A MEXICAN HELL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1082, 5 April 1913, Page 4

A MEXICAN HELL.

SOME TERRIBLE TALES OF PLANTA TION SLAVERY.

WHERE HUMAN FIENDS RULE,

The American Magazine liar, been running a series of sensational articles about. “Barbarous Mexico.” Tho author, John K. Turner, spent 18 months in investigating the subject, visiting nearly every part of Mexico, ami penetrating into regions sucii as a terrible Valle Nucional, where slavery in its worst form is to bo found. Men and women aro enslaved for life by tho thousands. starved, beaten, and sold while Mexico is described as having a Government more absolute and autocratic than that of Russia. It has its Siberias— in the hot lands of the south; its spy system, its condemnations for political offences, and its terrible prisons. The constitution is a dead document. It is a Government, ot the few for the few, with a big standing army to back them. Those at the top have millions; the middle class aro suppressed; the lower classes are down near the starvation limit. “One of the first, sights that, we saw on a heiieqnon (hemp) plantation was the beating of a slave a formal beating lx l loro the assembled toijeis of the ranch early in the morning, just, after the daily roll-call. UNDER THE LASH. “The slave was taken on the back of a huge Chinaman, and given 15 lashes across the bar© back with a. heavy wet rope, lashes so lustily delivered that the blood ran down the victim’s body. Tins method of beating is an ancient, one in Yucatan, and is the customary one on all (he plantations for boys and all except the heaviest men. Women tire required to kneel to be beaten, as sometimes are men of great, weight. Men and women are beaten in the fields as well as at the' morning roll-call. Each foreman or captain carries a. heavy cane, with which ho punches and prods and whacks the slaves at will, I- do not remember visiting a single field in which I did not -sco sonic of tho punching, prodding, and whacking going on. “I saw no punishment worse than beating in Yucatan, but I heard of it. I was told of men being strung up by their fingers or the toes to bo beaten, of their being thrust into black, dungeon-like holes, of water being dropped on the hand till the victim screamed, of the extremity of female punishment being found in some outrage to tho sense of modesty in the woman. I saw tho black holes, and everywhere I saw the gaol dormitories, armed guards, and night guards, who patrolled the outskirts of tho farm settlements while the slaves slept. I heard also of planters who took a special delight in personally superintending the beating of their chattels. For example, speaking of one of the richest planters in Yucatan, a professional man of Merida said to mo “‘A favourite pastime of was to sit on his horse and watch tho ‘cleaning up’ (punishment) of his slaves. He would strike a match to light his cigar At. the first puff of smoke tho first stroke of the wet rope would fall on the bare back of his victim. He would smoke on leisurely, contented ly, as the blows fell one after another. When the entertainment finally palled on him, he would throw, away his cigar, and the man with the rope would stop, for the end of the cigar was the signal for the end of the beating.’

DISGUSTING FOOD.

“I sampled the supper of the slaves. That is. I sampled a part of it with my tongue, and the rest, which my nostrils warned me not to sample with my tongue, I sampled with my nostrils lie meal consisted of two large corn tortillas, the bread of the poor of Mexico, a cup of boiled beans )inf)avoured, and a bowl of fish, fish that reeked with an odour that disgusted mo for days. Beans, tortillas, Sonce a 4 & y> al *d a dozen hours under hottest sun that ever shono T such is the lot of the slave. The Mexican Liberals compare Yucatan to Russia s Siberia. ‘Siberia,’ they say, is hell frozen over: Yucatan is hell aflame. “VftUe Nacional is undoubtedly the worst slave hole in Mexico. Probably it is the worst in the world. ~ “In Yucatan the Maya slaves die off faster than they are born, and two-thirds of the Yaqui slaves are killed during the .first year after their importation into the country. In Valle Nacional all but a very •few of the slaves pass back to earth within a space of seven or eight months. There are statistics, but it is positively known that the death pals is appalling. And there are 15.009 o( these Vallo Nacional slaves —15,000 new opes every year. By the sixth or seventh month they begin to die of! like flies at the first winter frost, and after that even the rest are not worth keeping.’ INTO THE MOUTH OF HELL.

“ ‘There are no survivors of Valle Nacional—no real ones,’ a. Government engineer who has charge of the improvement of certain harbours told me. Now- and then oil gets out of the valley and gets beyond El Hide. He staggers and bogs fcis jyay along the weary road to wards Corobfla. but ne never gets back where he came fronj. These people come out of the valley, walking corpses; they travel on a little wav, and then they fall. “The slaves of Valle Tsacional are not Indians a© are the slaves of Yucatan. They are Mexicans, Some are skdied artisans. The majority of them are cvs. As a whole, except If? then rags, their bruises, thedr squalor, and their «*'■ spair, they are a very fair of the Mexican people. Most of themar. not criminals. Tfeo rest of them are peaceable law-abiding citizens, yet pot one ol them came to the valley of his o*n will, not on© .would not leave the vallci on an instant's notice if he 01 she could get awa^ N ACTRESS'S DOOM, “The oversee)' of « number of large plantations said; 'Some of th© best artisans in the country com© her© in mi© other. Wo got carpenters awl cabinetmakers and upholsterers and everything. Whv on my ranches lie naci teachers and actresses and. artiste, and one time I even had an ex-pnest. , I Jnm J "° of the rnoet beautiful actresses in the country one tun,©, /ight here She was noted, too- How duj '‘he fiftl here. Simple enough. A son of a. mdtyowqr.; m Mexico Citv Wanted to marry her, and to get out of the way the million air© paid th© authorities a good png© to kidnap her and. give her to a labour agent.-' IRv subsequent fat© may be imagined..