Connecticut western news., 1899-01-19
CUTS OFF THEIR HEADS.
khis Is HOW the sultan of Morocco
 Treats Tax Dodgers.

Treats Tax Dodgers.
 The sultan of Morocco is going to prevent his subjects from evading the payment of their taxes even if in do- ing it he has to behead every tax dodger in the country.
 In his inajesty's domain tax lodging by the rich is well nigh universal, and well informed students and travelers knowing how corrupt and rapacious the sultan's government is, do not doubt that much of it is justihable. But the sultan looks at the matter in a different light He declares that there is no ex- cuse for tax lodging, that it is criminal and, moreover. that he has hit upon a punishment to fit the crime.
 Frank F. Jackson, a globe trotter of 30 years experience 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 representative of that name, he gives graphic account of the sultan's bloody and desperate method of proceed ure.
 While in TanRier, Mir. Jackson learn c1 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 tho city gates, 10 serve as n warning to others who might not be disposed to pay their dues promptly.
 "A company of five was formed. writes Mir Jackson, ito visit Laroiche and see if this ghastly report was true. The party consisted of an Englishman. who spoke Arabic; German and three Americans.
 "We boarded q small steamboat at Tangier and sailed down the coast Co Cosa Blanca. There we engaged mules, donned Arab costumes Ca very prudent thing to dol and early in the morning started to Laroiche, about 25 miles in- land. 1t was beautiful country through which we passed, fertile and well culti- vated. the monotony of the deeert re- lieved by tho fig and olive trees and the stately and ever present palm. But it ts country centuries behind modern civilization. Women are still sold into virtual slavery and not infrequently to take the places of beasts of burden. More than once along the way we saw farmer working his land, his wife and mule yoked together drawing the plow.
 ''We reached Laroiche about noon. 1t is impossible to describe the sicken- ing sight which met our gaze as we rode up to the main entrance Co the city. There above us in ghastly row were 10 human heads shriveling in the broiling sun. We rode around to the other gates. only to find the same grew some display. In all we counted 4b heads spiked to the board arches over the city gates. Our curiosity was fully satisfied, and all of us regretted that we had travelled 70 far to learn that there was at the close of the nineteenth cen tury so barbarous a country on the face of the earth as Morocco.
 And not all of the heads were thoee of tax dodgers. Some were of old men and women who had never possessed anything worth taxing. It seems the sultan had vented his spite on them aft or learning that number of wealthy residents of the city had been warned If his coming and had fled to the noun tains, taking their cash and other port able valuables with them.
 "These muYderous raids are made once n year by the sultan, and 1t is said that he nearly depopulates some of the districts through which he passes. 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 oaputs are gathered in one place than can be conveniently disposed of there. theee are carried on to decorate the gateways of the next city. "-Boston Herald.