St. Tammany farmer., 1909-11-06
RIGHT AT OUR DOOR.

think Of the kind of life that is being lived
| by human beings who are our next door
neighbors ? We hear Of missionaries to
China, to India, to Africa to any old place
so far away that the heart grows sick in
contemplation of the miles of separation
| from home, from kindred and loved ones,
| from all we hold dear. We are told that the
service of the Lord requires that these
heathens should be enlightened and shown
the way. Yet right at our door is condi-
tion much more urgent of relief Is the
christianity that makes us tolerant of slavery
of the most absolute and debasing kind
equal to the task of gathering into the fold
the misguided heather? Or have we
been SO intent on gazing at the orient
that we overlooked the degradation at our
| feet?
John Kenneth Turner in The American
for October and November tells pitiful
tale of the enslaved Yaquis and Mayas in
Yucatan, with the promise of further reve-
latlons in another number. He claims that
the atrocities are practiced with the knowl-
edge of President Diaz. The constitution of
Mexico declares for freedom Of person and
rights OF property, yet it appears that debt
IS encouraged in order that the creditor may
get possession of the debtor, and from thence
on he becomes as absolutely the property of
the creditor as if he held legal bill of sale.
These unfortunates are given tasks on the
hennequen farms, and if they prove unequal
to the task they are beaten with wet ropes
made of twisted strands of henequen. An
instance of this outrageous and brutal treat
ment is described as follows by Mr.. Turner:
The ropes were of native henequen
braided tight and thick and heavy for the
particular purpose in hand. Water-soaked,
to give them more weight, and cutting
power, they were admirably fitted for the
work of cleaning up the term whereby
corporal punishment is known on the plan
tations of Yucatan.
The hairy majocol selected one of the
four, tossed back the remaining three. the
pail was carried away and the giant China
man squared off with the naked body of the
victim to the gaze Of his fellow bondsmen.
The drama was an old one to them. so old
that their eyes must have ached many times
at the sight, yet for them it could never lose
It's fascination. Each knew that his own time
was coming, if it had not already come, and
not one possessed the physical power to turn
his back upon the spectacle.
Deliberately the majocol measured his dis
tance, then as deliberately raised his arm
high and brought it swiftly down again: the
bIoated snake sWlshed through the air and
tell with spat across the glistening bronze
shoulders of the Yaqui
The administrator, small nervous man
OF many gestures, nodded his approval and
glanced at his watch, the mayordomo, big,
stold, grnned slowly, the half dozen capa-
taces leaned forward little more obliuuelv
in their eagerness, the regiment of slaves
sWayed bodily as by some invisible force,
ana second gasp, painful and sharp, like
the bursting air from a severed WindpiDe.
escaped them.
Every eye was riveted tight upon that
scene, upon the uncertain dimness of the
early mornlng-the giant Chinaman, bend |
ing slightly forward now, the naked BODY on |
his shoulders, the long, uneven, livid welt
that marked the visit of the wet rope, the |
deliberate, the agonizingly deliberate majo
col, the administrator, watch in hand, nod |
ding endorsement, the grinning mayordomo !
the absorbed capataces.
All held their breath for the second blow.
held my breath with the rest held it for
ages, until | thought the rope would never
all. Not until / saw the finger signal of
he administrator did know that the blows
we're delivered by the watch, and not until
t was all over did I know that, in order to
multiply the torture, six seconds are allowed
o intervene between each stroke.
The second blow fell, and the third, and
he fourth. courted the blows as they
ell, ages apart. At the fourth the strong
rown skin broke and little pinheads Of
rimson pushed their way out, burst, and /.
tarted downward in thin tricklets. At the i