Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-07-02
SOLDIERS GO A-BEGGlNG.
How the Haytian Authorities Support
Their Conyicts and Warriors.

InefT COnyICIS anu w Sc
Philip Mcdowell is an old and we'll
known New Yorker. He was volun-
teer fireman once, says the New York
Recorder, and all old New Workers
know what that means. OF late years
Mr.. Mcdowell has travelled extensively
abroad. Last winter he visited Haytl.
A day or two ago reporter asked MN
what was the most striking thing he saw
in the black republic.
81 saw many strange things IN Hayti,
but the strangest of all was the way
the soldiers and prisoners are trans
formed into beggars and are forced to
live on charity, When prisoner IS
sentenced to do time there he doesn't
have a uniform, he learns no trade and
he doesn't get anything to eat from the
government. He is allowed to beg,
though, for money and grub, and If he
won't beg-Well, he can starve.
"This begging is funny kind of bust
ness. Take the prison at Jacmel for in
stance. Well, every morning they fire
the prisoners out to pick up whatever
they can get, and each fellow has a SOL
der along with him to see that he doesn't
run away. The two beg together all
day and whack up in the evening.
Then the soldier brings back mis- prison
er to jail and goes up to the fort to show
that he has his musket all right and
hasn't sold it for few drinks or square
meal during the day
"But don't the Haytian soldiers get
pay ?" - .,,,
is in the army goes to the generals, and
of them there are enough to command
the combined armies Of Europe and
0pnn in lone Wy hI1n tho
Haytian soldier gets a dollar, which is
worth about 70 cents in our money, but
he and the prisoners live by begging.
They 90 in tWos from house to house
and from store to store. Sometimes
they have good day and make dollar
and sometimes they don't make so
cents, but whatever it is they must live
on it.
"The soldier himself is a scarecrow.
He has never been drilled, has no uni
form to speak of, and if he hadn't
a musket to carry around with him you
couldn't tell him from the prisoner he is
taking care of. You recollect the old
Long Toms we had in our army before
the war? Well, that's the kind the
Haytian soldiers carry. They are all
old cap and-ball concerns, as like as not
to 90 eff at the wrong end. Take sol
der, a sailor, or fireman with us, and
they all have a pride in keeping all
the game the Haytian soldier plays.
When he gets home after a days beg
ging he pitches his old musket into a
corner Just as an Italian laborer in the
street-cleaning department gets rid of
bis shovel. 1t may be rusty and honey
combed, but as long as he can show up
with it at the fort and satisfies the gov
eminent that it hasn't gone to the junk
shop he's happy"
1.-The soldiers and the prisoners must
be pretty good chums?"
"Well, that's very much as you take it.
It's common sight to see the guard and
the prisoner reeling home drunk to-
gether if they've made out well. AS
rule, too, more of the aims they get goes
for liquor than goes for bread.
81 suppose you dimagine that prison
ers would often get away with these
kind of guardians, but they don't.
Whenever the soldier takes it into his
head that the prisoner is going to escape
he lust shoots him dead, and that's all
there is to it. No coroner comes around
and post-mortems are unknown. Why,
| was walking one day with friend on
one of the chief streets of Jacmel.
Right in front of us was drunken sol
dier and drunken prisoner. Now
said my friend, you watch that fellow
and see if he doesn't take it into his
head that his prisoners going to escape,
and if he does he will shoot him.
Sure enough a minute or two after the
drunken prisoner staggers into the
middle of the street, and the equally
drunken soldier ups with his Long Tom
and shoots him dead.
''Things are not quite as bad at Port
au-Prince as they are at Jacmel and the
smaller towns on the island, but the
difference is not worth talking Of. Hay
ii collects plenty of money in duties,
but it is all grabbed by few men, while
the mass of the people are left to get on
as best they can and are forced to sup
port out of their pockets as objects of
charity soldiers and convicts."