, although since the Yuen-nan Rebellion it has not been
by any means so frequent. I have no space nor inclination to deal with
the ghastly tortures inflicted upon prisoners in the name of that great
equivalent to justice, but the more one knows of them the more can he
appreciate the common adage urging _dead men to keep out of hell and the
living out of the yamens_!

Hua-chow is thirty li from here at the head of an abominable hill, and
here women, overlooking one of the worst paved roads in the Empire, were
beating out corn. Then we climbed for another twenty-five li, rising
from 5,900 feet to 8,200 feet, till we came to a little place called
Tien-chieng-p'u. It took us three hours. Looking backwards,towards
Tali-fu, I saw my 14,000 feet friends, and as we went down the other
side over a splendid stone road we could see, far down below, a valley
which seemed a veritable oasis, smiling and sweet. A temple here
contained a battered image of the Goddess of Mercy, who controls the
births of children. A poor woman was depositing a few cash in front of
the besmeared idol, imploring that she might be delivered of a son. How
pitiable it is to see these poor creatures doing this sort of thing all
over the West of China!

For two days we had been accompanied by a man who was an opium smoker
and eater. Now I am not going to draw a horrible description of a
shrivelled, wasted bogey in man's form, with creaking bones and
shivering limbs and all the rest of it; but I must say that this man,
towards the time when his craving came upon him, was a wreck in every
worst sense--he crept away to the wayside and smoked, and arrived always
late at night at the end of the stage. This was the effect of the drug
which has been described "as harmless as milk." I do not exaggerate. In
the course of Eastern journalistic experience I have written much in
defence of opium, have paralleled it to the alcohol of my own country.
This was in the Straits Settlements, where the deadly effects of opium
are less prominent. But no language of mine can exaggerate the evil, and
if I would be honest, I cannot describe it as anything but China's most
awful curse. It cannot be compared to alcohol, because its grip is more
speedy and more deadly. It is more deadly than arsenic, because by
arsenic the suicide dies at once, while the opium victim suffers untold
agonies and horrors and dies by inches. It is all very well for the men
who know nothing about the effect