Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-08-07

hAa-EIAhtkO huA
tails OF Recent Robbery OF the
Seville Coach.
The Madrid correspondent of the
London Standard, of July 18th,
says:
:" Those who are fond Of adven-
ture in travel and who like excite
ment, may still find a country
where brigandage Aourishes. Most
people had grown to believe that
brigands had vanished from Euro
pean nations, like Cooper's red In
dams from New England. Greece
and some remote districts of Sicily
alone seemed to brave the vigilance
of the gendarmes who watch over
society in Southern Europe. 1t is
not many yearsago since everybook
of travels in the Peninsula was en-
liVened with animated narratives
of hard struggles with the gentle
men of the road. 1t must be said,
however, to the credit of Northern
Spain, from Asturias to Catalonia,
and from the Pyrenees to the Ebro,
that l never did in three years ex-
perience, and amid the confusion
and disorder of civil strife, hear of
a single instance of brigandage,
Coaches and travellers, carts and
mule trains were stopped and often
mulcted, but in every case by the
bands Of regular soldiers Of a prince
/ rho at one time ruled over eleven
provinces Of this country. Carlists
or Liberals would have sternly sup
pressed mere pillage or freebooting,
and as to the high-Spirited and
gallant peasanty Of Navarro or the
Basque provinces, their own Castil.
ian Judges and magistrates often
told me that Of all crimes
the least common were any
outrages on property9 1t is IL
Andalusia, the fair and sunny South
almost within a few leagues of oui
Gibraltar, that the 'bandoleros
brave Spanish tribunals anc
Spanish Police. They arr
a merry, intelligent, impul-
sive and gallant race, who vii
be hospitable and gay at times, 81
much so that they are called thu
, wits of Spain. But in the lanes o
the villages, as well as in the marrow
alleys of their large towns, Their
exists race of men who handl
knives with an utter contempt o
all restraint. Their brawls or thei
iollities often end in a scuflle, anC
the victims lie helpless, stabbed ant
bleeding, until the Judge comes u
Whenever a man falls the crow,
disperses, for fear of having to 'in
form the courts, and no one ha
!, seeii anything. In this manner wa
!. one of our fellow-countrymen stab
bed to death by a subalealde on
day of market and fair. The mur
+, derer is at large, though every on
t knows him, and the blood of tn
8 victim will never be avenged. Thes
cases are of frequent occurrence i
5 the ports, and if the Judge eve
q q does secure a conviction, the penalt
: is only a few years. penal sefvitud,
4 Out of these years the ofende
L barely spends half in the Preside
= if he has any interest with priest
: or deputies. If life is so little rt
!. spected among the lower classes it
hardly to be supposed that robber
will be considered as a very heinoU
!, crime. The old songs which mul,
Is teers and peasants sing every ever
ing at the wayside inns, OR posada
- us they are called, celebrate th
% deeds of daring accomplished j
olden days by the bold 'bandoleroi
t. With the progress of civilization
which has changed so many of Il
= features of Spanish life, the band,
lero has modified his habits. i
:, no longer lives in caves or mountai
! recesses. He will not make h
abode the sunburned SUBMITS
the snow-claa peaks of the Sier
Nevada. He will not carry b
spoils to some lonely glen, whe
the fig, the orange, or the myrt
y give a pleasant shade to the mou
n tain sides. He nowadays lives