Evening star., 1907-08-03
Pedro Alvarado No Rockefeller, Says
American Doctor.
MANAGED HIS MINES BADLY
Now Over o Million in Debt-Japanese
Swarming in Mexico and
Across Border.

| Across Border.
| The other day, at the Old White Sulphur
| Springs in West Virginia, l met an inter-
esting man who knows a lot about the old
Mexico OF today. He lives down there at
an altitude Of 5000 feet in Pinos Altos
which isin the middle OF a rich silver
country. Ptnos Altos is two days by stage
or mule back from Temosechic. In the state
of Chihuahua. on the line Of the chihuahua
ana Pacific railway. and on the edge OF the
celebrated Greene gold convession.
Tho man I met was DIR. g. s. Warren a
Tennesseean who spent a number of his
younger years in Washington. He is the
| camp medical man for the two big min
Ing companies engaged in working the
mines at Plnos Altos, and he has traverssd
| Old Mexico on mule and burro back from
one end to the other.
| Df. Warren punctured-not in any icono-
| elastic spirit, but merely by way Of
| strengthening out a latter-day legend-some
| OF those dream narratives we've all read
| and heard about with reference to that
most famous Of poems, Pedro Alvarado.
| Not heard about Pedro Alvarado? I'M
possible! Pedro, then. fs the Mexican peon-
| some accounts have made the celebrate
| greaser a half Indian, while Others have
! attempted to establish him as a person of
pure Castlian descent-who has been ro-
manced about for some ten years now as
the owner OF mines that make the product
| OF Golconda and Ophir seem like the sweep
! 1ngs of a tinplate factory.
| You must remember that not more than
| three months ago there was splendlferous
paragraph adrift in the western newspa-
| pers to the musical effect that this aurifer-
| Gus peon had begged President Porffrio
Dias OF Mexico for the distinguished privi-
iege and honor Of paying off the national
debt Is frivolous little matter of some
few hundreds of millions, and Pedro the
| peon was represented as feeling fretful.
beloved country owed anybody anything.
and 80 he asked DiaZ to let him square
everyb body up to whom Mexico owed any
thing so that the ancient land OF Monte
yuma could take fresh start and sail OFF
once more on an even keel. SO to speak.
President Diaz was represented as having
declined the liberal offer on the ground that
| he dnn't feel as II he could exactly stom-
ne Ii the boss wriggie out OF the hands
of It's creditors through the benefcence OF
| peon, and all like that.
Another "Dops Dream"
Then. SO recently as a fortnight ago, a
| good many United States newspapers, east
| and west, published an offhand little item
| to the effect that a French syndicate had
| closed deal with Pedro the peon whereby
the Gallo syndicate was to take over Al
varados mines for that absurd little piece
| of gum and cigarette money-one hundred
| and fifty millions In gold-not in milk tick
| cts. rain checks or tin tags, be it under
| stood, but in gold.
| United States about Pedro Alvarado" Lr.
| Warren said to me, ARE exceedingly d.
verting to Mexicans and Americans living
| in Mexico who know the facts.
! HE mas been represented here a
man so much richer than anybody else on
earth that he makes Mr. Rockefeller look
standing in the bread line. Not so long
ago an American magazine-which was, of
| chalk drawing of such ornate magnificence
that 1t looked like a sort of architectural
palaces and the Library of Congress.
In this palace Pedro the peon is repre-
| sented as having an ivory-and- -gold-trim-
scullions' drawing room. and it Is told that
| in all Of the multitudinous patios of the
palace there are marble fountains spouting
French perfumes and toilet waters import
ed from Gaul by the shpioad and hiked
| over the mountains on burro back, wholly
regardless of cost. Automatic harps are
the walls all around the grounds of Pedro
| the poems palace and the air is stated to
be vibrant day and night with the golden
| strains of these ingenious contraptiOns.
when quality folks-according to these
bhang or hasheesh narratives-take dinner
| with Pedro he Is represented as sending
carriages. each drawn by SIX pure white
| silver-shod mules with gold harness. fit
| tings. to fetch each guest, and. when the
guests depart from the dinner, Pedro is
| said to stake each one of them to the car
riage and mules in which he was brought.
| the gold plate ard gold side dishes from
| which the guest had partaken of food, and
| so on. I believe that Caligula, the Roman
emperor. had a trick Of fixing his dinner
| guests out in this way just to make them
| feel pretty good before he tossed them to
| the lions or had them flung into watts of
! molten lead. and the writers of these trance
| yarns about Pedro the peon must have
were. out Of the pages of Gibbon or Sue
| tonius, and then wrapped the ancient nim-
bus around the very commonplace but hon
! est figure Of the peon.
And the Facts Are
1.-THE facts about Pedro Alvarado are
simple enough. He's a rugged peon. wholly
! illiterate and a perfect type of his caste,
who got hold of some fairish mines In his
own native neighborhood number OF years
ago. He made quite a lot of money out Of
| them at first, and built himself a real nice
house-just that, real nice house-but he's
| now about million dollars in debt with his
mines. due to poor management OF them,
according to ascertaned facts. The ore
| taken out of Pedros mines Is of a very low
grade. and 1t has to be-transported long
distance over the mountains on mule or
burro back. Pedro Is just plain and per-
| fectly honest peon. and he never professed
| to be anything else None of the fantastic
yarns about his blossoming into magnifl-
cence with the discovery and operation of
| his mines ever came from him. They were
| all set in motion by imaginative persons
making quick tours of Mexico and writing
| things as they heard them from still more
imaginatve-and probably guying-Mexi-
cans.
There Is little possibility of Alvarados
mines ever being transferred to a French
or American any other syndicate so long
as he himself Is alive. When, a few months
ago. the rumor got around Pedro's camp
| that he was negotiating with some syndi-
| cate or other to turn over his mines and re-
lieve himself of their control, the thousands
| of poems who live and fatten upon Pedro
promptly burned all of the Alvarado mine
buildings to the ground. That was their
method of showing that they didn't intend