Exeter Advocate, 1913-9-25, Page 2PRISONER DEFIES SHARKS
31R1,1 4. SWIM T.OROUG1I
DANGEROUS (llie.l4 ellfs.
He Tools Desperate Chances in Or
tier to Regale His
Liberty.
On the Galiege reef, in the her-
bur of Vera, Cruz, Meisieo, there
stands art ancient Spanish fortress
known
an the tissue of San Juan
ole Moe. It is used for the incur
teratiou political prisoners, and
down in the depths of the reef on
which it is built, far below ;,he wa-
ter line, are a series of terrible
cells, where the light of day never
netrates, says the Wide World
agazine. The wretched inmates
sof' these stone boxes are forbidden
•!o speak ; they cannot lie clown pro-
Terly and they cannot stand erect.
hough the castle holds something
like 2,000 prisoners, and has leen
• used as a jail for hundreds of
}years, only one man has ever been
known to make his escape to the
Snaieland, for the surrounding Chan-
nels are ceaselessly • patrellecl,
night and day, by scores of huge'
man-eating sharks—more effective
guardians than bolts and bars and
lynx -eyed sentries.
, Up and down, inside and outside
the reef and round its ends, these
great sharks swim incessantly.
Their high dorsal fins cut the blue
waters of the outer sea and the
greenish -grey tide of the harbor
every hour of the night and day,
Fede 3141,
1�Nx II IS 'VINO 'TOWNS OUT Or .i.IXISUNC% ON 'Rift I
`11.)111s..
IN BUYING
,.IN
CAKES
BE CAREFUL TO
SPECIFY
ROYAL AK S
DECLINE s i'r 8STI TUrEs,
E.W,.GILLETT co„ LTC.
TORONTO,
WINNIPEG.. - MONTREAL.
tes,'3'111-0111,13-4`e Vele
E GI[lfll I.OMPA LIMII
se,„ ee esse.eeses t
I was as good as done for. 1314 •I • a strip of varnished wood to- the
swam on desperately, shouting et wall above the cook stove: Screw.
the shark, making a terrific splash- in a row of brass hooks and use
ing arid kicking &bout. I semens- them for iron spoons, strainers,
bet' one of the things 1 yelled at broilers, small spielers and any
him was a fragment of a charm song utensil ° that goes direct from hook
we learned as children to drive to stove:
away sharks when we were in bath An olive -oil bath is very fine for.
ing. I clo not suppose that did tiny. a palm or fern, Put two table -
great amount of good, but it coni- spoonfuls of olive oil at the root of
forted me somewhat, and I have your . palm or fern about oncea
since learned all of it over again. month, and you have no idea, un -
I swam thus for perhaps 70: yards less you have tried this, what im-
Hotting town to Rake Way for the Canal. more, with the big man-eater be- provement will be; ,
oi anticipation of the flooding of the coming more and nacre daring every To split a, shortcake without
Moving the ~town of Gamma, the largest in the canal zne , in amicp moment, taixtil'1 ser}v that he was ,burning the fingers, fill the pan
townsite by the rising welters of Gatun Lake. The lauildings, which axe ~apiary being demolished to
a: C along the zone—Empire and
getting ready to make a rush at me. }salt -full • of the batter, then spread
make way for the waters of the canal, are being .shipped to other: pont. logp. The channel was as smooth as a it over with a teaspoonful of melt-
ed here the Government will re -erect then with little expense, as the atrtioiurea are being ds- 1 Doi, nd. I could see every xnovo ed buttes. Then put in the rest of
molished in sections. The railroad tracks will be taken up as soon as all the buildings have.. been the nioxxstei: made byfixe phosphor- the buffos. and sprsvd it out 'so
removed, and then, when Gatlin Dake is opened, the town of U•orgono; that was wall be covered by the . essence int the water, which outl n- that none of the batter shows.
waters of the lake tee a depth of twenty feet.
