AN EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1696, 27 October 1887, Page 2

AN EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.

A correspondent of the " Panama Star" and '* Herald " writing from Santiago under date of July 28, draws a forbidding picture of affairs m the Chilean oapital. The following extract will indicate that matters are m a very bad way, if the account is truthful : — After having undergone and emerged from the pearls and paina ot a cholera visitation, what appears to be almost a worae thine has befallen Santiago, the Capital of Ohile, m the shape of an epideme of crime. As far as progress and oivllis*tioa are concerned, Ohile may certainly take the fust rank amongst the South Ameriosn republics, but unfortunately, as is too often the case m other parts of the world, the wealth and well-being of the country, instead of decreasing the number of dangerous classes, has bad quite an opposite effect, This holds good especially with reference to the capital, where for the past fen months footpads, burglars, and assassins seem to have set the civic authorities at defiance, and had everything their own way. A Chilean erltpinnl has always shown himself to be a thoroughgoing man of bnaineafl, and Chilean crimes may hold ibelr own against the prondeßt displays of far moreancientand experienced lands. But onthiaoccasiona tegular reign of terror appears to have been established m Santiago. It was more than unsafe to be out after dark even m the most central and denss'y populated portions of the city, whilst to wander alone and unarmed m any of the slightly outlying etioeta meant almost certain robbery, and murder m case of row or resistance. Houses have been btoken into m the moat barefaced manner, the burglars retiring m many cases ou finding the duor too strong for their efforts to bring asßlatanoe m the Bhape of friends and a battering-ram. Bobbery has been stalking triumphant through the streets, seeking for and never failing to find its prey. The very churches have not been safe from sacrilege. Women who have entered to pray have been preyed upf>n, and have been despoiled of their altombras or their purses, and men who while indulging m brief communion wi'h Heaven have unooneoioasly deposited their hats by their sldea, have had their head gear cruelly removed during their moments of devotion. At home or abroad, asleep or awake, walking or driving. praylDg or oursing, dangor seems to have been alvraya lurking alike for the wary or unwary. Men and women, at early hours of tbe evening and m central portions of tbe town, have been waylaid, knocked down, robbed, stripped of their clothing, and m some cases murdered by evidently organised banda of ruffiuis, and no one to say to them nay, or what doest thou ? So numerous did the nightly occurrence of such cases become, that the daily journal^ act apart a columu o? two for the exprerß pu-poae of recording Ihtao ouiragea. According to our most recent exchanges owin to certain reason a which do not clearly appear, these crimes seem happily to be deo^e&ilqgta aamber,