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 no one knew within half 
an hour just what time the morning train left, we 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 said it would be a week 
before they would be running again. As it had 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 ftwsos 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 
