The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-07-11
MODERN ToR1uREs.
Balmaceda Subjects Hrs Prisoners
to an InQulsition.

Balmaceda's agents almost pass be.
lief. A man without thinking gives
vent to his opinions of the dicta.
tor, and he is next day missing from
his accustomed haunts. Close scru-
tiny of one of the cells in the prison
will without doubt reveal the MISS
ing man, if he is a person who pos
sesses the secret. The usual course
pursued embraces fogging with
rawhide whips, pummeling of the
hands with mallets, striking the
body with thin sticks and depriving
him of food and water.
Several instances have come to
my knowledge. A man named Ju-
Illus Toro lives with his wife and
daughter in this city. One night a
sergeant and dozen soldiers went
to his house and asked Toro to fol-
low them. He did so. was taken to
Jail and locked up. Early next
morning he was taken before the
warden, who questioned him as to
the hiding place of Juan Boazo, one
of the insurgent chiefs. Toro told
him he did not know, whereupon
he was taken into the yard, tied to
post and horsewhipped for more
than an hour. He was delirious for
two days. Upon his recovery the
same questions were asked him, and
he was again whipped, when he gave
the same answer. This time the
whip lashes had small pieces of lead
on them and Toro's body was one
mass Of bruises. His daughter and
wife, half crazed with grief, called
on the warden for information as
to their husband and father and
were brutally struck and kicked out
of the warden's Office by half drunk
en- soldiers on guard. A passer-by,
said to be an English naval officer,
it seems, took sides with the women
and fight ensued in which two of
the guards were very badly hurt.
The officer was about to be shot by
the frenzied soldiers when the officer
in command appeared. The Eng
lishman told him who he was and
explained the circumstances. The
Chilian officer remarked that that
was the fate they deserved, to which
the Englishman replied, both finally
getting into heated argument. AS
he left the Englishman shook his
fist in the Chilian's face:
"When we get at you ours, we will
not leave one Of your carcasses to
tell the story" The poor women
were arrested and thrown into pris-
on. Nothing was given them to
wear, and report says they have
been brutally assaulted by the SOL
diers. Toro, l understand, will be
shot. His body is SO lacerated that
he cannot move in bed, and has to
remain in one position. Other
prisoners have been made to walk
on red-hot irons; heated pins and
needles have been stuck into their
flesh, and the rawhide has been used
in every case. Prisoners have been
kept for FIVE days without food or
water. In many instances the wo-
men prisoners have been made to
take part in the drunken orgies OF
their captors. Members of many
of the best families in this country
have been treated in this manner.
No attention is paid to age, sex or
physical ailments. One old Grip
Piled woman who was arrested was
whipped and tortured for week in
order to find out where her son, an
insurgent, was. At the end of the
week she died and thirty-six wounds
we're found on her aged body.
The soldiers bitterly hate the En-
glish and American sailors and oti-
GERS because these men cannot bear
seeing a lot Of drunken soldiers
dragging and clubbing and NAL
treating woman or man who has
his hands tied and cannot defend
himself. They remark something
and fight results in which, in spite
of their arms, the soldiers get
whipped.
Balmaceda is much incensed at
the press. Every journalist whom
he can order to be shot is promptly
killed. All negotiations for peace
have ended, and the insurgent COM
missioners have gone back to
Iquique on the French cruiser Volta
Balmaceda, as soon as the negotla-
tions had ended, tried to take them
claiming the passports were not IN
force from the time the negotiations
ceased. The French minister a'
once put the commissioners on
board the Volta, cleared her decks
for action and sent word to Balma'
ceda that if he wanted the insur'
gent commissioners he could come
| and take them, but that he would
have to fight for them.
O~;- moo+arn