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
murder 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 encountered 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 his 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 grabbed 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 captain 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 generally 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. He 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.