Of course, these strict prohibition laws in some of the counties have started every known scheme for secret whisky selling. They tell about a secret-service man who was trying to catch a nigger whom he suspected of acting as distributor for the whisky men. He met him on the street one day and asked him, in a whisper, if he knew where he could get some whisky to drink. "I specs I can get you some if you gimme $2," said the nigger. The detective handed the $2 to the coon, who said, “You hold this box of shoes till I come back,” and hurried off round the corner. The detective waited patiently for a couple of hours and no nigger. So he decided he had been buncoed, and went up to the police station with the box of shoes. When the box was opened, inside it, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, was a quart of whisky! I was telling a Texan about the thieving qualities of the Mexican here, and he argued that they could not be any worse than the negro in the south. Said he, a nigger preacher was warning his congregation against the evils of drinking, of theft, against robbing chicken-coops, and stealing melons. When he got to this part of his discourse up jumped one of the members and started for the door. "Whar am yer goin' brudder?" said the preacher. "I’se goin' fer mah coat kase yo jes minds me whar I lef it." They also tell about a lady who left $2 at the cottage of a sick, coloured lady to buy a chicken to make into broth. As she stepped out of the door she heard the sick woman say to her boy, “Here, you Mose, bring me dat money, and go get the chicken in the natural way.” CHAPTER XXXVII Puebla, the misgoverned—Justice under Colonel Cabrera—Royal Family of Chihuahua—Tampico—Presidents Diaz and Madero.