The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1903-06-11
JUSTICE IN EUROPE.
WHOLESALE ARRESTS OF Of
TENDING CITIZENS.
Refused to Pay Taxes or Otherwise
obey the Laws Brings Prompt and
Drastic Punishment-Peculiar Case
In Prussian Poland.

A strange story comes from the lit
tie town of Candete. in the southeast
OF Spain. The people of this district
have been complaining for years past
that they are overtaxed. Lately they
determined TO pay no more taxes TO
the government, and when they heard
that the tax collectors were about to
visit the place they formed a process
sion to the public square, headed by
the mayor, and there publicly burned
all the Taxpayers. When the collec-
tors arrived they were driven off with
sticks and stone.
But such iawlessness could not be
left unpublished. A week or two later
battalion of calavry descended sud-
denly upon the town and arrested
every grown man in the place. They
were only released upon paying the
taxes and the costs of the proceed
ings, besides an indemnity to the in
jured tax gatherers.
Candete is not the only town whose
inhabitants have got into trouble over
the question OF taxes. No fewer than
5000 warrants have just been issued
in the French department of the east
ern Pyrenees, and that number OF
householders have been arrested. They
include the heads Of almost every
famiiyin five different townships. The
wholesale legal action is the indirect
result of the present low price of wine.
The arrested men are all wine grow
ers, who have refused to pay their
taxes as a protest against a refusal
on the part of the government to give
them financial assistance.
A Siberian town in the district of
Smeinsk, possessing the extraordinary
name Of Schemonapewskoje, was tenn
porarily depopulated a few years ago.
The law of the district is that each
town must attend to the repairs not
only of its own streets, but Of the
roads for some distance around. The
people Of the town in question be-
came careless in this respect. They
were warned several times, but still
nothing was done. The governor of
the province happened to travel
through the district, and his trantass
stuck in a quagmire on the main road.
A few days later force of soldiers
arrested /, 400 of the inhabitants. These
were at once set to work upon the
roads in gangs, and fed on bread and
water for some weeks, until the exist
ing state of things was remedied.
Prussia has for years past been en-
deavoring to Germanize Prussian Po-
land, but has experienced great diff
culties, owing to the resistance of par
ents to their children being taught the
German language. At Bulk, in this dis
trict, a strange thing happened. One
morning few months ago all the
school children seemed suddenly to
have lost the faculty of understand
ing German. They refused to reply
to questions asked of them in that
tongue. although the day before they
had talked German freely The whole
thing was, of course, a preconcerted
plan to resist the German teaching.
Vengeance was short and sharp A
regiment of dragons descended upon
the town, was quartered upon the
householders, who were given to I'M
derstand that neither they nor their
unwelcome guests would be permit
ted to leave the town limits until
the strange forgetfulness of the child.
rem was remedied.