Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1898-12-29
THEIR HEADS CUT OFF
MEANS EMPLOYED TO DIS
COURAGE TAX DoDoINo,
when -ehs sultan OF Morocco Can't Catch
'Em, Then He wrsaks Vengeance ON
Helpless subjects He Finds In the
Same Vicinity. v

'Em. Then He wrsaks Vengeance ON
Helpless subjects He Finds In the
Same Vicinity. v
The sultan of Morocco is going to
prevent his subjects from evading the
payment of their taxes, even If in doing
1t he has to behead every tax dodger
In the country. In his majesty's do
main tax-dodging by the rich is we'll
nigh universal, and well-informed stu
dents and travellers, knowing how cor
rupt and rapacious the sultan's gov
eminent is, do not doubt that much of
it is justif1able. But the sultan looks
at the matter in different light. He
declares that there is no excuse for tax
lodging, that it is criminal, and, more
over, that he has hit upon punish
ment to fit the crime. Frank E. jack
son, globe-trotter of 80 years expe-
rience, has recently made tour of
North Africa, including the accessible
parts of Morocco, and in a personal
letter to Frank l.. Dingley of Lewiston,
Me-, brother of the well-known con-
gresham of that name, he gives a
graphic account of the sultan's bloody
and desperate method of procedure.
While in Tangier, Mr.. Jackson learned
that the sultan, at the head of a large
body of troops, was marching through
the country collecting taxes, and that
at Laroiche he had decapitated a large
number of tax-dodgers and spiked their
heads above the city gates, to serve as
a warning to others who might not be
disposed to pay their dues promptly.
IA company Of five was formed"
writes Mr.. Jackson, "to visit Laroiche
and see if this CHASTITY report was true.
The party consisted of an Englishman
who spoke Arabic, a German and three
Americans. We boarded small steam
boat at Tangier and sailed down the
coast of Cosa Blanca. There we en-
"a very prudent thing to do), and early
in the morning started to Laroiche,
about twenty-five miles inland. 1t was
beautiful country through which we
passed, fertile and we'll cultivated, the
monotony of the desert relieved by the
ever-present palm. But it is a country
centuries behind modern civilization.
Women are still sold into virtual slav-
cry and not infrequently to take the
places of beasts of burden. More than
once along the way we saw farmer
~ 10 Inn fo NJ In
yoked together drawing the pillow. We
reached Laroiche about noon. It is i'm
possible to describe the sickening sight
which met our gaze as we rode up to
the main entrance to the city. There
above us, in CHASTITY row, were fif-
teen human heads shriveling in the
broiling sun. We rode around to the
other gates, only to find the same
grewsome display. In all we counted
fortyffve heads spiked to the board
arches over the city gates. Our curios
fly was fully satisfied and all of us re-
GREETED that we had travelled so far to
learn that there was at the close of
the nineteenth century so barbarous a
country on the face of the earth as
Morocco. And not all Of the heads
were those of tax-dodgers; some were
of old men and women who had never
possessed anything worth taxing. 1t
seems the sultan had vented his spite
on them after learning that number
of the wealthy residents of the city had
been warned of his coming and had
fled to the mountains, taking their cash
and other portable valuables with
them. These murderous raids are made
once year by the sultan, and it is
said that he nearly depopulates some
Of the districts through which he pass
es. Upon trustworthy authority we
learned that what we saw at Laroiche
may be seen in the wake of the sultan
at every city along his route. If more
bloody caputs are gathered in one
place than can be conveniently dis
posed Of there these are carried on to
decorate the gateways of the next
city," Frank E. Jackson Is native of
Winthrop, Me-, and is we'll known in
central and eastern Maine. He has
been great traveller and has had more
LrdVclel luCh al OCAu6 Ill d.
the DEATH" From Mr.. Dingley it is
learned that he was on the wharf in
Honolulu when FIR. Damien sailed for
the leper settlement of Molokai from
which he never returned. He saw Kill
lauea in the awful splendor of it's last
eruption. He steamed into the harbor
of Apia two days after the frightful
storm which sent three American and
two German warships to the bottom,
with most of their crews. He was in
the Transvaal when Jamison made his:
ill-starred raid on the Beers. He was,
in Cape Town when Barney Barnato
first struck the place with only Fl los.
in his pockets, became we'll acquainted
with Barney, and was on board the
steamer bound for England which fol-
lowed the one on which the broken.
hear Dlunger took his life He was