, 1906-08-16

See this?" said w. H. Leukhart,
chief machinist's mate in charge OF
the naval recruiting station in the
p~ostofice building to the Minneapolis
Journal, holding up what appeared to
be half a silver coin. We'll, a chum
of mine in the navy has the her half
and it saved his life once. It's a coin
Of Colombia. We were doing duty on
the isthmus of Panama and stopped in
at a little fruit shop. The coin is only
worth about a fifth of a cent, but what
we bought did not come to that, and
the old woman in charge of the shop
took out a knife and cut the coin in
two. 1t struck us as so absurd that
we CAV her another coin and kept
that as a souvenir. We punched holes
in the halves and strung them on our
watch chains.
about a year after that we were
cruising in the Canary Islands ani
some of the Spanish dons at Las Pal.
mas invited the officers to a grand
ball. When we landed We saw a curl
GUS procession making its way out
of the town. What struck us as par
ticularly peculiar was that sthe 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 a hereditary one.
Although he is in command of a COM
pany he has to walk In the rear and
whenever he goes into a care to cal
the proprietor smashes the plates az
Boon as he has finished.
I'VE 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 q steel band is placed around
his neck. With the turn Of a screw
the band is frightened.
after the execution we thought 1t
would be a chance to take a picture
of one of the fellows, and my chum
got in the chair. We frightened up the
band a little bit and took the picture.
Somebody then decided that we had
better leave him there a little longer.
and we strolled away to the grand
ball. It was SO interesting that we
forgot the poor fellow for a couple Of
hours, and when we hurried back he
a gone.
eve did not worry any, %supposing
that he had gone back to his ship.
The next morning, however, he was
nowhere to be found and we went on
shore to search for him. To make a
long story short, we spent all morning
and most of the afternoon in trying to
get a clue. Just as we were giving
up in despair 1 noticed an old native
sitting on the roadside. Around his
neck was a string and on the string
was the half coin.
"You can imagine that l grabbed
the native and sent n 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 execu
ton and bury them in caves. The,
get whatever is on the person.
I'VE started the old fellow up O
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 a great
stone rolled up against its mouth. We
got at hat in a hurry. Lying on a
heap of bones was the lieutenant in a
dead faint. He vas stripped and his
hair had turned white. We shook
him up and gave him some brandy,
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 a joke.
AS he had been one Of the ringleaders
in all the stunts on board ship he took
the whole thing in good part. It
seems that he had dozed off, and, be-
Ing one Of the sleepers that you can't
wake up with an ak, never ~quivered
until the natives had left him in the
cave for some hours"