Arizona republican., 1901-09-21
IN PRISON WITHOUT A TRIAL.
An American Freed in Mexico by See
 retary Blaine.

An American Freed in Mexico by Sec
 retary Blaine.
 ''The stories that have appeared re- gently in the Star about the treatment of American railroad men an Mexico re :. minds me- said a newspaper man in the lobby of the Midland hotel, Kansas City. recently. ''of a case in which I was myself concerned. Down there. you know. nearly ali the trouble Is caused by the ignorance or the stuh- bornness of the aIcaldes or justices of the peace and the jefes poiitico. who are the equivalent there to our chiefs of police. When you get one of the alcaides after you the tinc has come to leave tine country, if you can.
 "I was in Mexico just after tine Mex ioan Central had been opened to the City of Mexico. and We used to have some peculiar experiences. It was no unusual thing for a peon to stand on the tack in front of an approaching train and stay there till knocked out of the way. Sometimes the train wouii be stopped and the crew woul1 foI cibly remove the feadstrong Indian. But the peons were not alone in this sort or foolishness: plenty of Mexicans were killed in the same way.
 
 chained to the track and held as evil dence. and I've seen it done. not on q siding. but out on the main line. where an accident had happened. know of numerous prisons in Mexico where Americans have been confined for years without trial, some of them railroad men. others men who had committed some offense against the law in some town or city. There is prison about twenty-five miles southeast of Jim luco within whose walls are four or five Americans who never will see their own country again unless something be done soon. None of them ever was tried. so far as I could learn. ten years ago. The old prison at Matamoras. too. could tell q story to make the blood boil in the veins of every American cit izen. Protection? It's all rank non sense to talk about protection from the state department I've lived all over Mexico and have seen all manner oe trouble al one time or another. I've seen Americans apply time and again to their minister for protection. and in- variably they were given the same re- ply. we must go slowly in such mat teTs; diplomacy, my dear sir, demands it. This is not wild talk; it is the actual truth. and every American in Mexico who is not hunting for ---- cession will bear me out in the state ment. Why is it you see 50 few Eng lishmen or Germans or French in the prisons in Mexico? Simply because when one of those nationalities is un- justly treated or is kept without trial beyond a reasona ble period the English or the German or the French minister goes to MT. Diaz and has short talk. Just what they say I don't know. but I do know that in all my travels down there I never found an Englishman inn prisoned unjustly. Their motto seems to be. Get the man and talk later.
 Yes, I'm coming to my story. shall not tell you the name of the man who suffered because he is now in business in California. In 1880 this man-Jones will do--went to Mexico to work in the silver mines that lie under the city of ZacatecaS. One night he drank too much mesca1 or aguadiente and started to knock the Mexicans and peoEs out of his way. Finally he kille1 one and that settled it.' Five or six policemen took him, almost q maniac, to the penitentiary-that grim. white pile of masonry not far from the mint. Any one that has visited Mexico knows what aguadiente will do for a European or an American. It sets them crazy. Jones went crazy and stayed that way for months When he regained his senses he found himself in a filthy stone cell with one little window high up fitted with strong iron bars. That was the beginning of Jones punish ment. When he asked for a trial his keepers laughed at him. When he re- quested paper and pencil he was jeercd at.
 ''The years went by and Jones changed from a brown-haired man of sunny disposition to grave and silent prisoner whose locks were rvhite as snow. He spoke to no one, not even to his jailers. From his window he could look across at the mint and the postoffice department: he could see people passing. and occasionally he thought he saw an American. But this only made him cry like boy. for he was miles away. it might have been hundreds of miles. and none could hear his voice. As he grew older Jones be- gan to lose hope. Than he began to catch himself acting uueerly at times. and also he talked to hicnself. He told me afterward that this was all that kept him from forgetting his mother $ tongue. for he never saw book or newspaper.
 Tn the summer of 1887 I went to the