Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1905-12-26

mate in charge of the
1-o-s naval recruiting station at
tslai ElIia the Postoffice Building, to-
day, holding up what APP
peared to be half Il silver coin. well,
a chum Of mine in the Navy has the
other half, and it saved his life once.
It's Il 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 a fifth of
q cent. but what we bought did not
come to that. and the old woman i'll
charge of the shop took out a knife
and cut the coin in two. 1t struck us
rs 50 absurd that We gave her another
coin and kept that as 4 souvenir. We
punched holes i'll the halves and strung
them on our watch chains.
"-thout a year after that we were
cruising in the Canary Islands, and
some Of the Spanish dons at Las
bali. When VIC landed We saw q Curl
Gus procession making its way out of
the town. What struck lis as particu-
larly peculiar WAS that the Captain of
the company walked in the rear Of his
soldiers. AS SCon as we met some Of
the natives they explained that he was
the head eXecuticner and that the job
WAS Il hereditary one. Although he is
i'll command Of Il company. he has to
walk in the rear. and whenever he
g0eS into Il cafe to eat the proprietor
slnashes the plates as soon as he has
finished.
we followed the procession to wit
ness the peculiar execution. Finally
we came 10 q deserted place and found
that the method of execution was to
place the victim i'll a chair. where a
steel band is placed around his neck.
With the turn of a screw the band is
tightencd.
after the execution We thought it
would be a good chance to take 4 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 Il little
longer. and wo strolled away to the
grand bail. 1t was 50 interesting that
we forgot the poor fellow for a couple
of hours. and when we hurried back
he was gone.
we did Not worry any, slpposlnS
that he had gone back 10 the ship.
The next morning. however. he was
,.nD-lf,I. ta Iva fonpi and 1rn want on
shore to search for him. To make Il
long story short, We spent all morning
and most of the afternoon in trying
TO get Il clue. Just as We We're giving
up in despair | noticed an old native
sitting OH the roadside. Around his
neck was = strfng and on the string
was the half coin.
"You AN imagine 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 Ataiayan caves are supposed to
take away The victims OF the execution
and bury them in caves. They get
whatever is on tho person.
We started the old fellow up on tho
jump and pushed him up The hills on
the end Of our walking sticks. IIc led
rs by liltie paths and lanes through
the mysterious caves. and finally came
to one that had Il great stone rolled up
against its mouth. Lying OH Il heap of
bones was the Lieutenant IN 4 dead
faint. He was stripped and his hair
had turned while. We shook him up
and gave him some sjimulant. and in i
little while he came around.
.''l'hat fellow had an awful lot OF
nerve. He declared that he knew we
would get him out. but that we We're
an awful long time doing it. He
thought the whole thing was Il joke.
As he had been one of the ringleaders
in all the stunts Oh board ship. he took
the whole thing i'll good part. 1t
seems that he had doZed off. and, be-
jnM one Of the sleeperS that you can't
wake up with IN TX. never quivered
until the natives had left him i'll the
cave for ONE lours.'-Minneapolis
Journal.