The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-21

l bites. Then he made one of the smaller
 smokes hold the big one by it's teeth I suspended in the air; and various other l performances were in progress when l we finally rescued our belongings and got away from the unpleasant neigh 1 borhood. This mans face, like the San l to's, was covered with snake bite scars, | yet he appeared in robust health. It is said that the snakes are really poison ous, one bite being sufficient to kill an
 ordinary individual; but the charmers eat certain plant which serves as an antidote.
 We were extremely glad of an oppor- 1 tunity to call at Ceuta, the famous
 penal colony, our vessel having some | business at that rarely-visited port It ] is small, but bold and rocky penin-
 sular, jutting out eastward into the Mediterranean, directly opposite Gibral- tar and separated from the great Brit ish stronghold by channel only four teen miles wide Though in the empire of Morocco, it belongs to Spain, having
 been taken by the Portugese in some early wars and annexed to Spain with Portugal in 16S0 And Spain has held it ever since, through seiges innumer- able, though Sultan Malai Ismail clam cred at it's gates with all his army. Never was a town more beautifully situated, rising tier above tier, amphi- theatrical fashion, from the blue Medi- terranean to the Seven Hills behind, whose tops seem to touch the glowing sky The village itself is clean and well built. in the Spanish style; the houses bright with pink, blue, yellow and purple stucco mounted with hand some, iron wrought balconies filled with flowers, and trees planted on both sides of the streets. The civil popula- ton is perhaps twenty thousand strong and the convicts number half as many. It is bishops see and has cathedral, a. governors palace and spacious House of Mercy Never was mercy more needed, if accounts be true; for if hell can exist upon earth for the help less and unfortunate, it is this beauti- ful prison place. under Spanish methods. The penal colony protrudes from the end of the peninsula, like a wart on nose, trackless Sahara be- hind and shark-infested sea in front Those who live here are hardened criminals, for political prisoners seldom survive the first wretched six months; and then their poor bodies are tossed to the sharks-the only burial given to the condemned at Ceuta. All day long, the sound of hammers, Wielded by stone breakers, is heard. The workmen are men, hundreds of them, divided here and there among the rocks, into games, No indulgence is shown to newcomers, and each must break certain amount Of stone between sunrise and sunset, Deli cately bred persons who have never worked before, students, merchants, men of letters, sent here for some al- legged offense against the spanish crown, are ranked exactly like the most degraded and hardened criminals; and if the work they accomplish does not at once eual in amount that of men who were born and bred to labor, they are hanged up and 1ogged at night. In every case the lash is yielded by the man who happened to sit next to the culprit during the hours of stone break ing; and if he does not perform his part with sufficient vigor to suit the jailors it is made up on his own back with double energy. If man faints from fatigue during the heat of the day, he is flogged the moment he regains sen- sibility. The prisoners sleep in holes burrowed in the rocky hillside, without | even a blanket to ease their aching l bodies; and if to rid the earth of them in the quickest possible time be the end in view--Spain certainly accom- | plishes her purpose.
 FANNIE E. WARD.