The Republican journal., 1901-12-26

a. uVlSeI Is Seut /TeG On receipt OF FL one II.
cent stamps to pay expense of mailing 3
only. Address DR.. R. V. Pierce, But y
falo. N Y.
ored to make bite each other, still re-
tanning the other great wriggler in his
teeth. They fatty refused to fight,
though smartly pinched, until he APP
piled their heads to his own forehead,
nose and eyes. Then they woke up to
business, as nobody could blame them
for doing. and struck repeatedly with
all the fury that was in them. The man
did not move muscle, though blood
trickled from the bites. Then he made
one of the smaller snakes hold the big
one by its teeth, suspended in the air:
and various other performances were in
progress when we finally rescued our
belongings and got away from the I'M
pleasant neighborhood. This mans
face, like the Santos, was covered with
snake-blte scars, yet he appeared in ro-
bust health. 1t is said that the snakes
are really poisonous, one bite being
sufficient to kill an ordinary individual;
but the charmers eat a certain plant
which serves as an antidote.
We were extremely glad of an oppor-
tunity to call at Ceuta, the famous
penal colony. our vessel having some
business at that rarely visited port. 1t
is small, but bold and rocky peninsula,
jutting out eastward into the Mediter-
ranean, directly opposite Gibraltar and
separated from the great British strong
hold by a channel only fourteen miles
wide. Though in the empire of Moroc-
co, it belongs to Spain, having been
taken by the Portuguese in some early
wars and annexed to Spain with Portu-
gal in 1880. And Spain has held it ever
since, through seiges innumerable,
though Sultan Malai Ismail clamored
at its gates with all his army. Never
was town more beautifully situated,
rising tier above tier, amphitheatrical
fashion, from the blue Mediterranean
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 stuc-
co, ornamented with handsome, iron
wrought balconies filled with flowers,
/ trees planted on both sides of the street
The civil population is perhaps twenty
thousand strong and the convicts num-
Der half as many. 1t is bishops see
and has a cathedral, a governors pal
ace and a spacious House of Mercy"
Never was mercy more needed, if ac-
counts be true: for if hell can exist upon
earth for the helpless and unfortunate
it is this beautiful prison place under
Spanish methods. The penal colony
protrudes from the end of the peninsu-
la, like wart on nose, trackless Sa-
hara behind and shark-infested sea in
criminals, for political prisoners sell
dom 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, welded
by stone-breakers, is heard. The work
men are men, hundreds of them, divid
ed here and there among the rocks, into
gangs. No indulgence is shown to
new -comers, and each must break
certain amount of stone between sun
| rise and sunset. Delicately bred per-
sons who have never worked before
students, merchants, men of letters.
sent here for some alleged offence
/ against the Spanish crown, are ranked
exactly like the most degraded and
hardened criminals: and if the work
| they accomplish does not at once equal
| in amount that of men who were born
and bred to labor, they are hanged up
and fogged at night. In every case,
the lash is welded by the man who
happens to sit next to the culprit dur
ing the hours of stone breaking; 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 fatipne
during the heat of the day, he is flogged
the moment he regains sensibility
The prisoners sleep in holes burrowed
in the rocky hillside, without even
blanket to ease their aching bodies. and
lif to rid the earth of them in the
quickest possible time be the end in
view, Spain certainly accomplishes
her purpose.
| FANNIE B.WARD.