150 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



We left Tehuantepec on the morning when the first case of smallpox 

 was reported, not for that reason, but because our visit was ended. It 

 is a curious coincidence, but our departure from Coatzacoalcos was 

 marked by the reporting of their first fatal case of yellow fever. 



In spite of the fact that the clock at the El Globo had stopped, that 

 the town clock in the plaza was slow, and that ho one knew within half 

 an hour just what time the morning train left, w succeeded in catching 

 it, and arrived in Santa Lucretia in time for the midday meal. Major 

 Elliott, whom we met on the way down, gave us a hearty greeting, but 

 could give no information regarding the construction train to take us 

 back to Santa Rosa. There were, he said, rumors of an accident, and no 

 train had been through for two days. Some %aid it would be a week 

 before they would be running again. As it tiad set in to rain hard, we 

 possessed our souls in patience, and prepared to spend the rest of the 

 day and the night with the Major. He readily made room for us, 

 although the house was full, and then proceeded to give us an idea of 

 Mexican justice. It seems that an Italian workman, on a prolonged 

 drunk, had for some days been terrorizing Santa Lucretia. After he 

 had chased natives to his heart's content, he fell into the habit of bom- 

 barding the Major's hotel with stones, and casting lurid reflections 

 upon the character of all its inmates, from the proprietor down. These 

 attacks were passed over with silent contempt, until one of the stones 

 hit the Major's son, who lost his patience, and with promptness and 

 despatch thrashed the aggressor. Unfortunately in the doing of this 

 he made the man's nose bleed, whereupon he was promptly hustled off 

 to jail in a neighboring town, and it was only after three days of diplo- 

 matic and financial effort that he was released. The Italian was not 

 arrested. 



The Mexican laws, as will be seen from the foregoing, are radically 

 different from those that are so often broken in "The land of the free 

 and the home of the brave," but they are well fitted to the natives of 

 that country, and act as a restraint to visitors, particularly those who 

 feel superior to the dark skinned owners of the country. For example, 

 if a foreigner gets in trouble with a native, even if the latter attack 

 him first, he is apt to be treated very much as if he were the aggressor. 

 I know of one case, and heard of several others, where Americans were 

 attacked by drunken or angry mozos armed with machetes, and who to 

 save their lives, shot their assailants and were quickly arrested, and in 

 spite of the fact that they proved that they acted only in self defense, 

 remained in durance from six months to a year there before being 



