Connecticut western news., 1883-03-28
THE BLACK HAND.
POLITICAL TRIALS IN SPAIN.
Over One Thousand Prisoners on Trial for
 Conspiracy.
From the New York Hour.

| trials. Nearly thousand prisoners stand ready to plead They are charged with strange crimes. They have set up tribunals in the open air, and, while the moon shone bright overhead, have sen fenced wealthy men of the neighbor hood, brought trembling before them, to be instantly bound, shot and buried under heap of stones by the wayside They have broken into houses, stopped the mail-coach, murdered the driver and conductor, burned hay y-stacks, cut vines, torn up olive trees, maimed cattle, and reduced the most beautiful district in Spain to the desolation of wilderness.
 Never since the prisons of the French Revolution sent it's victims in tumbrils to the guillotine has so motley 8 crowd been gathered within the walls of jail
 Ordinarily noisome enough, the Andalu- sian prisons have now 8 close resem- blance to the Black Hole of Calcutta
 Penned together in the foul cells, the floor covered with dirty straw, with loaf of hard bread in one corner and a jug of muddy water in the other, now swearing and testing, forbidden to throw dice or play cards, these wild-eyed peas- ants, some of them old and white-haired, with blanket thrown over them, others of them young and stalwart, with cloak thrown jauntily over their shoulder. Friends they have outside, for letters and food find their way into their midst. Sympathetic mobs gather at the gates bowling for the release of the prioners. But the law is strong, the jailors are in- corruptible, handful of civil guards disperses the mob, and the manacles on the prisoners wrists and ankles are doubled.
 There is no more lovely valley in the world than that in which the City of Heres is placed. Luxuriant vegetation fringes the rivers which traverse it majestically. Vast herds feed on the slopes. Wealth untold and still un. sought lies hidden in the rocky soil. A patient population, accustomed to poverty, till the fields in patience, pay ing to others the fruit of their labor, earning for themselves 8 scanty sub- sistence. Middlemen of the class best known in Ireland and in Egypt gather their rent or serve them with notices of eviction. Their landlords are grandees who live in Madrid, buzzing round the court of King Alfonso, never moved to visit their territories in the South. How they gained those territories they could not tell. Their ancestors held them in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and their title has ever since been undisputed by the law.
 It has not been, however, undisputed by the people. There came time when the peasants refused to recognize the claim of the landowners, refused to pay rent to the middlemen. Civil guards and soldiers were sent against them, and the only result was an extraordinary out. break of brigandage and agrarian crimes. Anarchy reigned at Cadiz and Heres, Granada and Seville, Malaga and Almeria
 When the revolution broke out the labor. CTS and farmers joined hands, seized thei1 holdings and proceeded to divide cattle
 focks and implements of agriculture Alfonso came to the throne, sent out his
 troops and put the rebels down. Bu
 the mischief was not averted. Distress
 fell on the sunny plains; crops wer,
 ruined by the storms; thousands of me1
 were thrown out of employment II
 the cities there were attacks on the grana
 ries and bakers shops; operatives paradet the streets, carrying banners and de
 manding work. State relief was useless
 Municipal charity was exhausted. Tn people stood in the presence of starvation Then began carnival of crime. Rob bery on the highway, cattle stealing, in cendiarism, destruction of vineyards moonlight tattacks-these were for month the burden of the newspapers. Threat ening letters were received by the au thorities; landowners fled from the rura , districts. Among the wine-growers C Xerxes the socialist propaganda ha 3 spread. Many murders were reporte in lonely parts of the country; dozens ( p people mysteriously disappeared. Judge 5 came down with extraordinary powers
 civil guards conducted the most rigid 1T
 vestigations; but nothing of importanc
 could be learned. At last 8 servan
 called on his master, told him that h y was deputed by secret society to Xii u him, and gave information where tn ! leaders of the society might be found On the following night an attack WE . made on 8 lonely farm; the assailantl
 driven of, left one of their number bt . hind, and he, being at the point of deatl ID made confession attributing the dee u to the instigation of a secret society. Thus was discovered the .organizatio of The Black Hand" Its leaders vel ;, schoolmaster, smuggler and br
 gand. Its inspiration came from th
 defunct Internationale." Its plan ( ~ z, action was to tempt the discontented an '1 farm laborers into it's ranks, offerin " them relief in sickness or old age, an
 promising that their material conditio
 should be improved. Within the circl
 of casual recruits was formed an inne e circle, which gave itself the name of th Ia "Black Hand," and printed blac 'r hand on every warning missive which e sent out. It held its sessions by torcl d light, the members wearing masks. ), decoyed it's victims into lonely glen d slew and buried them there. It estal B. lished secret juntas over the entire r, Is zion, and partly by persuasion, partl n by force, compelled fifty thousand pc 1 A< ;.,s, :Ao {