Even were we to accept the cruellest estimate in regard to punishment by the bamboo, it would only go to show that humanitarian feelings in China are lagging somewhat behind our own.

In _The Times_ of March 1, 1811, we read that, for allowing French prisoners to escape from Dartmoor, three men of the Nottingham militia were sentenced to receive 900 lashes each, and that one of them actually received 450 lashes in the presence of pickets from every regiment in the garrison.

On New Year's Day, 1911, a eunuch attempted to assassinate one of the Imperial Princes.

For this he was sentenced to be beaten to death, some such ferocious punishment being necessary, in Chinese eyes, to vindicate the majesty of the law.

That end having been attained, the sentence was commuted to eighty blows with the bamboo and deportation to northern Manchuria.
The Chinese woman often, in mature life, wields enormous influence over the family, males included, and is a kind of private Empress Dowager.
A man knows, says the proverb, but a woman knows better.