arms, without which he felt very unsafe. The leader of the gang was a man named Juan Paredes, who was well known to me; in fact, I had considerable business transactions with him, and had always found him to be, up to that time, a quiet and inoffensive person. We had many conversations together; he was owner of much property in the district; he had made his money by supplying meat to the contractors and their men during the construction of the railway through that section, and, as he naively remarked, the profits were considerable, as he simply rounded up the cattle from the outlying farms, irrespective of

owners.

Now comes the tragic part of my story. It was the custom of Juan Paredes to come over to the station to meet the 10:10 p. m. train, to obtain his correspondence, etc. The chief of police, Senor Bozo, was aware of this practice, and decided to make a charge upon the house of Paredes during his temporary absence.

The night was intensely dark, and Senor Bozo arranged that the judge, Senor Gonzalez, should take the sergeant of police with him, and reconnoiter. Half way between the station and the nearest store, the judge met a son of Paredes, a lad about 16 years of age. The youth, on account of troublesome times, was carrying a rifle, which the judge demanded from him. The lad, however, refused to give it up, stating it was not government property, but his own, and a Winchester. The judge immediately ordered it to be taken from him, but the lad struggled to retain possession. Gonzalez then told the sergeant to draw his revolver, and shoot young Paredes, which was instantly done, the lad falling dead at their feet. Paredes, senior, from the doorway of the store, had been a witness to all this, the light from the shop throwing a strong glare upon the parties concerned. He (Paredes), who was also armed, at once fired at the sergeant, shooting him through the head, and killing him on the spot; and also fired another shot at Gonzalez, hitting him in the elbow, the bullet also passing through his side. The judge fell, and crawled away in the long grass.

Paredes now mounted his horse, which had been standing in front of the store.

Simultaneously, Senor Bozo, with a number of men, who had been hiding under the trucks at the station, came running out when they heard the firing. They could see nothing, on account of the darkness; but asked, excitedly, "Where is he?" Paredes replied by shooting each man as he arrived near the spot, killing eight men in less than as many minutes. The remainder, not knowing what had really occurred, but, hearing the shouts of the wounded, cleared away to the house of the chief of police. Paredes now sought out his eldest son, told him what had occurred, and together they went in search of Senor Bozo's party. They found them at the chief's house, and demanded their surrender, but they all refused to leave their quarters.

Paredes then obtained a case of paraffin oil and poured the contents under the door, threatening at the same time to burn them out (the house was constructed of wood, with thatched roof). The besieged begged Paredes not to fire the place, as there were ladies and children within. Paredes replied that if they would hand over their arms, and deliver themselves up, he would spare the place. This the attacked party did, the son of Paredes binding each man as he passed out.

I had heard the firing, and seen flashes, but had no idea what had really taken place, and was not curious enough to investigate in the dark. I retired at II p. m., slept soundly until 5:30 a. m., and when I arose the first things that met my view were several dead bodies within a few yards of my front door.

I at once went outside, and saw Paredes riding towards me. He gave me a full account of what had taken place during the night, and stated he had eight others that he intended to shoot within a few minutes; he had only been waiting for daylight, so that his prisoners could see their companions shot.

I went with Paredes and saw he had eight men bound together and lashed between two posts. The men begged of me to save them, and I made an earnest appeal to Paredes to set them free, but he replied that if I wished for anything else in this world, and he was in a position to grant it,

he would do so, but would not spare their lives; stating, further, that any one of them would assinate him the first opportunity they had. I passed inside the house, by invitation, to view the body of their son, and made a further appeal for mercy to the mother, pointing out that some of the men had children that would be left fatherless, but my supplications were of no avail. She informed me that if her husband did not shoot them within five minutes, she would herself cut all their throats. The men were led out one by one, and shot in full view of the remainder. The agony of the last man (an Italian), just before his turn to be shot, was piteous to see.

Paredes and his son then rounded up all the cattle in the neighborhood, and came and wished me good-bye, stating that it would be some time before I saw him again, but he was coming back. He had not been able to find the judge. He asked me if I knew of his whereabouts. I, under the circumstances, thought it no sin to tell him an untruth.

