Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-07-01
oRD,s OPINIONS


corners IN the city, having recently removed
here from Minneapolis.
oRD,s OPINIONS
Ut the Disturbance on the Rio Grande---A I
Reign of Terror among the Settlers.
[Chicago Times.
Gen. Ord arrived in the CITY on Sunday |
and left here last evening for Washington.
The gallant old soldier is beginning to feel
the effects of age. He doesn't lift his heels |
as perpendicularly as he did few years ago.
He is good for twenty years active service
yet, however, and has mettle enough left in
him to thrash Mexico into condition of
profound peace, order, and tranquility. if the
United States government will only place
him at the head of an adequate army and
give him permission to cross the Rio
Grande.
Gen. Ord told representative of the
Times, yesterday, that Mackenzie's raid
across the border had been successful.
About four hundred horses, which had been
stolen from residents on the American side,
had been recovered. An officer command
ing force of Mexican troops had played
around Mackenzie in a tantalzing and dar-
ing manner. He even sent warning to the
United States officer that he had better be-
take himself out of the country instanter.
The s"greasers'' menaced the invading COM
mand in front and rear, but attempted no
attack, and Gen. Ord said the reason why
they didn't pitch into Mackenzie was be-
cause they were afraid. The troops which
| have been thrown to the front by the Mexican
| authorities are nearly all raw recruits, who
have been impressed into service by sheer
force and violence. The general then de-
scribed
THE MODE OF RECRUITING
the national forces in the Mexican republic
The inhabitants are enticed into attendance
upon the savage sports common to that
country. A bull-fght, for instance, will at
tract great crowd. AS the assemblage dis
perses through the gates the most soldierly-
Looking citizens are seized by the local police
and hustled away to rendezvous. These
recruits are generally bound with ropes to
prevent their escape. They are literally
dragged into the service. The general saw
a bill, which had been audited and paid, for
four hundred yards of rope, and there was
no concealment of the fact that this hemp
had been used III tying recruits. These are
the soldiers set to watch the border and pre-
vent the Kickapoo and Lipan Indians from
ralding into Texas The authorities dare
not bring the regular troops to the river.
They are SO poorly fed and paid that they
would desert and flee to the Ameican side
ii the opportunity were offered them. The
general says the regulars are pitiful objects.
Their quarters are generally forbidden
places, and their army life, as a whole. is
calculated to stif1e all patriotic feeling and
make them hate themselves
Gen. Ord says plainly that the Mexican
troops are not used to prevent raiding to the
Texas side. When
PILLAG1Na EXPEDITION
s contemplated, the fact is nearly always
we'll advertised weeks beforehand, The In
dams cross over to the American side in
broad daylight; they recross in an equally
open manner, and retire leisurely with their
plumber into the mountain Businesses. Re-
Gently a band of raiders constructed two
RATS on which to transport their plunder
across the river. The work was performed
IN open day, and under the very noses of
| the Mexican authorities. This sort of thing
IS OF frequent occurrence. The general de-
ciares that the Mexican forces stand between
the raiders and the American troops, and
really obstruct the pursuit of the thieves.
He did not say, in SO many words, that the
so-called protectors were as bad as the pill
layers, but 1t was impossible to look the gen
eral III the eye and not understand that he
meant something of the kind.
Gen. Ord said it was notifying snec-
tacle to the Americans living on the border
to be compelled to witness such dastardlv
violations of the neutrality laws. The Texas
authorities have al they can do to restrain
the people from taking the matter into their
own hands. The population of that State is
swelling up toward million, and the coun.
try adjacent to the border is too rich in pas
toral and other resources to be abandoned.
ana all because 1t is perpetually overrun by
hordes OF plunderers from the opposite side
OF the river. The tier of counties living next
the river, IN Texas, are practically unsafe
for habltation, owing to these depredatory
lncnrsions. The general said, with a spark
of fire in his speech, that these outrages
could not be borne always, and that if the
general government refused to act the peo-
pie OF Texas would march over into Mexico
one of these fine mornings and
STIR UP THE NATIVES
of that heathenish republic in a name,
eAA-o "0AiS. nAaho o1ee h1outeZutna turn over
IN his stone sepulchre. If this should come
to pass the drubbing which the .Greasers',
would get would be good deal severer than
what they might expect to receive in .
scientific warfare. He said no other great
government but this on the face of the earth
would have borne with such dastardly in
suits and outrages without giving the per-
petrators tremendous thrashing.
The conversation turned on the adequacy
OF the present force in the department. Of
| Texas for the protection of settlers on the
border. Gen. Ord said that the available
troops In his command did not number to
exceed eighteen hundred or two thousand.
A condition of turbulence and hostility ex-
lists along the Rio Grande for distance of
fourteen hundred miles. This extent Of
border cannot be guarded effectively by two
thousand troops. If they were deployed out
over the whole distance the sentinels wonld
De nearly mile apart. The general told
| the reporter that murders were committed
almost daily at all the exposed points. Re
Gently the raiders killed thirteen herders in
one neighborhood. He had letters from
ranchmen giving particulars of.
THE MOST ATRoCIoUs CRIMES
upon the white settlers on the American
side. He did not expect any immediate i'm
provement in the condition of affairs down
there during the present summer. Corn was
now selling on the Mexican side at S6 no,
bushel. The people back in the interior had
suffered much from famine, and thew were
without money. Not being possessed of the