to let go of their prey. When I left in my "rikshaw" an hour later. I noticed a profusion of gnawed human bones, distributed over the square.
PROCESSION ARRIVES.
Suddenly horn signals and tom-toms, a convoy of horsemen, foot soldiers and civilians, shining bayonets and prancing ponies, while above the throng floated two enormous black banners, inscribed with Chinese letters in white. The viceroy's mounted guards, heading the column. outlined three angles of a wide, hollow square, while the fourth was formed by infantry in black jackets, ditto turbans, and with bayonets fixed.
Behind the soldiers of the Son of Heaven came a troop of Russian infantry men. who seemed to regard the sorry business a festive occasion. for, in defiance of accustomed discipline, the men smoked and indulged in jests of all sorts.
Now a two-wheeled cart, drawn by two horses, tandem fashion. The first animal bore the executioner, a pompous individual in a long robe, shouldering a broad sword. The hands of the prisoner were unfettered, but when he was taken off the cart We noticed that his feet were stuck in wooden blocks.
At that moment an "Ah" of appreciation went up from the reporters' gallery." Barring the correspondents, of course. the culprit was the best looking man in the audience--I never saw a Chinaman with a more open, straight-forward and pleasing face. It had energy and character in it, a finely modeled nose and a firm mouth. And such self-possession-a judge delivering an opinion intended to establish his reputation forever and a day never appeared on better terms with himself
On account of the wooden anklets the headman's helpers were obliged to assist their prey in walking. They did so in a friendly spirit and the prisoner rewarded them by smiles and jokes.
When the party reached the line of rikshaws where your correspondent sat enthroned with others. the prisoner indulged in a low obeisance, held out his left hand and drew the index finger of his right across in imitation of writing. He understood that he was good "copy" for us and seemed to be rather proud of the fact.
SHORT PROCEEDINGS.
Another signal: preparations for the last toilette. The delinquent's coat and undercoat are removed and all is ready for the last act, the last but one. The polite Mongol must not be asked to die before he has taken leave of his audience. He paid his first compliments to the sword, the vice regal representative, who got a snap of the fingers for his authority and a smile for his person; then, as is fit, a low bow to the press-who says that the pen is not mightier than the sword?-and finally a pleasant grin all around. This uncultured Mongol had a greeting for all, mere curiosity-seekers and soldiers alike. That duty performed, he knelt complacently down on the stone slab, allowing his pigtail to fall over his forehead.
The executioner jumped from the horse, raised the two-headed sword high above his head and cried, "Ta," Manchurian slang for "Here goes." But he knocked only a hole in the back of the poor devil's head.
"Ta," repeated the rascal, grinning all over his face; the second stroke broke the neck bone, but the flesh being not completely severed, he stepped up to the patiently kneeling man and cut off his head slowly and painfully, while his assistants stood by to catch the spouting blood on balls of cotton fastened to sticks. These must be sent to Peking. in proof of the execution.
But for the headsman's awkwardness, the execution was not nearly as revolting as similar acts prolonged by intolerable judicial ceremonies I witnessed in Europe and the United States. This as far as concerns the execution itself.
I thought the worst over, but it was not, for now the executioner's men threw themselves like vultures upon the dead body for their perquisites, the clothes and scant jewelry. They stripped it completely, with many rough jokes, re-echoed and applauded by the native soldiery.
ASKED CORRESPONDENTS FOR MONEY,
At the same time the executioner took up the head by the pigtail and showed it all around. Next he addressed the rik-shaws, shouting in pigeon English, "Me like mon for show." As he approached your correspondent swinging the bleeding head in his left hand. I threw a Mexican dollar hard in his face, so disgusted was I with the brute, but the form of displeasure I adopted seemed to please him exceedingly. and to get rid of the gory spectacle, my colleagues had to follow suit. After gathering all the money possible to collect the young rascal threw the head upon the naked trunk. wiped his sword on the latter and wrapped it in yellow cheese-cloth. Next I saw him shoulder arms and march down the line of applauding spectators, v'ho greeted him as an audience of bloodthirsty Spaniards is wont to acclaim a victorious bull sticker.
The line of soldiery wheeled about and admitted a sorry procession, the parents, wife, children, uncles and cousins of the late brigand, who come to claim his body and carried it off in a miserable dry goods box, marked "Moscow." Poor devils. they probably sold their last belongings to obtain the permit by bribing a dozen, or more, high and low officials.
The Mongol, as we have seen, and the Chinaman in general, does not fear death a bit. his great ambition is to have an honorable burial and unless his relatives procure that for him they imagine themselves haunted by the spirit of the departed. The brigands executed the day before were undoubtedly outcasts-otherwise they would have delayed their execution by refusing to confess, until some relative had promised to take care of them after death.
As I drove home behind the panting coolie I asked myself for the 10th time since I came to these latitudes: What makes the Asiatic superior to us so-called civilized people in the face of death? Of all the peoples of this earth, Europeans and their descendants alone suffer from fear of death, while natives of Asia, Africa and India accept the inevitable smilingly. We Europeans and our children beyond the seas may be brave in many ways, but in the face of death we are miserable cowards, every one of us.
CHINESE ROBBERS.

The executed man belonged to one of the numerous robber bands terrorizing Manchuria. which. I learn, are organized after the fashion of the Boxers. and as they used to do. claim that foreign competition and lack of employment force them to an unlawful life. It is quite possible that their leaders are in the' pay of the Japs, at any rate, they murder and rob indiscriminately, natives, Chinamen and Russians. Excepting the Russians, they treat foreigners with the respect due them. I know of a dozen or more Chinese expeditions sent against these hordes that were promptly whipped by the outlaws. Whenever a Chinese victory over robber bands is reported you may take it for granted the latter were outnumbered a hundred fold at least.
When I drove past the palace of the Russian master of police, theincumbent of that important office, Staff Captain Gross, called to me from the window:
"Have you seen the execution?"
"Yes."
"Well, come in and thank me for the privilege."
"What have vou got to do with those atrocities?" I asked, after we had lit our cigarettes before the steaming samovar.
"Everythingwithout my signature the decrees of the Chinese viceroy are nonbinding. In the case of his excellency's last victim. I hesitated long before signing the decree, for the evidence presented did not seem to warrant extreme measures."
"What about the crucifixions. are they your work, too?" asked the correspondent.
Captain Gross moved uneasily in his chair:
"Well, not exactly. The Chinese are in possession of the lower jurisdiction and administer it according to their lights."
I cut short my visit and went to my hotel.
Dr. Smith, an American missionary, had called in my absence leaving his card and a Bible. As I opened the good book, I read on the top of the page:
"St. Matthew, 27."
I read the whole chapter and it seemed to me that Pontius Pilate of old had a successor in Mukden.