The Washington herald., 1916-08-24
Seen and Heard by George Miner.

Merida, Yucatan, Aug. ga gang OF conVicts
in blue -and-white striped cotton jackets and
trousers was carrying iron beams into new gov
ernment building that is being erected on the
main plaza. couple of picturesque soldiers,
with brown faces, yellow uniforms bare feet and
literally decorated with cartridge belts walked
behind them. What with their three loaded
cartridge belts and Mauser rifles the soldiers had
almost much to carry as did the convicts. And
the sunshine was just hot for as the other.
Yucatan gentleman of one of the old and
wealthy families, Senor Amadas Cardenas, was
driving with me when we passed these unhappy
mortals:
What have most of those convcts been guilty
Off" | asked. "Steang?"
NO." he replied, There is comparatively little
stealing being done. Most of those men are
doing time, as you call it, for getting drunk
That's serious crime here now Nearly all
the rest are there because they vagrants-
that is, tramps, hoboes buns, whatever you
please to call them. In other words, men who
don't work and won't work. In this country that
is crime, for here the great need is labor. There
is work here for 100000 men laborers and so
there is no occasion for any to be idle, and
consequently being idle is a wrong to the state
! There is no reason whatever for unemployed
class"
Booze fighters and loafers have hard time
of it here Very little mercy is shown them.
This state of affairs is very largely due to the
| energetic and persistent efforts of Gov Alvarado
who in the year and half he has had control Of
Yucatan has pretty nearly wiped out drunkenness
and idleness. He made it crime not only to
sell spirits, but also to have them in ones
possession. This applies only to hard drinks OF
beer and wine there is plenty to be had, but
they are both rather expensive. The wine, which
all imported than II does in the
United States. There is plenty of beer made in
Mexico but it is weak and sweet and rather in
sipid Also it costs 25 cents bottle in American
money. Getting drunk it is quite out of the
question for several reasons. One is that the
average Yucatacean couldn't afford to.
To show the rigor with which the law against
drunkenness is being enforced, l will give an
incident that occurred only last night In of
the smaller and cheap hotels, of which there are
number in Merida, from of the in
land towns had room and a bottle of whisky
or brandy whatever it was. He drank it up
and then started out to paint the town red. That
was just what he to the city for.
But it happened that when he emerged
from the hotel about midnight noisy and hilarious
a little brown policeman standing on the
corner. The hilarious had gone ten steps
before he was gathered into the OF the law
and taken to the lookup This morning, when he
was taken before the judge, he refused to tell
where he got the liquor
He was not fined reprimanded or anything
OF the sort. He sentenced to six months in
the workhouse, which is the penitentiary There
is only one prison here for all classes They don't
try to coddlc people here who break the law
They simply punish them.
This man not pcon Of the laboring
class. He is merchant in the small town he
came from. Today he will be wearing one OF
those blue and-whte striped suits and working on
the roads or the public buildings, with an un-
pleasant looking soldier carrying a loaded rifle
behind him to to it that he don't shrk
OF course this law is not only good one
morally, but also physically, for it is perfectly
1dotc thing for any to drink alcohol in this
climate 1t is hot and sticky in the daytime and
everybody regulates his costume and diet and
work to be as comfortable as possible The least
little alcohol will upset all their precautions how
ever, and make existence almost uncndurable
Nobody but fool would drink spirits in this
sunbaked country, and so the law is not such a
! drastic it seems.