The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-07

{ ~ lot of officials these have proved to
be in the past. Colombia made if a.
rule to appoint these men. hut never
to pay them. The result was that
there developed gang of grafters that
would have put st. Louis to shame.
The business of the alcalde when
he found his pay not Forthcoming. was
to turn his office to his personal ac-
count, and this the majority of them
dld with great success. Every body
knew that fines assessed against Of
tenders were appropriated by the al
caldes and applied to the liquidation
! or amounts due them for salary and
the same universal knowledge obtain
ed with respect to the practice com
mon among the alcaldes of ARGENTINE
small sums of cash as full satis-
factlon for sentences of penal servi-
tude' but nobody ever objected or at
tempted reform.
! Instances of Police Justice
instances of these practices are most
/ common, while the stories of what anv
! otner people would set down as out
rageous perversions of justice are hand
ed about with the utmost freedom. No
Whlte man on the isthmus will ever
strike native so as to blacken an eve
! OF otherwise leave a mark on the ma
tive anatomy. The white men all have
money, and an offense of that kind
means that the alcalde and the police
| preIect VIII Join hands to mulct him of
| from 800 TO 500 in gold, assessed as a
ilhe' out instantly appropriated by the
J TWO ot1clals and converted to their own
use. On the other hand, a native NAV
offend white man with virtual i'm
punity.
| kaletsch-boss stevedore of the Pan
| anna Railroad at Colon a German who
has been a world rover and who is so
broad that he can seize the biggest
black by the nape of the neck and hurl
him across the dock-tells a story truly
| illustrative OF the native administra-
ton of justice.
| Sometime ago Kaleisch caught a
native dock laborer stealing part of a
ships cargo. He seized the man, car
rled him off to the police station, pre-
terred his charge and the man was
| taken in custody. His trial was held
Immediately, the evidence against him
! was conclusive, and he was sentenced
to sixty days Imprisonment. Kaleisch
felt satisfied, the ends of justice had
been conserved. The next morning
Kaleischs satisfaction changed to un-
! bounded amazement when the burly
| black turned up on the dock and ask
ed to be put to work. Kaleisch at once
kicked him off the pier and then made
some inquiries
The sentence of sixty days imprison-
ment had been committed to one night
in the Colon calaboose in return for the
payment of $40 Colombian silver), a
sum the natives friends had raised and
| paid to the committing magistrate
who accepted it and signed an order
for the thiefs release. Since that ex-
perience kaleisch's administers justice
on his own account, taking care by
using his feet on the softer parts of
the offenders anatomy, not to leave
marks that can be shown in court as
prima facie evidence against him.
BOOt-TOe Justice Effective.
So summary and effective has been
the justice that for months has oozed
out of the toe of Kaleisch's boots that
now her has the hordes of black dock
laborers reduced to a state of perfect
subjugation. Order prevails about the
pier; offenses are few and far between.
for the entire gang stands in terror of
the big and powerful German. Kaleisch
is wise i'll his day and generation,
however, and never since he became a
dispenser of dock justice in Colon has
| he set foot in the native quarter of
the town-there are too many blacks
who would take chances on a long
term of Imprisonment for the satisfac-
ton of running a knife into his back.
The foregoing incident is but one of
many that might be cited, for all in
vestigation confirms the fact that JUS
tice here is for the native and against
the white man, who has money of
which he can be mulcted. There are,
however exceptions to this rule, for
| once in a while an alcalde will be
| found who believes in playing close to
| the white population. 1t happened so
! in Colon two or three years ago, when
| the present governor of the province,
| Mollendes, was serving as alcalde.
| Mollendes is a friend of all Americans
and sees the wisdom of nourishing that
| friendship in a city which is domi-
| mated by the Panama Railroad. One
| morning about o'clock crowd OF
Americans and Englishmen in Colon
rolled out into the street from one OF
| the MANY saloons and entered a cab
standing at the curb, ordering the
| driver to take them to a nearby gam
| bling house. The driver insisted that
| his services were engaged by another
party and refused to do the bidding
| of the unsought occupants of the cab.
| These men instantly set upon him and
| in a trice he was beaten almost to IN
| sensibility.
An Early Morning Trial.
The police came up on the run and
| the entire crowd of brawlers was ar
| rested and hurried away to the sta
| ton house. Before the black CAP
driver could enter complaint against
his ASSISTANTS the latter had charged
him with assault and battery and de-
manded that Mollendes be sent for.
Largesse in the form of Colombian sill
yer, fixed the police force, and Mol
lendes responded Immediately to the