MOST COURTEOUS THIEVES.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 211, 16 July 1887, Page 8 (Supplement)

MOST COURTEOUS THIEVES.

I sri.NT a pleasant week in Madrid, and I then went on to Seville. The oxpress journey was not without its interesting features. We stopped now and again for fifteen minutes and half an hour. When wo stopped overybody got out of the ti'ain and into the- buffet — passengers, guards, engine-drivers, poiters and all. We all sat dow n together, and then we all smoked cigarettes together round tlv five. When it was time to start, wo r ~ ' up, stretched ourselves, and leisun 1 - .ullecl back to the train, the guards and tiio engine-driver and the stoker being generally the last to turn out. Our "civil guards," of course, went with us, their moustaches fiercely twisted and their rifles loaded. We still want this soit of protection over lonely plains in vSpain, because the biigands are not quite clone away with yet. The way in which the§ robbery is carried out is this : Tho biigands signal to the engine-diivev to stop, and he does so, being generally " in " -u ith tho brigands. Then these gentlemen, called in Spanish " Salteadores de cami nos," or road- jumpers, approach tho carnage, laihO their hats to the passengers, and in the most polite language request them to give up their money and jewels. The "guaidias civilcs" are stopped from firing at tho robbers by tho affrighted passengers, as tho rascals have previously explained that if they are fired at they will shoot at the passengers in return. Tho chief of tho brigands usually addresses the passengers in these terms : " Ladies and gentlemen, please deliver up your money and valuables of every desciiption. We do not wish to put you to the indignity of a search, but shall rely upon your honour. But as soon as you tell us you havo given up everything we shall search one passenger of each class. If upon either we find a single coin or a single valuable, we shall shoot one passenger in each compartment. Ladies and gentleman, do not hurry yourselves. Our time is yours." Yon can imagine that, tinder these circumstances there is very little kept back. The passengers bog and pray of each other to conceal nothing. As soon as a complete surrender has been made, the brigands raise their hats and bid the passengers farewell in those words, " Vayan ustedes con Dioi " - May you go with Cod — and as the train moves off thoy add, with beautiful and simple piety, " and may we all meet again some day in God's big parlour."— Madrid Letter to " Nqvt York Tribune.'