a Palletise
htl
of h castillo d
t where the Sp•tn t this h I £ the for share truce perhaps half an ing of de:akxtixx and ctepaes�xo
1 . J deG 1 i d 1 Thenll b had fallen en me in that dreadful instantly and eply, T at smokes, open all the 'kitchen ,w
d
1 of 1 balance delayed ' 1 1 struck ter swimming as long as 1 could un- for the shore range to allow the smoke
I'and wl 1 breath
ed him as with fire. I saw him when the cake, is baked it will . split
and clur ug the 400 years since the !meal,
! move away and I seemed to feel easily.
laid monstere only ed I seemed to gain hope. The feel that this time his Bush would be in ZVhen anything on a cooking,:
'corner -atone the cgs x o was , enough to float the big sharks. The meal, I heard the ano st y � ,range boils over burns and
in 1528,on the spo • dropInto t h is channel rote r a _ s' n that earnest. As he came onx� edivedd, g, i -
. ., "' • .de , t - i hen v n
i ish conquistador. jean rata ver, walls of San, Juan de Mots is su xonr. a cosine quiet again; 1 1
still waiting n or dungeon gradually left Tiro, .and of-„ right angle, and sn ana desperately dows and life one plate from the
first landed in Mexico ten years be- den, but. atter. the swim across the and as Z ;sat. there, .till ata lib._£ g 3 for • , The shark olid not e to be
fore there is no record any psis- shark -infested channel the a ince my :toot , an idea. s •rub me. e I 1? drawn u, the the s If this
one~ escaping to the shore until of the anile is easy wading across If I could gain the wall about this nerneath I came cautiously to the fallow me, to nay great surprise, p y,
mu the eels, z anger e- time— o'clock xn the evening --the the lir- I til I could hold it no longer x thrix-
- an Guatet jug from occasional patches of shift- chances were .;that xaost of the Th sun vas dawn behind t p he surface. t girl
f t1 ing gttict*sand sharks won c he uu chase. ple c i delight f t struck bot
taking a cutting from a
im the habit of rubbing a
1912.thed flat,. 1 1 b t' •. ' tl top
would i of the1 peak of
swimming e 300 yards had been over every foot of -the .en. cut foe anotchannel.
r I soon found I land been. ter. damp earth upon .the spot
prima o to the i < and�caw it a about the same hour as on the first 'I coukl see that. the wall of Iran where it was broken off. This pre -
shorefrom the reefrd the.mainland bay in hia launch, knew s the means of know- Fuse de Uloa was lined' with ming for the last ten or fifteen furnished a meal for some well as his guards k:cw the. prison, orgy. I had notvents what is called . bleeding—a
shore has fnfi�ctent that Yards in water in c-haeh 1 could loss of sap—and ; saxes the vitality
shark, until one Manuel .Rojas He had known of the political cells .ing the time, and even the ronsola gnarcls, but I was co have stood a and so shallow that
dropped into the harbor an San Juan r. le Uloa, and he knew teen of smoking was denied me, for they could not see me. p'of both. It is putting salve upon
Gonzales d ppeverything I possessed, clown to my. Turnini; slowly from my back the shark did not dare enter it• an open sore.
feetthe night of June 29, 1912_ In, why the srotec of Vera Cruz her- y s ches ha,d been the position I had esstuned to look About ten yards -ahead of me vas
#act t e guards ofSan wan de , cigarettes d t at m = late ~aeon—I came almost _
,
e.n I had held my sea i un- doves t dostroy the odor put a lit -
The Shanks Stand g tie vinegar on to boil, which dis-
k the beautiful ,Orizaba, ed upward to t �' solves unpleasant smells.
