The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-31

by the French, while pcssing from Mazatlan
on the Pacific TO Guadaliara in the diligence,
with a party of three ladies, four children,
and an old man of seventy, well.mounted,
well-organized troop of ten men overhauled
us. To show fight under the circumstances
would have been madness; hence we submit
ted gracefully, losing money, watches, arms
no more. 1t was time when the road
swarmed with bandits, some under the Liberal
flag, others independent. A view of the stu
tion indicated very clearly our condition.
The next band finding no money, would
take our clothes and rifle our baggage The
next, finding nothing else, would take our
lives. Indeed, when a man puts himself IN
the way of being robbed here, it is necessary
to have something to be robbed of. His per-
son will suffer for his poverty. There is no
remission for the sin of travelling with an
empty purse. Our case was submitted to the
robber chief, and the old man-our Spanish
spokesman-was eloquent and ndcomplimentary
His logic seemed irresistible; for, without
wood of parley, the chief wheeled his horse,
ordered his men in front and rear of us, and
motioned the driver to push on. He re-
manned with us all that day, drove off and
talked off no less than four robber bands,
and saw us safely in the gdrritG at Guadal-
ara. Since the close of the late war l saw
on the streets of the capital this same robber
chief, now an officer high in rank in the ma
tional army.
"A well-organized band makes no attack
unless certain of a prize Each band has its
emissaries in the towns on the road where it
operates. The number and nationality of
each load of passengers are accurately re-
ported at the principal rendezvous in time to
attack; spies watch every movement of the
traveller. The exposure of watches or Jew
elry or money at stations is sure to provoke
attack If arms are aboard and carried by
Americans or English, the prize must be a
rich one to induce an assault. They abhor an
armed 'Gringo' (American), and dislike to war
on women. Ruffians as many of them are.
they rarely commit great outrages upon
ladies. But it has occurred more than once,
and with circumstances of horrible cruelty
"a life's experience has made them adopts
in the business of robbing. They are swift
and noiseless in their researches. An expert
hand will relieve dozen persons in a twink
ling. Your purse, watch, or shawl goes be-
fore you have time for reflection. You won
der, when it is all over, how it could have
happened. They have a wonderful pcHctaHt
for rings, diamond pins and jewelry of all
kinds When the spoils are gathered, and
your baggage ransacked, the polite bandit
lights a cigar, offers one to each passenger,
and, bowing low as he turns, spurs rapidly
away and is lost in the dense chapparal
use of the lasso. He catches his mules and
cattle and horses on the prairie with it, and if
he chooses to adopt the life of an outlaw, his
past practice ensures success in catching men.
He sits a horse gracefully, and rides wherever
man can ride. If he is alone, and fears the
bullet or lance of his contemplated victim, he
resorts to the lasso. Riding on the table
land west of San Luis in the month of May
the writer was brought face to face with two
~,
were at gallop. The pursuer, when within
forty yards of his victim, loosened his lasso
from the saddle, swung it round his head for
half minute, and as he spuued forward
dropped it like a loop over the travellers
head. He then turned his horses head, struck
across the plain, and brought his prey to the
ground. Dragging him short distance over
the grass, he ahghted suddenly, rifed the
pockets of watch, purse, and pistols, and was
off like the wind before a bullet could reach
him.
1.-The Government has resorted to every
species of legislation to break up the system.
The criminal code is nearly uniform in all the
States. Stealing horse, stopping the dill
gence, forcible entry of building with the
theft of the simplest article are all crimes
punishable by death In a country like
Mexico, however 1t must not be presumed
that justice always overtakes the evil-doer,
even when he is fairly caught. Money has
many uses, one of them being to compromise
cases-in short, to purchase the lives of
criminals. In this land there is no hope for
a man destitute of friends and money. For
such there is but one way. He passes the
processes of the law without delay, goes out
with the pitiless guards, receives the well-aimed
shots, and the majesty of the law is vindi.
Gated. Then there is blast of trumpets
III the newspapers in praise Of justice in this
| republic. EXtenuating circumstances are
sometimes seen in aggravated cases, the
| tongues of witnesses grow dumb, or the con-
| Victed murderer or robber is spirited off to
another State. 1t is money that is potent to
arrest the bullet, that buys witnesses, and
| that opens the prison gates to the greatest and
most notorious brigands and criminals in the
| land. Official corruption permeates through
| every branch of the courts and the sum of it
! is beyond conception. There are well au-
| thenticated cases in every canton, of attorney
and judge bidding against each other for ad-
vice to release criminal and cheat the law:
| instances, and scores of them, where ten dol
lars and twenty dollars saved the lives of
men, and where the want of that amount sent
others to felons graves.
Although the law condemns the system of
! brigandage, society as a mass does not. 1t is
| not an uncommon thing here for noted rob-
Der to be admitted into the best of society
and rise to civil distinction. The antecedents
of most of the military men would not bear
| rigid investigation. When man abandons
the road the doors of society are opened to
him. The worst phase of chivalry is a living
reality in Mexico. If it has degenerated into
brigandage in the eyes of the outside world,
be sure natives do not see it in that light
Ii is Castilian offshoot, and revered still as
in olden times. The ballad that has lived
longest in Mexico is one that extols the