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 f............