The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-01-11
Fate BIacker Than Death for
Captured Insurgents.
ARE KEPT IN SOLITARY VAULTS
For More Than Thousan1 Years the
Spaniards Have Made a Study
OF 10 .ture.

island excites wonder at times in
the American mind, and some are in
clined to think them too bloodthirsty
in their system of warfare. 1t is true
very little quarter Is given the Spanish
soldiery in any of the conflicts where |
the insurgents have the upper hand.
but there is a good, substantial reason |
for this seeming heartlessness.
The soldiers of the insurgent army |
know that fate blacker than death |
will be their allotment If they fail. The |
kingdom of Spain has never displayed |
a gentle hand to its enemies. Dark |
echoes of the inquistion permeate it's
treatment of the malefactors, for as
such the Cuban insurgents are regard
ed The prison system of Spain is more
barbarous today than that OF either
Turkey or Russia, and that is saying a
good deal.
For more than a thousand years the
Spaniards have made study of torture,
and the long accumulation of know
ledge handed from one generation to an
other, and elaborated upon by each.
makes their prisons the worst on earth.
There are men forgotten and unnamed
rotting away in the Spanish dungeons
today, under conditions more horrible
than that pictured by Dickens in hie
Tale of Two Cities" in the character
of the old doctor confined In the Bastile
for rs years. Men who took part in the
previous Cuban rebellion, nearly a gene
ration ago, may still be living in the
dungeons. Thirty years hence some of
the men who are fighting so valiant
ly In Cuba may be rotting away in the
same pest holes. 1t is this prospect that
makes them desperate and bloodthirsty
and eager to accept thousand risks
to shake off the torture which awaits
them.
Eack week patches of Cuban suspects
are forwarded to Spain. To be sus-
poet is equivalent to being guilty, and
those who go will, in all probability,
never return. If a wealthy planter is
suspected of furnishing financial to the
insurgents he is bounced upon and ship
ped off. Infinitely better would have
been his fate had he Joined the insur-
gent army and been killed on the field
of battle.
THE GARROTE.
The ordinary suspect is not executed,
but If he be proved guilty of treason the
garrote will speedily end his troubles
The garrote Is the official form of capt.
tai punishment in Spain.
Nearly all of the death sentences are
executed in the Pradera de la Ysidro,
in Madrid. All executions are public,
and are usually held early in the morn
ing. The criminal is always mounted
upon the back of tiny Spanish donkey
and goes to the place Of execution in a
procession which consists Of citizens,
priests and soldiers.
Prior to leaving the prison in which
the condemned has been confined, mass
is celebrated, and the death sentence
is read to the guilty wretch. When the
prisoner reaches the place of execution,
he mounts a scaffold, black handker-
chief is tied over his face. and he 1.
manacled to a chair. Then around his
neck is placed the band of the garrote
Two turns of a powerful thumbscrew
brushes the neck Of the victim, and al
most sewers the head from the body.
Death is claimed to be absolutely in
Simultaneous. After the execution, the
body of the victim Is allowed to remain
for several hours in plain view of the
crowds which have seen the accomp.
Iishment of the deed of justice. All ex
ecutions are looked upon by the lower
abolished, the prisons themselves, com
bined with the system, are such tina
the agony of the culprit is continuou:
and long-enduring.
MANY SENT TO AFRICA.
AS far as possible the Spanish govern
ment sends all of her greater criminals
to her great convict colonies in Africa
or in the Canary or Balearic islands. II
the few towns which remain to Spaii
from her urcr-conquest of Northern AT
RIGA she houses her desperate convicts
They are hardly fitting relic of tn
once magnificent colonial empire of tn
kingdom. The largest penal colony o
the kingdom is on the two islands of tn
Baleares, situated in the Mediterran
can. near the coast of Valencia, Il
Spain. There the convicts are house.
like dogs in kennels. Day and nigh
they are forced to wear chains foo
long. which are suspended from a gir
die.
PRISONERS WORK.
They work in the cultivation Of whea
barley, yams. dates and figs, and
coffee plantations. the result of thei
labor being shipped to Europe, when
African colonies, and till the soil for II
products equally in Canary and Baleal
ic islands. The largest penal colony
the Canary islands is on the island {
Fuerteventura, which is sixty-thre
square leagues in dimensions and hs
q population of 5000, nearly all bein
convicts.
Deportation of these penal colonies
made in the most shiftless and cru
manner. From all parts of Spain II
prisoners who are to be sent to the pei