An hour later I visited Gonzalez, who

had previously sent a message requesting to see me. From the judge I gathered his version of the affair. He took most of the blame upon himself for the death of his companions, stating that if he had carried out properly the instructions of Senor Bozo, the calamity would in all probability have been avoided. Gonzalez was the only man that took part in the affair that escaped death. He will, no doubt, remember the tragic night until the day of his death, having an amputated arm to keep his memory green.

I wired my superiors, giving full particulars, and the manager, Mr. Wibberley, who holds a similar position at present on the Beira & Mashonaland railway, at once despatched a special train with 150 soldiers to endeavor to capture Paredes, but they were too late. The troops arrived during the night. What they did capture was the whole of the poultry, pigs, sheep, etc., in the village, and then complained at the scarcity of live stock in that part of the country!

Just at the present time railroads seem to be coming in for more than their just share of criticism. Public sentiment, stirred to its depths by recent exposures of the insolence of trusts and their flagrant violation of the laws of the land, is particularly strong against railroad corporations, which are regarded by many as the most powerful combination of capital, with its governing characteristic greed, that we have in our midst.

From a feeling of indifference toward railroads there has gradually come into its place one of resentment of their methods. The appetite grows upon what it feeds, and so hostile has become the feeling that men are raising their voices all over the country, in and out of legislative halls, against railroads, calling for the passage of drastic laws to compel them to cease so-called oppression and conform to the

One of our most distinguished public men has gone so far as to advocate the government ownership of railroads as a means of correcting the evils, and he has many followers who concur in his views.

It is a self-evident fact that with public sentiment running so high against the railroads, injustice is being done them. Calm and catholic thinking on the subject, so necessary to proper and fair conclusions, has for the time being given way to hatred and invective against railroads, and their every act is construed as being inimical to the rights of the people.

As stated, stringent laws, national and state, have been enacted from time to time for the purpose of abating and remedying the alleged evils. In some states so pronounced has become the hostility of the

people to the railroads that it has resulted

in placing upon the statute books some very unjust laws, and these have had the effect of hampering railroads in their work of development and otherwise injuring them to a serious extent. Naturally, they feel 'that such legislation is manifestly unfair.

That railroads have been guilty of abuses we will have to admit, but that they have been guilty of all the corrupt practices laid at their door, we must emphatically deny. Railroads have been, and are today, conducted on sound business principles, just the same as a great mercantile house or any other business institution. It is a question of dollars and cents with them. One of the purposes of their existence is that of obtaining a fair return on the capital invested, and to accomplish this they must be governed by the same principles as the individual transacting business for himself is governed.

Out of the evils of rebating sprang public sentiment, which eventually crystallized itself into the so-called Elkins and Hepburn Acts, forbidding rebates and all other methods of discrimination on the part of railroads, the issuance of free transportation and like favors. These are unquestionably good laws, especially for the railroads, as they serve to protect them against the vast army of applicants which have been ceaselessly hounding them for favors in rates and transportation and enable them to get fair returns for service performed.

It is to be profoundly regretted, however, that high respect for our laws is not at all times entertained when individual interests are affected, there being a desire to evade the law in such cases, and it remains to be seen what the ultimate effect will be. It would be amusing, if it were not tragic, to listen to the specious arguments which people wanting favors from a railroad, not permitted by the law, advance to prove that an exception should be made in their case. We say tragic because this desire to evade the law indicates a laxity on the part of the people to conform to the laws of the land.

So long as the people cast about to evade the laws they are responsible for, or at least are willing to have these laws disregarded when it serves their selfish purpose

to do so, and so long as they make the open boast that to get the best of a railroad is a meritorious accomplishment (and it has been the experience of the writer that it is a common practice to do so) what, may be asked, can laws accomplish to remedy the evils existing.

If the men who pass laws for the government of railroad corporations lack the moral force necessary to abide by and support such laws when they affect their own particular and selfish interests, how can they expect these corporations to be better than themselves? Railroads are officered by men drawn from the same walks of life as those who do business with them and struggle for existence in precisely the same manner. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if they protect themselves by the same weapons as used against them.

