People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-11-12
SAFE IN OLD MEXICO.
Mrs. Reed Writes Entertaining
Iy of that Country.
THE PEOPLE FEAR THE LAW
Diaz' Master Stroke With Rural Police
and What it Has Done for That
COuntry-Attempted Assassi-
nation and Its Result.

Since coming to M exico ten months
ago, we have been in receipt of numer-
GUS letters from friends and strangers
making inquiries as to the safety of
life and property in this, and other
mining and agricultural regions, of
Mexico.
Here in the mountains of Guerrero,
which are sufficiently remote from, and
inaccessible to, the Metropolis to war
rant apprehensions as to the security
OF foreigners among race of half-civ
ilized Indians, we unhesitatingly say
we feel quite as secure in both person
and property as when we were living
in a sober little town in Wiregrass
Georgia.
Who shall say we are not safer, even,
when it is considered that we enjoy
i'm immunity from the danger of railroad
travel. are quite out of the reach of
doctors or drug store, are visited by
neither cyclones nor earthquakes and
have nothing to disturb an ideally
healthy exis tence save the disorder and
distress columns of our home newspa-
pers.
We are not in love with our neigh
Dor, the Pinto, but we certainly are
not in the least afraid of him. In the
first place, he is only too glad to get
the fifty cents day we pay for his
Indifferent services, to say nothing OF
the remuuerative market our camp and
mine affords for his beans, potatoes,
cheeses, chickens, etc; and in the Sec
ond place he has had some experience
with his master. Porfrio Diaz, and
knows that a theft or an assault would
make him a prisoner, quickly, surely,
and with small hope of soon regaining
his freed I'M.
The ordinary Mexican does not mind
being mean, but he loves his liberty
above all things.
The Laws in Mexico appear to the
visual organs of her present inhabi-
tants in capital letters, for they are as
uDyielding as those of the Modes and
Persians
One shudders to think what Diaz
must have done in the early years of
his presidency, while he was re-making
his tur bulent and lawless country, to
have thus succeeded, within less than
twenty years, in imbuing all classes,
even to the remotest businesses, with
such a wholesome fear of, aud respect
for, the laws.
| Diaz first master stroke in this line
was the organization of "The Rurales,"
wiping out as it did in few years the
Dauus O. DrkauuS InaG nItsu0 CraVSi
through Mexico something more than
dangerous.
This rural police force, twelve regi-
ments strong, is said to be the best
mounted and most efi Gent body of ir-
regular troops in the world, and thew
are Justly the pride of Mexico. They
look picturesq lie, imposing menacing,
each man like a brave Indian war; or
in his yellow leather uniform and like
Spanish grandee on his ma2nifcient-
ly caparisoned horse. The officers are
chiefly wealthy planters, while among
the intrepid privates are many OF the
old banditti to whom DiaZ made the
remarkable proposition to become
either law enforcers or to be shot as
| law breakers.
AS in any large city, the metropolis
OF Mexico offers opportunities for the
perpetration of crime, and here where
the thief, the swindler, the gamb err
and the midnight assassin ply their
trades, it behooves citizens and visitors
to exercise prudence.
The police are ceaselessly vigilant,
and strange ordinances, that apparent
ly invade the cherished domain of per-
sonal liberty, hang over the heads OF
her citizens. Fires in that city OF
stone are rare, but if even the lamp
explodes or q fue burns out so thai
flames are seen by the watchful polio :
very inmate of the building finds
himself under arrest pending an in
vestigation. The night policemen are
require to try every window and dool
of the ground floors on tn ir beat tc
discover if any careless householder
has left his house insecurity fastened
and a friend of ours with broker
lock on his window shutter was made
to appear at the offending aperture
three times in one night by three diff
ferent watchmen, and was officially
notified in the morning to have the
lock repaired. After all it gives al
American q conf ortable feeling o
security in the darkness of a strange
city to know that there are friendly, il
prying, eyes that never sleep.
A policeman on whose beat an OF
tense ia committe goes ignominiouslJ
to Jail for lack of vigilance, So that i
is often the watchtul eyes of tn
"oficial de policia" and not the THE
who pounces on the careless wearer o
diamond shirt studs in dangerous local
tiles, and the stern mandate is to con
ceal such bait for thievery or accom-
pany the officer to police headquar
tiers to sign an exoneration of tn
police should he lose his valuables,
Under the gentle flap of the Amer
can cage we have of course the priv
lege of imperiling our property an
even our lives, at will
Justice is goddess whom we Anglo
saxons reverence above all peoples
. and the fear of injustice to eveo tn
lowest criminal, our courts procrasti
, nate The precious scales of justic
are in danger of getti, 6 rusty Will
the judges ponder and the lawyer
talk, the people who suffer from tn
laws delay grow impatient and lyme
law becomes feature of the most &C
,, vanced nation of our day In MeXic
are practical laws sharply enforced,
large police force under military di'
: cipline and standing army of fit
thousand we'll trained soldiers, am th
result is less crime 20 the populato
i than in our more civilized country
I \ ~