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Show COMMUNISM IN ACTUAL PRACTICE German Traveler Fiom Bolivia Describes De-scribes Its Work Among a Tribe of Indians. On any map of Bolivia you will find a big white space in the southeastern southeast-ern part of it. This large region has been neglected by explorers and all other white men. excepting a handful of Bolivians, rubber collectors and a few missionaries. It was not known until tin's fall what interesting things are to be found in this forgotten corner. cor-ner. Captain Jerrmann, a well known geographer, ge-ographer, who has been studying rubber rub-ber resources in South America, has written for Petermann's Mittellungen some remarkable facts about this region. re-gion. Hie could find no map to help him on his journey, and the route map he carefully prepared gives much fresh information. Meet people have thought of Bolivia, since the war with Chile in 1879 deprived de-prived her of a port on the Pacific ocean, as being without any port through which she might exchange commodities directly with the rest of the world. But Jerrmann found that the republic has made a port of her frontier town, Puerto Suarez, on the Paraquay river. The name of this town is not found on some of the satest maps, and yet the town is now engaged in foreign trade. The goods are brought by ocean steamers into the Rio Plata, transferred trans-ferred to river steamboats and carried up the Paraguay to Puerto Suarez, where they pass through the custom house just as though they had entered en-tered a great Bolivian seaport. These goods would be of little use, as they are hundreds of miles from the settled parts of Bolivia, unless excellent excel-lent means of transporting them were provided. The common wagon roads of South America are among the worst in the world, but,the Bolivians have built a road over 100 miles westward from their port which will compare favorably fa-vorably with the good roads of other countries. Jerrmann calls the government govern-ment of the republic tyrannical, and says it has used the privilege it chooses to exercise to compel the people to work in the government service for a mere pittance, and thus has provided an excellent road at very small cost. The road winds westward for over 100 miles through the valleys and forests for-ests until it reaches the navigable part of a stream flowing into the Rio Grande. The boxes are transferred from the wagons td small boats, which carry them to the northwest, and they are "finally distributed to the leading towns of the country. To reach the rubber district Jerrmann Jerr-mann had to leave the good wagon road and strike north along a narrow and tortuoua path through the dense forests. On his way he came to the country of the Guarayo Indians, of whom he gives the best account yet written. Their name means' Yellow Men, 'and they have really fin extremely light complexion. The Guarayo holds himself him-self superior to the Caucasian, and It cannot be denied that in uprightness and strudy character he compares fa-forably fa-forably with more- civilized peoples. The tribe, which numbers only a few thousand souls, has" become known simply sim-ply because of one peculiarity: Its life is ordered on the communistic plan. Everybody works, not for himself, but for the common good. The people have a number of small settlements and four large ones, and are ruled with a rod of iron by their caciques. They derived their communistic idea from the Jesuit fathers who lived among them several centuries ago. They have enlarged these Ideas according accord-ing to their own notions and believe that by serving all each may contribute better than in any other way to his own weir "being and that of his tribe. The smaller settlements are divided into two sections, the larger towns into four, and in San Ignacio there are eight sections. The supreme head of the people in each section is a cacique, who has under him a superintendent, a judge and a secretary, the last keeping a written record so that an account of all the affairs of the section becomes part of its history. There are also a number of superintendents superin-tendents of labor; one of them having under his direction the men who distribute dis-tribute the water, another squad supplying sup-plying firewood, others' attending to all the farm work. Every man detailed for farming has a plot of ground, for whose careful cultivation he is held responsible. re-sponsible. The crops he harvests go into the common store to the last pound or bushel, but the man is punished pun-ished if it is decided tnat the yield from his patch is less - than it would have been if his industry had been greater. If the house of one-of the tribe is burned it is replaced at public cost. Thus throughout -their lives in every way each shares the good and bnd fortune for-tune of his neighbors. . The cacique is an absolute ruler, and disobedience .to-- his will is - severely punished. Laziness is one of the worst of crimes and the. penalty inflicted is often several hundred blows well put on the- , naked back with a leather strap, pyeiiv the women are punished in this way, re?eiving sometimes as many, an fifty strokes. Discipline is remarkably severe. No one may leave his section without permission. per-mission. No. one may entertain a stranger stran-ger unless the cacique assents. No one may marry outside of the tribe under any circumstances, nor take a wife in another, section -of his tribe without the consent of- the caciques of both sections. It is interesting inter-esting to have these further details about this little. group of South American Amer-ican Indians, whos.' peculiar and somewhat some-what advanced civilization had already carried their name abroad. Jerrman at last reached the rubber fields after traveling many days through the dense forests. The tree is the Hevea braziliensip, the same plant that yields the famous Para rubber in the Amazon basin, and Bolivia Is supplying sup-plying more and more of this superior rubber every year. The tree is known among the rubber collectors as the seringa. The explorer mentions a very curious fact- concerning the search for other rubber field? In these great forests. The i groups - of rubber trees are scattered jonly here and there among the timber, I and men are kept constantly in the I field in search of more trees. ; - This work is not without da-iger. for there are perils of wild beasts and ol fever and many of the Indians are not friendly. The prospectcrs therefore travel in small parties, spreading out. within hearing distance of one another during their day's toil. A little bird with a sweet fUitelike note is found in these groves of rubber trees, and. .strange to say. it is not known to live outside of them. . tne rubber collectors hr.ve gjven it the j name of seringcio. As the projectors - push forward through the bush they ! listen for the familiar "huwiet, huwitt, huwee," of the little bird. ; When a hunter hears the chnrai.'ter- j isric cry among the trees ahead of him j he raises a K'a:l siimi that roa-.-hts his , brethren through the weeds. i i "Come- here!" !. cries. "I hear tlie p'-ringt.-ro sii:i'.i'.: : and hi re are the ' . trees.-' j ! |