Every man o the coon • ess g garbage on the and the"sky so shaded by ash -Dolor jj intense my feet When 'snores who have attempted to es- Gonzales, who had been a. man of vel, feeding on the -- ti's that it seemedto merge tom, and I my head and lent fo
ca e a living death in this grim some importance in the harbor city, seaward side.. Ne- t das I was tak ed clod hues e ohan ig , shouldersma were found=ell out of water. bit t.
p g. her examination at with the slag hte
It is a difficult matter to cue away
h l J bur are protected by law but he cigaxe es an m , the mud flat and I wasted no tame
realized t s what excellent taken aawsas from rue. y , , 3 . pttd to a -t. Then en in > oh
Uloa are never very anxious -to pre- Heyer cal 1 t ta the material under lace inserti
guards the were until, taken out of valued at $150 and given me key my into rolhslon with .a huge saner. g� gwithout severing a wrong thread
gent a man from making the at- 3 , e dead some years, was seared shark.' The moment I sae, the ivbxte straight line to the hills ixp the
so great is their confidence his eel' to religious services in the father, ycoast where . gaining the shelter 'oi"t unless means , of overcoming the
tempt, gg r trouble e employed. especially of the chapel one itnday, lie saw the big by the inspector of the prison, and body I knew I was in ea danger , , g p oyed. Use a pieta
In the sharks, sp yI suppose he still has it but nevertheless, the creature 'gave
. would-be fugitive is one . w use man-eaters sw m _ ,, t s - ser me a terrible fright: The shark- is-
ai sickness.
1Z watch
h t 1 flfing t p anct down st pp d.
crime has been punxslzed with life through the channel. T'eagxxe ' ac tte appeared, `evidently as :frightened 1
Imprisonment. If such a man "tries Thenceforward let Gonzales, That evening, after the clumping
as e self but I realized that .for circ, with clean clothing and money,
}snp s y and the material. This will : make
Inc luck,." it makes one less for the whom: I met in New Orleans short- of the offal from the kitchens, 1 the niament there were na man- I roc?e all the way to Tampico en the work easier and safer;
guards to watch, and one less for ly after my expulsion from Mexico heard the. door above me reopen eaters about ; otherwiseere 'the sand horseback and there tank steamer 1 t i ww
he prison commissary to feed—and by the. late President Madero, tell a d g .:.
t
the co emissary is controlledy
.
the jungle, I was soon amOAg
friends.
Provided with a- Burse and slid
of cardboard Four inches long,
rounded at oxie end and out wide
enough to slip along between ace
n ' this time ,e single and heavier
h followedimagine • is it
was the body ofsome hapless pr
splash 1 o that
shark would not have dared„ Lo take
so leisurely a course up the' an -
for New Orleans where I have been
b his own story
1 ch ever since, waiting far an . oppor- .Dum b Prophets contract so ti;tt the fewer prison On that walk to the chapel I made b d h 1pais vel for the tiger of the sea is pex tunity to return . to my wife and:
contractor ti my mind that escape was ;pus- children' in Vera Cruz. Tho spider is an excellent guide
ere the more money theP Y
makes � y, grave in she C,ttlf of Mexico ghxs ff b th h
h fth
Bible. Next. day, when 1 was ex -
There are three tiers, or floors, of ermined on charges of fomenting
oner being °,consigned : to a nameless fecal f r adythe
to and eat his more
sount1 and its sinister meaning only inoffensive brother whenever • oe-
ff
ethoughit- :� 14-an-Ea~tin.g Shark
meant 'eat in a horrible form.
