"After a time the mine officials found that the coolies were not maintaining the monthly increase, and the management urged the Chinese controller to 'do something.' He refused to thrash the coolies unless they had committed some crime; and being informed by the manager that his policy would not suit, he gave two months' notice of his resignation.
"Meanwhile, the management issued instructions, because of advice from England, that flogging should be stopped as far as possible, but asking that other forms of punishment should be substituted.
"Thereupon certain forms of torture well known in the Far East were adopted. One of these was to strip erring coolies absolutely naked, and leave them tied by their pigtails to a stake in the compound for two or three hours. The other coolies would gather round and laugh and jeer at their countrymen, who stood shivering in the intense cold.
"A more refined form of torture was to bind a coolie's left wrist with a piece of fine rope, which was then put through a ring in a beam about nine feet from the ground. This rope was then made taut, so that the unhappy coolie, with his left arm pulled up perpendicularly, had to stand on his tip-toes. In this position he was kept, as a rule, for two hours, during which time, if he tried to get down on his heels, he must dangle in the air, hanging from the left wrist.
"Every mine has its lock-up for malingerers, deserters, and others. At the Witwatersrand the coolies are handcuffed over a horizontal beam.
"The floor is of concrete, and they may sit down, but the beam is so far from the floor that it is impossible for any but exceptionally tall men to sit while handcuffed. They must therefore squat, and for a change raise themselves in a semi-standing posture.
INSTEAD OF FLOGGING.
"When released, these prisoners stagger about until they regain the use of their legs; then they take their skoff and go below to work.