| Show WERE THRUST IN DUNGEONS the story of two bomena crime against the mexican government and the awful punishment meted out to them as told InThe lr letters smuggled after many trials out of prison abo prisoners are mcnora juana D de mendoza a alfo and mother 33 years old and senorita ellsa acuna y a girl of 20 years to such a ot fear haa tho dictator of mexico and his uffa dais reduced tha country that even relatives are afraid to speak of the two women except in the exclusion of their own homes much less to take steps lo 10 havo them freed many simply bewail tho rashness id advocating suffrage literally in where angels feared to tread mcnora mendoza and senorita roseto are two of tho most remarkable como in mexico prom november until the dato of arrest they published the vesper a newspaper devoted to freo suffrage and vehemently opposing tho governments employment of the army to wn elections soon the whole nation realized that vespers arguments were powerful and with regard to the army incontrovertible tro its circulation increased by thousands with every issue and BO was encouraged to even more radical expression the editors of the vesper became aware last june that the secret police wore about to seize them nine writers connected with the aljo de an independent political weekly which publishes cartoons and alx others attached to excelsior an organ also opposed to the election reelection re of adlaz had already been thrown into prison and subjected to tortures so in their july number senora do mendoza and Sc norita acuna y roseto printed the ablest and at the same time the most bitter article against the president they had yet written over their signatures they made such assertions as these every word ever written or spoken in praise of diaz was paid for in cold cash by the government it Is an insult to the mexican na 1 alon tor porferio adlaz to say that ho Is tho only man who can guide the country clear ot anarchy if accord ins to himself and his hirelings the country must dash into anarchy when ho relinquishes the dictatorship then ho has led it into anarchy american capitalists by building railroads made mexico prosperous and it it was not for them the dictator would have been overthrown long ago but while anarchy has passed thanks to the american railroads military despotism continues thanks to the dictator in war a mutineer in peace an intriguer tri guer in power a despot there your master self sold slaves I 1 the to juarez has accumulated and hla ministers more during tho much twenty years of peace and still but forty per cent of the adult population can read and write see thoro abo progress of mexico I 1 even before these utterances were published orders for the arrest of the two women had been issued senora do mendozas Men dozas house was seized and her furniture printing press type everything she had confiscated for a fortnight gendarmes gen darmes lived on food they found in the house or bought with the money obtained by selling articles of her furniture upon being taken to balem prison the victims were placed separately in bartoll nas damp dungeons containing no furniture of any kind there they shared with rats the food thrown to them at long intervals snails and other clammy creatures crawled in the slime which covered the floor spiders and scorpions crept from crannies in the walls for twenty one days the women remained without a light in this den of horrors fearing every moment that they would be bitten by a scorpion choso whoso touch meant death during all this almo no relatives knew their whereabouts their only visitors were guards who twice a day opened the dungeon doors to see it they were still alive during one of these visits the soldiers would toss food upon the floor to them bouldy mouldy bread and a gourd of water at such times rats rushed from their hiding places and fought over iho crumbs even attacking the women themselves finally commuted to the general prison they were so emaciated that their relatives did not recognize them in addition senorita acuna y Ros etes face was swollen to nearly again its natural size a venomous spider having bitten her new quarters mendoza and senorita are permitted at lone intervals to receive visitors diaz and bis officials knowing that no person in view 0 the results to themselves would daro to attempt a rescue it was through one of these visitors that letters asking for information acro smuggled to them and the replies sent out the two women whose dread position Is now for the first almo presented to the public expect never to bo bri eglit to trial and it Is believed by many that they will be held in balem until they dio or caprice liberates them as in the case of the awve revolutionists who were con ath garglas Gar clas uprising a few years ago |
