The Elbert County tribune., 1905-11-30

VG SUU the Postofiice Building, to-
. q day. holding up what ap-
peared to be half silver coin. "WelI.
chum of mine in the Navy has the
other half, and 1t saved his life once.
Its coin of Colombia. We were do
ing duty on the Isthmus of Panama
and stopped in at a little fruit shop.
The coin is only worth about n fifth OF
cent, but what we bought did not
come to that, and the old woman in
charge of the shop took out knife
and cut the coin in two. 1t struck us
as so absurd that we gave her another
coin and kept that as a souvenir. We
punched holes in the halves and strung
them on our watch chains.
about year after that we were
cruising in the Canary Islands, and
some of the Spanish dons at Las
Palmas invited the officers TO q grand
ball. When we landed we saw a curl
Gus procession making its way out of
the town. What struck us as particu-
larry peculiar was that the Captain of
the company walked in the rear of his
soldiers. As soon as We met some of
the natives they explained that he was
the head executioner and that the job
was hereditary one. Although he is
in command of a company, he has TO
walk in the rear, and whenever he
goes into cafe to eat the proprietor
smashes the plates as soon as he has
finished.
eve followed the procession to wit
ness the peculiar execution. Finally
we came to a deserted place and found
that the method of execution was to
place the victim in a chair, where Il
steel band is placed around his neck.
With the turn of screw the band is
tightened.
After the execution we thought 1t
would be n good chance to take pic
ture of one OF the fellows, and my
chum got into the chair. We tightened
up the band a little bit and took the
picture. Somebody decided that we
had better leave him there little
longer. and we strolled away to the
grand ball. 1t was so interesting that
we forgot the poor fellow for couple
of hours, and when we hurried back
he was gone.
I'VE did not worry any, supposing
that he had gone back to the ship.
The next morning, however, he was
nowhere to be found. and we went OIL
shore to search for him. To make n
long story short, we spent all morning
and most of the afternoon in trying
to get clue. Just as we We're giving
up in despair I noticed an old native
sitting on the roadside. Around his
neck was string and on the string
was the half coin.
You can agne that grabbed the
native and sent one of the boys for
somebody that could talk the lingo
1t seems that the natives who live in
the Atalayan caves are supposed TO
take away the victims of the execution
and bury them in caves. They get
whatever is OIL the person.
'We started the old fellow up on the
Jump and pushed him up the hills on
the end of our walking sticks. He led
us by little paths and lanes through
the mysterious caves, and finally came
to one that had great stone rolled up
against its mouth. Lying on a heap of
bones was the Lieutenant in dead
faint. He was stripped and his hair
had turned white. We shook him up
and gave him some stimulant, and in a
little while he came around.
THAT fellow had an awful lot of
nerve. He declared that he knew we
would get him out, but that we were
an awful long time doing it. He
thought the whole thing was n joke.
As he had been one of the ringleaders
in all the stunts on board ship. he took
the whole thing in good part. 1t
seems that lie had dozed off, and. be-
ing one of the sleepers that you can't
wake up with an ax. never quivered
until the natives had left him in the
cave for some hours. minneapolis
Journal.