Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-16
such crimes are still possible in this land

such crimes are still possible in this land
| or Morocco
Sailed to Death.
| About the only reason why things are not
In a-worse condition than they are now is
| the mildness of the present sultan. He is
more of a boy than anything else. and he
tends to western ways in that he is not at
all bloodthirsty. His father. Mulai Hassan,
was just the reverse. and he had some pun
ishments which were horrible to an extreme.
One of these might be called sailing to
death. 1t consisted OF cutting four great
flashes out of the palms OF she hands of the
offender and of filing them with salt. The
fingers We're then bent inward and fitted
tightly into the holes or cuts After that
each hand was sewed up in green raw
hide which shrank as IL dried, causing ter
rfble pain. In some cases the rawhide was
sprinkled with lemon juice. which IL is said.
rapidly accelerated the shrinking of the
hide, often forcing the finger nails clear
through the palm and out of the back OF
the hand. After this the criminal was
taken to Jail and left without water. The
torture was such that he usually died with
in few days.
The English Tired Of Gibraltar.
Speaking OF Spain, l understand that
there is a bare possibility that II may some
day again have possession OF Gibraltar, and
thus regain its old stepping stone to Africa.
The English are said to be tired of spending
money upon the Notifications there and
that especially since q commission of par
lament has reported that the place as far
as the Atlantic side is concerned is prac-
tically defenseless as a naval base and that
1t would not be of great good in time of
war. England has already spent upon
these Notifications about $3.50 C00030, which
Is almost as much We will spend upon
the Panama canal. In 1914 the miLI-ry ex-
penses of Gibraltar amounted to more than
100000, and costly improvements in the
way of new docks and a large coaling
island are now being made. These new
works are all on the side of the rock facing
the Atlantic ocean: 1t is there that the
town of Gibraltar lies and there also are
the bay and the landing places for ships.
l spent some time at Gibraltar on my wav
to Morocco and had good chance to liz
spect the outside of the fortifcations and
the new improvements. A deep harbor of
two hundred and sixty acres is being form
ed and about fifty acres of water area has
been reclaimed for new dock yard. The
largest of the naval war vessels can be
dry locked there and the harboy is big
enough for the whole British Atlantic fleet.
Eighty Miles of Tunnels.
The rock of Gibraltar lies at the end OF
narrow neck of land which connects it
with the Spanish peninsula. One could
walk across this neck in a few minutes.
thing like thirty thousand people, is stu
aated upon 1t and its houses extend from 1t
along the lower sides of the rock itself
This rock Is gigantic piece of solid lime
stone, which rises almost straight from the
water on the side facing the Mediterranean
sea, to height almost as great as that of
the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia II
you could put two Washington monuments.
one on the top of the other, and on the
top of these spire as tall as the dome of
nl hat-n it,et a1N,.tat
of Gibraltar. The rock is about three miles
long and less than mile wide at its widest
part.
AS one approaches 1t from the sea one
sees many port holes here and there along
the sides. They come from the tunnels
within. The whole rock mas been tunneled.
1t has eighty miles of galleries burrowed
through it and 1t is honeycomb of cham
bers. The fortifications have, of course, the
finest Of modern guns and other war ma
chinery. Only few parts of them are
shown to visitors, and only the British SOL
diers and war office know just how the
works are constructed and defended. There
are undoubtedly some big twelve-inch guns
and some which could probably land shot
in Africa across the way. The strait is
something like twelve miles wide at that
point, and there are modern guns which
will shoot twelve or thirteen miles Among
the guns known to be at Gibraltar are two
of one hundred tons each, so heavy that
1t would take about two hundred horses to
haul one of them. Those guns are each
thirty-two feet long, and each will throw
a shot weighing a ton distance of eight
miles
Dogs as Smugglers.
Gibraltar is practically free port, and
tobacco and everything else is cheaper there
than in Spain which is only two miles
away across the isthmus. The land be-
tween is called 1.-The neutral ground" and
there is now high woven wire fence across
1t, which is guarded day and night by the
Spanish custom officers. The fence was put
up In order to prevent tobacco being car
ried across without paying duty. The
smugglers had trained dogs to carry par
cells from one side to the other. The way
they did 1t was to dress up one of their
numbeT as a Spanish customs officer, and