Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-04-20

tne Daeolts--1A sample Case Of the 1nef
 aeiency of the Police omcers.
 Burma is one of the countries that are changing very fast. and one of the things that have changed i'll Burma is the daeoit. The eportive gentlemen de seribed by Rudyard Kipling and others who crucified villagers wholesale and filled old ladies with kerosene were f1ourishing in full yigor less than ten years ago, but they already belong as completely u the past as Dick Turpin and his colleagues in England. Nodoubt fresh war or any event seriously shak ing the British power or reputation might produce q reerudeseenee of the old disease, but in the meantime the daeoits have entirely changed their habits. h. stead of living together i'll bands in the jungle they are scattered through sepa. rate villages ill tho guise of peaceful eultiyators. During the day each mar. attends to his paddy fields just like hin neighbers, and it is only at night thas they meet together for the dispatch of their more importanta and lucrative busi. ness.
 Daeoity as defined 7 law is simply robbery committed by a band of five men or more, and it is important only because of the Burman's s strong natural propensity toward it and the great diffi- culties which his national character places in the way of his detection. It must alway. be remembered that, Bur- ma boing in < transition stage and much less settled than India and ths government being extremely short hand. ed, an immense amount of various kinds of work falls upon each single English 1 official. Hence it is wholly impossible for him to exercise any close er detailed supervision over any particular part of his district. This of itself renders the detection of criminals difficult mat ter. When the dacoits were in the woods it was simply q case of turning out oc. easionally to hunt them down. At pres ent the mater must necessarily be left chiefly in tb9 bands of natives.
 Now, the natives are for the most part honest and tolerably law aniding, and they have no sympathy whatever with a man wlo goes dacoiting, but the daooit goes alDled. and the supineness and cowa1dice of the Burman in the presence oe arms, more particularly of firearms, are fomething almost incem. prehensible 10 the western mind. It it ] quite sufficient for party of half dozen men to have 2 gun among them-effect. i've CT useless, loaded or empty. matters little, the mere show is enough-mand they may 20 fearlessly to work in the midst Of crowd. No one will interfere with them In more than one instance i bold robbers have made successful at. tacks when armed merely with their dabs-the dagger which every Burmap carries-and with a pretended rife madh of stick, with which they frightened off all opposition.
 But perhaps the strange workings Of the native character arc best exhibited in the following easo, which occurred quite recently. The facts are veuehed for by an English officer: There was band of five men who were ill the habit of praetieing aeoity occasionally. Three of them came from the same village not common thing, as it makes deteo- tion easier the fourth from another village, and, as for tke fifth, no man knows whence he came, for reasons that will appear. One night these five men, armed with nothing bpt their knives and spears, which are used for fishing in lower Burma entered house, tied up the owner and began plunderin9. Now, this house was in q large village containing not orly q population q some 400, l15 3 police post with r. native policemen armed with sniders tbe alarm vas siyen and the house surrounded. aud then therc was pause The robbers continued their work undis turbed within. Tho viiiaeers, some 200 or 300 ablebcdied men, al more or less armed sat around on the dam which surrounds and protects every house on the delta, loakeddown on the house am. discussed thu question. The police stoot rather nearaa the house and fired shots into it through the bamboo walls, hurt. ing no one.
 One solitary policeman after ti.ns volunteered 10 advance. He crept up quite close to tho house and fired in through an opening iii the wall. Then he vent farther and actually put his head and part of his body through the aole, apparently to see what execution Ee had done. One of the robbers prompt y pinned him to the ground with a tish spear and killed him. By this time they nad completed their preparations; se they sailied forth, each man with ht. pack of plunder on his back. Though the house was surrounded, they appear to have had no difficulty iii making their way through, only the police fired after them with buekshot and hit three of them in the back. not seriously 1 wounding them. Bui Gnu of the banl 1 had the misfortune to stumble and fall. | Instantly the crowd rushed upoa him, l and before he coaM rise literally hacked him 10 pieces, and so effectively that .,pf tba c1iphfnst ffh to iftanti4n