The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
COMMODORE WILLIAM BAlNBPIOGE
PAINTED 81 JOHN WESLEY JARVIS.

Raisuli. He was too great a man,
it was said, to steal. But the persons
who said this did not count on the
desperate condition to which this de-
scendant of the Prophet might be re-
duced by poverty and oppression.
Raisuli was, it is true, noted cattle
stealer, but in Morocco this is con-
sidered rather an honorable profession.
From cattle stealing Raisuli and his
followers finally went into a general
line of robbery; nor did the crimes
hey committed stop at murder. At
last the brigand's lawlessness no long
! could be tolerated. and the late
! Sultan ordered Ralsulrs arrest. A
member of his gang betrayed him and
Raisuli was captured, loaded with
chains and thrown into the filthy dun
geon of Mogador, where he languished
for five years. Then a file was SNUG
gled into his cell. He cut through his
chains and escaped, but was recap
tured and for two years more he paced
his narrow cell. Then, on his promise
to lead a decent life, he was released.
But his property had been confiscated
and Raisuli had no recourse, it seemed,
he had done in defiance OF justice and
morality before his Imprisonment was
child's play compared to what he did
after his release, when he was about
40 years old.
The Harris Kidnapping.
In 1908 he kidnapped Walter B.
Harris the Moroccan correspondent of
the London Times, while he was re-
turning from Tangier to his home out
side the city. Raisuli demanded a
ransom of $4,000 for Harris's release
and got 1t. A year later he seized the
persons of Ion Perdicaris, an Amer
lean citizen, and John Cromwell VAR
ley, his stepson, a British subject.
Raisui surrounded the Perdcaris
villa at night and carried off his cap
tives, who were in evening dress, to
a camp in the Benz Aroz Mountains,
where no Europeans ever before had
set foot. Once there Raisuli treated
the two men with consideration, eX-
planning that his object in seizing them
was political. For their release Rails
uli wanted $1,000 in cash, the Gov
ernorship of all the districts in the
neighborhood of Tangier, the removal
from office of the man who originally
had betrayed him and who was then
Governor of the Tangier province, and
the release from prison of all Raisull's
friends.
Like Raisulis pride, this ransom
was stupendous, but negotiations did
not succeed in making the bandit re-
duce his terms. He held the whip
hand, and he knew, too, that neither
America nor England would begin a
campaign against him.
1t looked at one time as If the former
Government might do so. While the
negotiationsN were dragging on the
delegates of the Republican party were
assembled in convention at Chicago
in June, 1904, to nominate Theodore
Roosevelt for President. The delegates
had do1e a lot of cheering over va
rious propositions and various person.
olities hut they never had cheered so
loud as they did when a despatch was
read by the chairman CUncle" Joe
Cannon), sent it was said, by Secre-
tary Hay by order of President Roose-
welt to the Moroccan Government:
we want Perdicaris alive, or
Raisuli dead
Free ia Two Days.
Two days later Perdicarls and Var
ley were free; the Sultan of Morocco,
Muley Abdul AziZ, had surrendered
to the bandit on all points.
That any American money went to
help the Sultan free these prisoners
is doubtful, but in the capture of an
American missionary, Ellen NJ Stone,
by Turkish bandits OF Macedonia in
September, 1901, her freedom after six
months Imprisonment finally was eff
fected by the paymeRa OF $4,000 raised