BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-10-06
night after night.

night after night.
Who or what is it that is making
the accustomed quiet and peace of
this pretty villa impossible2
Either an avenging fate has loosed
it's Gends upon the people of this
unhappy town, or crime stalks ram
pant through the streets wrapped in
cloak of impunity: and this state of
affairs cannot continue.
Wherever it happens, as 1t has IN Rio
Piedras, that the only outlet from
houses is by the balconies and mothers
bearing infants in their arms have
to escape from the jaws of death
from the sheer heighth of balcony:
when children barely escape being
charred to an unrecognizable mass,
and helpless women and sleeping men
have scarcely time to reach safety
before the flames; the authorities
should spare no effort to bring the
responsibility home to the culprit; the
truth should be bruoght to light as far
as it lies in mans power to do so; the
crime, if it is crime. should be punis-
he'd to the utmost rigorous limit Of the
law, and the dastards who fill the
nights with terror for the inhabitants
of Rio Piedras should be bounded
down until the last guilty one is pun
ished. The town has a constituted
body of officials; these authorities
should be on the constant watch for
the safety of their people.
The lives and security of the in
habitants of Rio Piedras who are suf-
fering from the effecrs of this outrage
must be protected.
The most searching investigations,
the most careful examination and pro-
secution of everyone and everything
which may appear suspicious should
be made.
And if this should not be sufficient,
if the judicial and police power is in
sufficient to locate the seat of the mis-
chief, or should for any cause satisfy
the demands of the people, then the
central government should take
hand, but under any circumstance
those occurrences witch have turned
Rio Piedras and her citizens into a
terrorized community should be in
vestigated and punished.
1t is imperative that the fires in Rio
Piedras shall stop.
If mere coincidence, it is too alar-
ming and a great deal 100 suspicious.
~
A wandering and homeless people
filed through our streets this morning
all the inha bitants of the Polo Norte'
in sorrowful and pitiful demonstra-
ton.
They are beings without a home,
unfortunates who are cast forth from
their dwelling places by the peremp-
tory demand of the military authorityl
Mo1e than thousand persons are lef.
without homes
The despairing procession passed
quietly through our streets, without a
sound above the shuffliug of naked
feet, and drew up before the Govern
or's Palace where a few of their mum.
Der as spokesmen went forward to ask
that aid be given them. Where are
they to go?
Down there amidst the manglar
swamp where they have no rent to
pay, and where with a few old boards
and strips of tin they have erected
some sort of rude shelter they felt
the assoc ation of home and the ow-
nership of the roof that covered them.
In the city there is no room for them.
These people are the overflow popula-
tion which is thrown off, the boiling
over of the mighty ca!dron Of poverty.
which fell along the shore of the sea,
almost in the water, along the beach
like all other shjpwrecks.
They love their huts formed piece
by piece, builded by their own hands,
like the birds make their nests. From
the pitiful security of their novels, the
last refuge left to their poverty,
neither the fear of malaria or Of the
elements, the entertainments of the
water of the poisons of the swamp,
was able to drive tbs m.
Where could they go. In the city
there is no room for them, and even
thought they might find a space in
which to Accommodate themselves. shut
off from the sight of the sea and the
open sky even though we did not have
people and to spare already in the
patios and z4guaneS, the problem
would not yet be solved. The rent
must be paid--the first cause of all.