I knew that .I should be examined with a:. rush that drove me to take
a dive. almost to the bottom, a
gray, torpedo -shaped body shot
paste -a man-eating shark going at
e to the weather. N.ot'only is he ex-
rasion o exs. Ho.►ue hints. •tremely sensitive tot e state o e
cells in San Juan de Uloa.• The top opposition to. Madero to Vera Crxlz, increased my desire and detetmxtx Brown bread makes a delicious atmosphere,. mebut he t&kos .n keen
tier, on the surface of the reef, and I saw that I was in for a life sen- anon to escape, even of ha bread puddilig.' interest in the habits of flying in-
surrounded by the high, watch tence in the incommunicado tolls. death h' h bl T must have covered 200 t sects,. He knows that tl f1 do not'
e prison, is for The charges against 'me were base-
Next day I feigned sickness, for
300 yards of open channel when, If cracker or bread crumbs used
towered wall o£ ih prfo.r covering escalloped dishes are carne cutin the wee When, there -
moistened in melted butter they fore, be is resting ;you may bo
will brown more evenlythan if the sure that he is expecting rain. But
, :should he be busy conetructin g a
dry crumbs are merely clouted with
brand-new web it is a sigi that he
is looking forward to a Bile spell—
and he is generally right. If ducks
or geese , are expeoting bird wea-
ther they dash water giver their
backs. They do this to prevent the
first few drops of rain penetrating
to their •bodies through .the dry,
open feathers. It as a sign that
fine weather is going to continue
for some time when bees wander far
away from their hivee. Owls
screaming in bad weather is:a ,sign
that a change for the better is near
at hand.
minor prisoners from the state of less, but they were so well sub -
Vera Cruz whose sentences are stantiated by witnesses whom I had again, and I resolved to make the
light. Occasionally ordinary, non- never seen before, and who didnotexamination as late as possible; 1
, political prisoners are placed in even know me, that I knew my fate demanded to see a doctor, and, as
£Ian Juan de Uloa, owing to the had been sealed by official orders final judgment of guilt and sentence
crowded condition of the mainland long before I had even been arrest -
3 ails, and these usually get the ed. I determined that sudden death
irier, better -lighted cells on the at the jaws of a shark was prefer -
surface of the coral barrier. able to years of slow dissolution in.
Beneatli these topmost cells is a the
second layer of rooms, measuring
eight by eight feet. They are un-
derground, but, nevertheless, re -
Slimy Cells Beneath the Sea.
After the examination I •was re-
ceive some light and air from the turned to my cell, and the last of
upper world. Under these again a long' row, running directly .across
the . terrible incommunicado the reef. A three-foot wall of
arerated me from the roar -
measurement,
cells, six by four. feet in .ground. stone .
measurement, and scarcely five feet ing; pounding open sea. I knew that
•
to the incommunicado cells had not
been passed on me, I was allowed to
see the prison physician.
Afters prisoners are condemned to
the incommunicado cells they , are.
not allowed to speak to anyone,
and if they are taken ill they die,
for no medical aid is allowed them.
By thus fooling the guards I wasable toput off the examination 'nn -
til 6 o'clock. The inspector of the
prison returns to • his mainland
home in Vera Cruz promptly at
in height. A: man can barely he there was no Nape of getting 7 o'clock, and at :seven on this per
down in them; he cannot stand through this wall, A box of dyne -titular evening he closed the hear -
erect if he be of an average height. mite would scarcely have broken it' ing, announcing that I should be
They .are absolutely dark, and the down, but as I crouched in my cell examined again at some future
little air they get comes through 1 noticed a tiny slit of light in the elate, which I took to mean the next
long musty corridors, leading from top of the wall at the end of the day,
the tiers above. All this floor of corridor. In the steel door of mY The guards ale careless on San
cells is below the waterline, arad cell was ,a smaIl opening to admit Juan de Uloa, for rarely does .a i.
prisoner try to escape, and thou het
never succeeds. At least, that is
what I was told both before and
during my brief imprisonment. We
walkedto the entrance, one guard
and myself, of the lower - tier of
cells. This entrance is not fair from
the channel side of the 'reef—I
should say about fifteen ,feet. 1 was
aione with this guard, the other
men in uniform being occupied in
conducting the inspector to his..
launch. My guard was armed
only with a revolver, which hung at
his right side, the side on which 1
was walking. -
full-. speed! The only ,reason I can butter.
