solitary confinement—mexican rogues—the humorous side—a member of the smart set—the milkmen.
incomunicado (solitary confinement) is one of the bad features of mexican law. the accused is placed thus for the first forty-eight hours (in some cases up to seventy-two hours), and during this time the investigating judge is trying his best to wring a confession out of him, or to confound him by constant interrogations. another bad feature is the length of time the officials can hold a man without trial while they are trying to get evidence against him; but this is not done so much now as formerly. i have known men held thus for over a year in jail without trial, and then turned loose when the case could not be proved against them. another peculiarity is the length of time a man condemned to death can delay the execution by appeals, &c. all this is now under discussion by the new government, and the consensus of opinion is that changes for the better will be made in the laws. there was a man shot here in the penitentiary a year ago who was condemned six years previously for the 250murder of his wife. woman murder is about the only thing they seem to execute a man for in mexico. for any ordinary killing in a fight, eight years is the longest sentence i have seen recorded, though some have been condemned to death and their sentence afterwards reduced to this amount. yet i have seen sentences ranging from two years to twelve years for robbery with breach of trust.
mexican rogues work out some clever schemes; for instance, the following was worked successfully in san luis potosi, and the perpetrator has not yet been caught: a man dressed as a wealthy hacendado (ranch-owner) walked into the largest implement house there, and, after looking over their stock, picked out and bought $15,000 worth of machinery. he said, “as you do not know me, i will pay in cash,” and pulled out his pocket-book. “oh,” said he, "i forgot to cash this draft, and find i have only about $1000 in cash with me, but here is a sight draft for $30,000, made out to me by the bank of london and mexico; which i will endorse over to you. when you have cashed the draft, please send the balance to this address." the owner of the store was delighted to meet a customer who bought such large orders without beating down the price, and who also paid cash, and was bowing him out with much ceremony when they 251encountered coming in another presumably wealthy hacendado. “why, old fellow, what are you doing here?” said no. 2. “just buying a few things for the ranch,” said no. 1; and then, laughing, “do you know, i found myself without ready money to pay for them, and so had to leave my draft here for these people to collect.” "if it is not more than $50,000 i will settle for you, old friend, but that is all the money i have with me," and he pulled out a pocket-book filled with bills of $500 and $1000. so they marched back, and no. 2 paid the balance of $14,000. “now,” said no. 1 to the store proprietor, “if you will kindly endorse back my draft to me, i think we have the business closed up; please ship the goods as soon as possible.” the check was endorsed back, and the two old friends went out arm-in-arm. to his disgust the storekeeper found next day that no. 1 had been to the bank with the draft, which the bank had cashed on the storekeeper’s endorsement.
they also show some humour in their thefts. a mexican lawyer who lived near me in the french colony had some friends to his house one evening, who sat out with him on the porch. they went in to supper, and when they returned found all the chairs had been stolen. the lawyer decided not to call in the police but to catch the robbers himself, so after 252his guests were gone he brought out some more chairs and then hid in the shrubbery with a gun. there he sat till 3 a.m., when he made up his mind that they would not come again, so he went into the house to put away the gun. when he returned to bring in the chairs the rest of them were gone also. how the thieves must have enjoyed watching him as he watched for them, and then stealing his chairs from under his nose! the town has hardly got over laughing about it yet.
as we did not have very much success with the police protection afforded us by the government during our first year’s work, we asked permission to have two or three police turned over to us, whom we would pay. the government refused, but said we could put on any of our own men and buy them uniforms and clubs, and that then the government would give them authority as regular police. so the second year we put two of our own men in uniform, and i picked out two of the cheekiest young cubs we had. one day a young man of the gente fine (smart set) started to walk across some fresh-laid pavement, which had not yet cooled and set, when the policeman interfered and requested him not to cross. the young fellow gave him a withering glance and started forward again; the policeman again interfered with the same result. when he started the third time the policeman 253grabbed him by the coat tails and pulled him back. this took the dude by surprise; he tripped over the curb and sat down rather forcibly on the sidewalk. i was standing about one hundred feet away, and ran forward as soon as i saw that there would be trouble. i reached them just as the dude was unmercifully hammering my policeman, who did not dare to retaliate. i grabbed him by the wrist and gave it a twist (the old schoolboy trick), and soon had him marching along. he struggled furiously, and in a few minutes we had a crowd of about one thousand people around us, and i was glad to see three city policemen coming up on the run, to whom i turned him over. he spent the rest of the day in the lock-up, and, the story going round, we had very little more trouble with this class. on one or two occasions we had trouble with the police themselves trying to cross our work. on the first occasion a mounted officer started to ride across some fresh concrete in spite of the protests of the concrete foreman, who was an american; then the latter lost his temper and jerked the officer’s horse off the concrete. when i heard of the occurrence, which was only a few minutes later, i dashed off to the jefe politico to put our case before him before any exaggerated version could reach him. on the second occasion a police 254captain ordered me to remove some barricades i had across a street so that the carriage of some big-wig could drive across. i refused, and told the captain he could remove it himself if he were willing to take the consequences. he rode off, threatening all sorts of things, but i never saw him again.
my pet aversions are the milkmen, who have caused me more trouble than all the rest put together. the milkmen in mexico ride on horseback and carry the milk in four large cans, hung two on each side of the saddle, one in front and one behind the leg; thus they gallop from house to house making their deliveries. they and the hack-drivers are the toughest element in the city. on one occasion i warned two of them not to cross the street on which i was working, but the minute my back was turned they galloped across, thinking that i could not catch them on foot. but i happened to have my horse at the next corner, and i mounted and galloped the block, caught up to them, and grabbed one man’s horse by the bridle. after a little argument, finding i was determined to take him to the commissaria, he suddenly leaned forward, slipped the headstall over the horse’s head, and dashed off, leaving the bridle in my hands. his companion, though, thought he would put up a fight, demanded the bridle, and on my refusal started for me. i 255generally carry on the work a luger automatic pistol in a holster slung from the shoulder, so that the gun hangs just under the left armpit. when the man came forward i jerked my coat open instinctively, on which he turned and fled. the joke of the thing was that i had no pistol with me at the time, though i had forgotten the fact when i reached for it. on another occasion one of them galloped past my concrete foreman, who made a snatch at him, and at the same time the man put out his hand to push him away. the foreman’s hand closed on his wrist, and off he came over his horse’s tail, while his steed galloped on. i was standing a few feet away, and the man’s face, as he felt himself going, was really too funny. of course we had no right to take the law into our own hands in this way, but we had to do so in self-defence, or we should have got no work done at all. i told the foreman he must be more careful, which he promised to be, and a day or two later he told me a dairykeeper had ridden over the work with two of his milkmen, and when called to had cursed him for his pains. he described the man, and, as i knew him, i looked him up and told him that he must not do it again, and that i thought he owed the foreman an apology. he was the black sheep of one of the best families in town, and was consequently very uppish. 256he told me he would ride where he pleased and would go the same route the following day, and, to show me that i could not stop him, if i were not there when he passed he would wait for me. so i said i would be there. our manager, however, heard of it, and went to the jefe politico, who insisted on sending up a large squad of police to arrest the man should he attempt to pass. but it was trouble wasted, as the man was only bluffing and never appeared again on the work. the jefe told me that i had the right to arrest and hold offenders till a policeman arrived. at first i carried no gun, but when our yard foreman narrowly escaped being stabbed by one of his men, and i myself got into one or two rows of this sort, i decided to carry my luger like the rest. any one can get a permit to carry a pistol here who will pay the $1.50 for the licence.