Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-01-27

t'se Da5o.. sa,as'ie Case of t.,e fnef
 neiene2 CT tha i'al.ea ealeess.
 Bu-ma i5 orc q tho countries thar arc chaHciag 7etF taef. end ono of th8 things thft haye ehahged ia Bcrlna is tho dacoib Tho e8brtigh gentlemen de seribcd by Ead5aai .Nialiig md others who eruci8el rillaat E5 wiolesale arl filled old ladies' &eith korosono were loulishlag n Iaii vi8or less than ten yenrs ago, bat they a!nead3 beloHg eq completely 11 the past as Dick Turpin and his colleagues in En9iand. Nodoubt Q fresh war or any oyclt seriously ahal;. Ing tho British p5Wer CT reputation might prodtize n reerudeaecaee of tio old disease. bat1l the meantime fho daeeits hayo entirely ohaHgBd their habits h. stead Of living together ill bands in the jungle they arc. soattcrea through sopn- rate villages in tho guiea ef peaceful eultivatora. During tho day eech man intends to hi5 paddy folds just like his neighbors, tad it ig only ct night that they neot to8etAeffor the dispatch of their moro important and lucrative busi- ness.
 Dacdity us defined kg law ia simply robbery committed by q band of five men or more. and 1t is important only | because of tho Burman's etrong natural propensity tewar1 it and the great difii- culties whil h his national character placos in the way of his detection. It must alway. be remembered that, Bur ma being il transition stage and much loa3 settled than India and the government teing extremely short hand cd, an irlne2lse amount of various kinds of work fall1 upon each single English ofiioial Hence it is wholly j1npossib ble for him to eXarcise any close or detailed supervision over any particular part of his district This of itsclf rondors the detection of criminals difficult mat ter. Whom tia daeoi5a were in tho wo6ds it wss simply ceea of turning out oo-. caslonally to hunt them down. At pHea- ent the matter must necessarily be left chiefly in t,Q hands of natives. #.
 Now, the natives af0 for the most part honest and tolerably law abiding, and they have no sympathy whatever with q man who goes daeoiting, but the daeoit goes Gtmed, and tho supinenaGs and eeWafdIee of the Burnan in tho presence of arms moro particularly of firearms, Gra something almost ineom- i prehensiblo to the western mind. It is quite sufficient for party of half a dozen men to have q gun among thom-effect- i've or useless, loaded or empty, mattors littlo, tho mere show i8 enough-and they may go fearlessly to work il the midst of Q crowd, No one will interfere with then In moro than one instance bold robbers have made successful at taoks when armed merely with their dabs-tho dagger which every Burman carries-and with pretended rifle made of stick, with which they frightened of all opposition.
 But perhaps the strange workings of the native character arc best exhibited in tho following easo. which occurred quite recently. Tho facts are vouched for by an English officer; There was a band of five mon who were in the habit of praetioing dBcoi{y occasionally. Three of them oaMe from tho same village not Q common thing, as it makes detec- tion oasier--tbo fourth from another village. and, as fer the fifth, no man knows whonce he eamo, for reasons that will appear One night those five men, armed with nothing but their knives and spears, which are used for fishing ill lower Burma, entered a house, tied up the owner and began plundering Now, this hoGso was in large village, containing net only population of some 1,400, but a police post with 15 native policemen armed with sniders The alarm was given and tho house surrounded, and then there was pause The robbers continued their work undis- turbed within. The villagers. somo 200 or 300 ablebodied mon, all more or less armed, sat around on the dam which surrounds and protects every. house on tho delta, looked down on the house and discussed tho question. Tho police stood rather nearer the house md fired shots into 1t through the bamboo walls, hurt ing no one.
 One solitary policeman after a time volunteered to advance. He erept up l quito oloso to the house and fired in through an opening in tho wall. Then [ no went farther and actually put his head and part of his body through tle hole, apparently to see what execution he had done. Once the robbers prompt ly pinned him to tke ground with fish spear and killed him. By this time they had completed their r1eparationg; So they eallied fovth, each naa with his pack of piunder on his back. Though tic house was surround@l they appear so have had no difficulty in making their way thraagh, epl5' tao police fired after them with buekshet and Lit three Of them ill the bcca. rot sorioaaly woanding theln. But o,e Of the hnnd had the misfoetGna ta sSaablo and fall. Instantly the crowd ru2tlea taea him, nnd before he eaaM iea1itoEaEly A;.eNe6 hisa to pi2ces, cnd go etfecdYeI1 that not tho slightest elaW ta his is:Iustfg