The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-23
SOLDERING LIN HAYIL
HUNGRY PRIVATES SUPPORT THEM
SELVES BY BEGGING.

Queer Way the Haytian Authorities Have
of Taking Care of Their Convicts and
warrfors-They Travel in Pairs and
Beg in the Streets Day by Day.
Philip Mcdowell is an old and well
known New Yorker. He was a volun-
teer fireman once, and all old New York
ers know what that means. Of late
years Mr.. Mcdowell has Travelled extern
sively abroad. He visited Hayti. A
day or two ago 2 reporter asked him
what was the most striking thing hs
saw in the black republic.
81 saw many strange things in HayH,
but the strangest of all was the way the
soldiers and prisoners are transformed
into beggsrs and are forced to live on
charity. When a prisoner is sentenced
to do time there he doesn't have a uni
form, he learns no trade and he doesn' t
get anything to eat from the govern
Inent. He is allowed to beg, though,
for money and grub, and if he won't beg
well, he can starve.
''This begging is afunny 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 his prisoner
to Jail and goes up to the fort to show
that he has his musket all right, and
hasn't sold it for drinks or square meal
during the day"
SOLDIERS GET NO PAY.
"But don't the Haytian soldiers get
pay?"
mo, they don't. Any money there is
in the army goes to the generals, and of
them there are enough to command the
combined armies of Europe and America.
Once in long while the Haytian soldier
gets a dollar, which is worth about
seventy cents in our money, but he and
the prisoners live by begging. They goin
twos from house to house and from store
to store. Sometimes they have a good
day and make a dollar and sometimes
they don't make fifty cents, but what
ever 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
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 Hay
tan soldiers carry. They are all old
cap and ball cerncerns, as like as not to
go off at the wrong end.
"Take a soldieA a sailor or a fireman
with Us, and they all have a pride in
keeping all their tools neat and clean;
but military pride isn't in the game that
the Haytian soldier plays. When he
gets home after a days begging he
pitches his old musket into a corner Just
as laborer in the street cleaning depart
ment gets rid of his shovel. 1t NAV be
rusty and honeycombed, but as long as
he can show up with it at the fort and
satisfies the government that it hasn't
gone to the junk shop he's happy"
DEATH OF NO ACCOUNT.
"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 together
If they've made out well.
81 suppose you'd imagine that prison
ers would often get away with these |
kind ofguardians, but they don't. When
ever the soldier takes it into his head /
that the prisoner is going to escape he
Just 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
soldier and drunken prisoner. Now
SAID my friend, you watch that fellow
and see if he doesn't take it into his
head that his prisoner is going to escape.
and If he does he will shoot him Sure
enough, minute or two after the
drunken prisoner staggered into the mid
die 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-Prlnce as they are at Jacmel and the
smaller towns on the island, but the diff
ference is not worth talking of. Havti
collects plenty Of money in duties. but it
S all grabbed by few men, while the
mass Of the people are left to get on. as /
best they can, aud are forced to support
out of their pockets as objects of charity
soldiers and convicts, New York Re
,prjar