Railroads, as stated, have been guilty of corrupt practices, but one would infer from all the invective that has been thundered against them that they alone have committed overt acts, while, as a matter of fact, the general public has been as much, or more, to blame than the railroads.

Railroads must live and if they have descended to questionable practices it has been more often than not the result of pressure brought to bear upon them by the general public to attain its own selfish ends. When intelligent, enlightened men make an open boast of their successful endeavors to travel on passenger trains at less than the published tariff rates of a railroad company, how can they consistently thunder against the corruption of railroad corporations when they do the very thing that tends to produce such corruption? Railroads for years have been considered legitimate prey by the public, and the more it could get out of them the better it was pleased.

Likewise in the case of rebates. It is a notorious fact that large shippers have brought every conceivable influence, and all the tremendous pressure of which they were capable, to bear on railroads, to obtain secret rebates and other concessions which would give them an advantage over their competitors.

If railroad officials succumbed to these onslaughts, believing it to be to the best interests of their companies to do so, are

they wholly to blame? By no means. They being human, possessed of all the weaknesses of erring human nature, have done what many another individual or group of individuals have done under like circumstance.

Railroads have been swept along by the logic of circumstances, and if the current has been strong and the windings tortuous, the cause lies deeper than the railroads themselves and must be looked for in the thoughts, actions and characteristics of the people, whose creature the railroad is.

We do not attempt to excuse the railroad. It has been much to blame and to that extent is guilty, but to rise unsullied above a polluted environment requires a courage, force of character and insight of the future of which few men are capable.

We set it down as a general principle that in the main conduct of the affairs of a railroad can be no better than the general modes of conduct of the people. Water cannot rise above its source, and so the government of railroads cannot rise above the general moral tone of the people. Let just laws be passed, by all means, to remedy the evils practiced by railroads, and when done, then all men in every walk of life should strive to obey those laws to the best of their ability.

The moment a man strives to break the law because his own personal interests are affected, just at that moment a dangerous symptom has set in which may extend to others and eventually involve the entire body politic.

The states in passing laws to regulate the railroads should bear in mind that the railroads have rights which should be zealously guarded, and that in passing unjust laws the whole country is affected. The railroads are owned by the people and whatever affects adversely the former must affect in like manner the latter, a fact the great American unthinking public seem to forget. Many of the western and southwestern states have recently passed laws reducing passenger rates from three cents per mile to two cents. In the mad stampede to make political capital for themselves and to give expression to the popular wave of bitterness against railroad companies, which is now

rolling over the country, legislators of thesestates have voted almost to a man for a reduction in passenger rates. Some of those voting have subsequently stated that they did so against their better judgment, but.. could not resist the pressure from the outside.

It is not necessary to enter into a long discussion of the matter, except to say that traffic officials demonstrated by uncontrovertible evidence before the various legislative committees that there was no money in operating trains at two cents per mile in states such as Arkansas, with a population of twenty-six to the square mile. And these men knew what they were talking about, having made passenger traffic a life study. They were honorable men, too, not trying to controvert facts, but to honestly demonstrate by indisputable evidence the injustice of legislation proposed. Were they heeded? No. Their voices raised in an honest appeal for the rights of their roads fell on barren soil.

With a press hostile, and bitterly so, and a rooted desire on the part of the people to get even for wrongs, imaginary and otherwise, perpetrated upon them by the railroads, the people's representatives, backed up by this tremendous sentiment, could not be swerved from their fixed purpose of compelling railroads to reduce their rates. Arguments of the railroad fraternity were of no avail. They might just as well haveaddressed the four winds of Heaven for all the effect they had influencing, or rather not influencing, the minds of those who heard them.

The bills were passed, and railroads must now make the best of it, with the hope that eventually the people will see that a great injustice has been done.

This is a time above all others when men,. in their attitude toward railroads, should be governed by reason, and not allow themselves to be swept from their moorings by the fierce gusts of passion. That injustice has been done the railroads by the enactment of hostile legislation there can be no question, and this has had the effect of injuring the credit of railroads at home and abroad, so much so, indeed, that they now find it very difficult, nay, almost impossible,