The herald., 1898-01-30

lliltQ Will liltu iCNluitSo III thS NAhNi
ent states of the Mexican union. In th'
/, United States the boys in blue are really
volunteers in the sister republic the,
are ostensibly so. IT the penitentiar!
at Guadalajara gets too full of unhuns
scoundrels. they are drafted into from
tier battalion, where they are fully al
closely guarded as in JAIL and treated
great deal more cruelty. Instead ol
being prisoners in a carcel, or prison
they are captives in q cuartel, or bar
racks.
Should there be a pronuncamiento IL
any of the states and the revolutionists
have plenty of time and money; and il
there is IA lack of those commodities they
are captured and shot. The rank and
file, however, are corraled and made tC
join the federal army, and, as they get
hard treatment until they offer to join
they are called volunteers If jails and
pronunciamentos fail to fill the COM
panies, little squads, commanded by a
corporal or Il sergeant, are sent out to
round up Indians, Mayas, AZtecs or va
quis, who are driven with blows of cart
ridge belts to the barracks, and starved
or overfed into joining the army, as may
be deemed most advantageous.
When the modus operandi for Secur-
ing volunteer warriors in Mexico is un-
derstood. it will cease to be matter of
surprise to the traveller in that land of
sunshine to see occasionally lot of
unarmed soldiers "sloshing' along on the
street, stopping here to eat watermelons,
making halt there to buy
tamales or menudo, and guarded
all the time by non commissioned
officers, wearing bayonets. and Of
ficcrs armed with loaded revolvers
and swords. They are taking their fort
nightly or monthly outing, and enjoy it
about as much as the pupils of a board
ing school, in Sunday clothes and on
their good behavior, enjoy their prom
enade under the eyes of their hated and
despised ushers.
In the Sixth battalion of the regular
army, stationed at Hermosillo, was a
grizzled old man, very nearly 65 years of
age, whose name was jose Maria Con
zalez, but his companions had nick
named him "Cocula." after his birth
place, which is celebrated for the fine
soap that it produces. For forty years
this unhappy old soldier had been a 'vol-
unteer," having been caught young dur
ing a pronunciamiento that failed. This
poor devil, whenever his time of service
had been completed. was made to re-
engage. 1t had happened so often in
those fateful forty years that he had
finally made up his mind that he would
die high private-for he had never
risen i'll the ranks-and. after death, be
flung into some forgotten corner of the
soldiers potters" field on "panteon."
The battalion had become his father
and his mother, his sister and his broth
er, and his highest aspirations were
shirt that was not too lousy, a square
meal, with plenty of chilli colorado and
chiltepines, and a media" or pint bot
tie, of mescal
When the Chiricahua Apaches crossed
from Arizona into Mexico the Sixth bat
talon was sent from Hermosillo to
Casas Grandes for the purpose of catch
ing them between two fires. The United
States troops were in close pursuit of
the Indians. and the Mexican infantry
ambushed them as they came along.
helter-skelter, trying to avoid the fire
of our cavalrymen. Seventeen bucks
bit the dust, and many squaws and pa
pooses We're taken by the Sixth battal- |
ion. But in that skirmish our veteran
friend, Cocula, was shot in the leg.
When he recovered. the limb was at least
an inch shorter than it had been before |
the fight Very much against the wish
of his officers, Cocula had at last to be |
and to make him feel his |
for deserving his old corps. |
he was unceremoniously left behind with
a couple of Mexican dollars that he had |
taken the precaution to sew in his cal
concillos. to shift for himself.
Cocula experienced very uncomfort- !
able feeling when he found himself in |
one of those little villages which dot the |
frontier Of Sonora at considerable dis |
tances from each other, but he was a |
brave old man, who took water at moth |
ing and was always happy if his tobacco
pouch contained a few grains of strong |
'OpOsura."
He was gone several months from
Hermosillo. but when he at last came |
back, caramba. what q change. The |
old man was rugged up like millionaire,
and the toquila of his sombrero was Of |
bullion, worth $50 at least. He made his |
advent on little white mule that would |
have done credit to Padre Rendon, or, |
for that matter, to the bishop of Culia-
can. That he had plenty of money to |
ling away, and more where the first |
came from was patent to all.
Being endowed with the naivete of a |
child and the generosity of soldier who !
never had enough money at one and the |
same time to see twenty adobe dollars in |
a row. it is unnecessary to say that CO. |
;uia made hosts of friends. And, more
over, Cocula himself was a friend to |
everybody, principally to the poor, los
lnfelices y los que no tienen bolsas," the |
and those tina have no pockets |
He rented house near the Sierra de |
"a Campana, the mountain of the bell. |
and kept it open for all those who hun
gered or thirsted, and his mescal was
pure Bacanora. In the evening, when |
his friends We're squatted around him |
On their launches, chairs being despised
by the lower classes in Mexico, and old /
Dona Maria Teresa Ayon, Cocula's
cook and housekeeper, was washing the
dishes, the old soldier would be prevailed
upon TO tell the story of his sudden ac-
cess to riches which he did with innum-
aratle forcible gestures, amid the "Val-
game DiOs" and other startled ejacula-
tons of his audience, the listeners cross
ing themselves fervently whenever the
st ory bppan,e prueSOrpa in thair ;dao