Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/156

horrors, and still the half would not be told. It is so all over the East, in fact much worse in China, where prisoners are subjected to all kind of torture by their jailers till the last tael is extracted from them, starvation and thirst being the mildest means used. The power of the jailer is absolute and there is no one to stand between him and the code that he lays down for the management of those who are so unfortunate as to fall into his power. In Bangkok the subject of prison reform has been agitated to some purpose by the missionaries and others, and prisoners are now better cared for, and treated with more leniency than in the past; much of this is owing to the fact that His Majesty is looking into matters of this kind, having had his attention called to it.