Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/396

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(1) "What bitter irony! Every day, all over the land, some workingmen in the haciendas (plantations), sirvientes as they are called, are pitilessly and arbitrarily flogged by their overseers; put in stocks during the night, so that their day's work may not be left undone, and otherwise cruelly punished for the smallest offence or oversight. True, we are told that there are laws printed in the codes that forbid such iniquitous treatment, and that those subjected to it can complain. Complain! And to whom? If they lay their grievances before the owner of the hacienda, their only redress is to receive a double ration of lashes for (su atrevimiento de quejarse) daring to complain. If they lodge a complaint before a Judge, as by law they have a right, he, of course, is the friend or relative of the planter. He himself may be a planter. On his own plantation he has servants who are treated in like manner. What remains for the poor devil to do but to endure and be resigned? That is all. His fathers have suffered as he suffers, as his children will suffer.

These facts I do not report from hearsay, but from actual personal observation. How many times have I witnessed the whipping of some poor creature, for the most trifling cause, without being able to interfere in his behalf, knowing well that such interference would be resented, and would entail on the victim a more severe punishment later on! To a gentleman, a very stanch Catholic, who considered it a sin to fail to attend