The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-07

Port-au-P Prince and Santo Domingo are spots of fostering corruption and reeklhg putrescence. They are sore with filth ulcers of uncleanness. The markets ar e beyond description. Thousands of negroes sit with their stock around them on sucn spots as they can find amid the waste and accumulated offal of years. The hu- man spectacle is the extreme of degradd- tion. Surely nothing that calls itself civ- ilization has ever ebbed so low before. in scene after scene in which the figures aIe those of the creatures called man the human element is almost lacking. In the streets and in the market, looking on these exhibitions of degeneration ore feels his own nature suddenly inglorious and brutal, the human destiny grows con temptible. the stars are plotted out-a man feels far from God.
 Voodooism.
 Nominally Roman Catholic, the Chris tianity of Hayti is grotesque with the darkest superstitions of Africa.
 It is this feature that contributes the element of horror to any picture of the island life. Poverty, filth, abandoned habits. ignorance, absurd and inefficient government-these are things with which, if in less degree, We are not unfamiliar. But nowhere else. outside the forests of AITICd1 HOWHeTe elSo CeTldinly III IHe Western Hemisphere-do frenzied savages dance by night in weird ceremonial, and by hideous and abominal rites do honor to enthroned serpents. Nowhere else in the American world has it ever been suspect ed or alleged that children are slain in bloody sacrifice to the devil, and is hu- man flesh distributed among worshippers in diabolical feasts.
 The hold of voodooism on Hayti cannot easily be exaggerated. You may step out into the street at Port-au-Prince of an evening-you may stand at the very gate of the palace-and hear, from three or four directions at once the far-reaching throb of tom-toms. summoning to unholy assemblages. Following the sound of one of the drums. you will come upon a scene that in every particular might be fur nished on the banks of the Congo-a hut under a cocoanut. or a fire in a clearing among the plantains, a surglng crowd of negroes. mad with the dellrium of su- persttious enthusiasm. the priest and priestess mouthing incantations the wild abandon of a shameless dance.
 Goat Without Horns"
 The sacrifice may be only cock or a goat, and the meal only the drinking of its warm blood. But white men have seen children slain and eaten in Hayti. In the time of its most enlightened President. Gaffard. representatives of the Govern ments of the United States. Great Britain, France and Spain attended a trial at Port-au-Prince. in which eight men and women were convicted. on confession, of the ceremonial murder and consumption of a child, whose boiled skull and cal cned bones were on the table before the judge. And not even today, according to the conclusion to which a representative of The Public Ledger was forced while in the island. has the immolation of hu- man victims ceased.
 Republic" a Despotism. Hayti and Santo Domingo are supposed to be republics. but always have been ir fact military despotisms. Elections are | legendary. Liberty is a fiction. The pro tence of self government is a farce Presidents have always obtained office by force of arms and ruled by terrorism The ordinary institutions of government are largely mythical. except the army the army is a fact. You see 1t every where The capitals are thronged with | and every trail picketed with it. In th' cities it bivouacs permanently in th' | streets; 1t throws dice on it's drum headi at every corner and bolls it's plantain in the lee of every wall. There are tw' ranks in the army-privates and generals the latter being the more numerous. I'm
 generals go about in gorgeous uniform
 Of every style known to the art of tn
 militant tailor. while the privates are con
 tent with a red stripe down the leg Q trons"rs when these are worn or arnu
 straw hat or billvcock heinz general
 barefoot and arraved in suits. or rarts Q suits as varied ip cloth, cut and colo az Tickle fancy could desire.
 Each republic" has its paper constitu tiOn. The people would despise a rule who regarded it. A government is under stood to be a group of men banded fo lplunder. The revenues are theirs of nat