BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 85
squad. At Tierra Blanca we stopped for dinner and, as
the meal the ruraics purchased for their charges consisted
only of tortillas and chili, we bought a few extras
for them, then sat and watched them eat. Gradually
we drew the exiles into conversation, carefully nursing
the good will of their guards at the same time, and presently
we had the story of each.
The prisoners were all from Pachuca, capital of the
state of Hidalgo, and, unlike the vast majority of Valle
Nacional slaves, they were being sent over the road
directly by the jcfc politico of that district. The particular
system of this particular jt'fc was explained to
us two days later by Espiridion Sanchez, a corporal of
ruraics, as follows:
"The jcfc politico of Pachuca has a contract with
Candido Fernandez, owner of the tobacco plantation
'San Cristobal la Vega,' whereby he agrees to deliver 500
able-bodied laborers a year for fifty pesos each. The
jcfe gets special nominal government rates on the railroads,
his guards are paid for by the government, so
the four days' trip from Pachuca costs him only three
pesos and a half per man. This leaves him forty-six
and one-half pesos. Out of it he must pay something
to his governor, Pedro L. Rodriguez, and something to
the jcfc politico at Tuztepcc. But even then his profits
are very large.
"How does he get his men? He picks them up on
the street and puts them in jail. Sometimes he charges
them with some crime, real or imaginary, but in either
case the man is never tried, lie is held in jail until
there are enough others to make up a gang, and then
all are sent here. \Vhv, men who may be safely sent
to Valle Nacion.al are getting so scarce in Pachuca that
the jefe has even been known to take young boys out of