think of that he did not slash at If the white of an egg is used for
me with his wicked teeth as he went dipping croquettes before crumb
by was that he had eaten just pre-
viously and was not hungry. As I
rose to the surface he 'swung across
inst over my head, evidently hunt-
ing for rue. I had coxae to the top
for air, • and as my head rose above
the water of the quiet lagoon I
heard a; chorus.of cries from the
`walls of San Juan de Uloa, "Los
tibxxrones ! los tibtuonee !'a
"The sharks ! the sharks!". they
cried; and I imagine they thought
the prisoners have constantly in
their ears the
Eternal Roar of the Open Sea, .
pounding againstthereef. Green
slime and moss cover the walls, and
the average life of a prisoner in--
earoerated in ane of these incoin-
municado, under -water cells is sev-
en years. What solitary confinement
in the darkness fails to accomplish,
the" dampness and the unvarying
cold complete.,
Into one of these dreadful sub-
marine cells went Gonzales, a po-
litical prisoner.
The distance from the innermost
end - of the reef to the mainland is
about a mile, .but at low tide there
is only about 300 yards of this mud-
ftat over which the water is deep
air, so that I should not suffocate,
for the door was so well fitted into
the stone that it was practically
hermitically sealed when closed:
Through this slit in my steel door
came the light from the almost
equally small slit in the wall. As I
sat there, my ebin on nay knees,
waiting for the evening meal of
beans and tortillas, the light faded.
The occupants of the other cells
were quiet, and above the roar of
the tide I heard a steel door open
somewhere above and the noise of
the garbage from the prison kit-
chen being dumped into the sea.
Then followed a rushing and
a splashing and the throwing
of heavy bodies about and
I knew that the 'sharks outside the
;reef had come for their: evening
" Now or Never,"
thought T, and whipping out the.
guard's revolver, 1 struck him with
all my strength over the head with
the butt of the -heavy weapon. :Ke
fell without_a sound, and, clearing
the intervening space ' with two
bounds, I clambered up an interior
buttress to the wall, and layered
myself to a niche which had once-
been
nce°-been a gunport in the, days when
this was a fortress, Neve I slipped
off my shoes grad my coat~, and dive.
ed heltd foremost into the shark -in-
fested channel. ll
I aro an expert swimmer and as.
I Filet tltrtatxgh. the 30 feet or more"
of the water I straightened out as
much as possible, so as to make es;
little a splash as I could when 1I',
struck. IVhen I felt my hands div -4
xding the water 1 weet as deep a'el
I could, canto up almost to the sue'
fuse and oxen struck off under wa-
ter at top spPCd.
As I swam and no slimes appear.,
ling, do not beat it hard, but
merely enough -to , break the white.
A tablespoonful of water may - be:.
allowed for each egg white -with
good effect.
Often cornstarch may be substi-
tuted for an- egg in ,a recipe calling
for several ".eggs. This is tinein.
custardo. Substitute a. dessert-
spoonful of cornstarch •for one of
the eggs. ` One way to save steps is to nail
•
ArApaseronommumnoce
WHY keep your money in the Bank at 3% when you
oar, get 4.40% from the Provincial Government For It?
04 own and offer,
$1,000,000
PROVINCE F ONTARIO
Debentures Due November Nst, 1941.
Interest payable 1st andNov.1 �i
May iVl 1st at Toronto, l`�ontrea., and,
New York. '
Tliase debentures are a direct obligation gairnn of the Province at
Ontario, and are issued in coupon form, in denorninat:ons
of $1,000,or in the 'form of Ontario Government Stock, in"
which case checks for the serni•aanucd interest are sent to
the registered holder. This stock is in any multiple of $50.
They are free from all Provincial tastes and Sacces ►ion
autres. Tlie Oratc, zci buccessxmn duties range /row 1% to
10"Ic on estates of $50,000 and over.
Until recently the 4* debentures scold at a preraaiu.nx above
par; but ' now, 'owing to market conditions, we can offer
therm . at a considerable 'discount, at the Lowest- price theyi.
have, been offered in years,
Price: 93.50 and lnterett) yielding ove.r 4.40%.
Fall De."sc iptive Circular otic request,
.RRA e, I
Toronto General" Trois fildg,, Toronto
'onto
IrF