Imperial Valley press., 1914-05-01
LETTING SUNSHINE
IN FETID PRISON
(By Hugh S. Miller)

department on his taking over of
cid San Juan De Ulloa, the fort and
military prison which stands on an
island in the harbor of Vera Cruz,
said:
"There are in the prison 43 per-
sons who have been sentenced for
crime, rs who have been accused of
crime but have not been brought to
trial, and also 325 who have not been
accused of any misdemeanor what
ever These 325 were arrested most
ly within the last two months in
order to be forced into the federal
army, and for no other reason. The
above data was obtained from the
Mexican officer in charge. The con-
ditions in the prison under which the
325 men are living are described as
frightful"
The admiral recommended that the
325 against whom no charges were
pending be released at once and that
the remaining 118 be held for inves-
tigation. Secretary Daniels wired at
| once to release the 325 prisoners and
to use his discretion abou, the others.
The inference is that Admiral
Fletcher intends to clean up the otd
establishment. Hercules, when he un-
| dertook the JOB of cleaning the Au-
gean stables, had nothing on the ad-
| miral.
For $50 years the castle has stood
there. 1t has been buffeted by hur-
ricanes, sacked by buccaneers, bom-
barded by Spain, France and the Unit
ed States Tin 1847) and by corsairs
and pirates, and scourged by cholera
and yellow fever, but never. unless
ones senses of sight and smell are
traitors, has it even been touched by
scrubbing brush or vacuum cleaner.
1t is not hard-at least it was not
in the old days-to get permit to
visit the fort and prison. All one had
to do was to lie a little.
"Only an officer of the army is
allowed to go through" said Consul
Canada. The same Canada is there
now. He has been there many years.
sed to say that he knew every
On the reef by name.
"Have you ever seen military serv-
ice?"
"Most certainly-in the high school
cadets"
"That's all right" said Canada, and
he wrote a letter to the commandant
| of the port, introducing GEL Capt..
TAM"
And the commandant who wore u
heavily braided uniform which seemed
too tight for his thorax wrote a per-
NIT for the captain-of the high
school cadets.
The atmosphere was heavy with
orders and gloom on the little ISL
and. When the rowboat slipped in
the shadow of the grim, massive cas-
tie, one shuddered-and shivered and
shuddered alternately. The thing was
over. A looking guide led
the way. UP stone steps and down
stone steps, where green Shiny moss
bubbled out of the cracks, along cold
stone corridors peopled with shades;
past human skeletons who held up
their claws and offered peachstones
carved into grotesque monkeys and
miniature baskets, and mumbled "por
dos" and past scars in the pavement
beneath which they said were the
tide-filled dungeons where, in the old
days, prisoners set up to their chins
in water.
A slit three feet high and three
inches wide in a wall two feet thick
yielded a murmur of voices and a
variety of odors. The guide had gone
on ahead. Some one called in Eng
lish through the slit in the wall. 1t
was black as night in there.
"I'm a colored boy from Texas
said the voice. There were a few
questions and answers. He had been
there two years. "This is room
about fifty feet long," said the voice.
Sometimes there are hundred pris
oners here. No, they have nothing
to sleep on. The cold pavement
that is ALL" and the guide hurried
back, sputtering maledictions.
A little squad of prisoners was
weaving out to work on the break
water. The men wore dirty green
coats and trousers and their feet were
bare. The guards were dressed like
wise, but they were bigger men and
they had long clubs, like the night
sticks of city policemen. One of the
prisoners looked around to see the
stranger. The club went up and cam
down. The prisoner leaped and
writhed. Above the tapping of the
blue Mexican gulf against the great