man put his hands under the horse’s flank and gave such a push that he nearly sent horse and rider over. Immediately he did so he ran, and directly the policeman recovered himself he pulled out his sabre and went after him. As far as I could see them the policeman was belabouring the poor fellow over the head and shoulders with his heavy sword, until the man found an opening where he could duck into the crowd and was safe. Of the foot police in Mexico city, some time ago, it took nine to arrest a drunken Irishman, and then they had to carry him bodily to jail. Last year, here, I saw an American hobo who had just licked four of them, and was feeling so proud that it finally took a whole squad to land him in the commissaria. He reminded me of a farmer in Guelph, whose boast it was that, whenever he got drunk, it took the whole police force of the city to lock him up. There were only the chief and four constables in Guelph at the time, and they certainly hated to see him get drunk. The police here, however, are at a great disadvantage. For if they should club a man who has any friends or influence they are sure to lose their jobs, and are lucky if they don’t get locked up as well. And if they should shoot under almost any circumstances, they are certain to land in the penitentiary. I saw a prisoner once being escorted by three guards armed with rifles and bayonets from the penitentiary to one of the barracks (to become a soldier) when he suddenly made a dash, got free, and ran up the street like a shot. The guards were hampered by their weapons and could not catch him, yet not one of them offered to shoot. The man finally ran into the arms of a policeman at a corner, who happened to be awake. In the States, on the other hand, the police are too free with their guns altogether, and will club a man on the slightest pretext. The custom in this country is to put habitual drunkards, criminals, or loafers into the army for a term of years. So that nearly all the infantry regiments are composed of at least one-third of this class, the balance being volunteers. Within the last few months the Congress passed a new law regarding the army, to the effect that the soldiers should be drawn by lot, one man out of every hundred of the inhabitants. This law went into effect, and the first drawing was to be made on the fifteenth day of January 1912. From this date no more criminals are to be drafted into the ranks. There is considerable opposition to this law in some parts of the country, and I have not heard how the drawings came off.