The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-04-23
american News Service,

81 N<ALlcIACAA NEWS OcHSiCcy
San Antonio. Texas, April 23.-There
is only one wish left Juan Vargas, Ill
years OF age. and the oldest man In the
United States, and that is that he may
be spared to see the sixteenth Of Sep
TENDER the day on which Mexico will
celebrate the one hundredth anniversa-
~ of her independence. To that date
he would like to live and smoke few
cigarettes, for life without the weed
to the true Qaxaqueua is unthinkable.
After that the old man will not care
what happens-there is so little, says
he, that can keep one OF his age and
infirmities. interested in life and its
kaleidoscope changes.
For several years now Juan Vargas
has lived in this city and before that
he spent A years in his native Mexi-
coin Oaxaca, the country to which
the Aztecs fled after they had been
conquered and dispersed by the Span
ish under fernando Cortez. Old Ju-
an, IL Of course, an Aztec, for it Is
very doubtful whether he would have
reached the great age that is his. Down
in Oaxaca the mothers raise none but
pure-bloods and even the slightest in
fusion of Spanish or other foreign
blood Is looked upon as pollution.
The Magyar Indian-as they are now
called ARE as race proud today as they
were when the Moctezumas held court
In the city In the middle OF the lake
and when thousands of them on the
great feast days ascended the teocalli
to have their living hearts torn from
Quivering bodies with nary q sound tc
punctuate the drama.
In the mountains OF Oaxaca where
President Diaz comes from, as the old
man remarks with great show OF
pride, Juan Vargas was born on Janu
airy i, 1895. In early youth he be
first no more than carry provisions
for the men. The old Magyar Indians
and the Zapotecans were still at wal
with the Axtecs who had invaded their
territory and against whom they owed
many old grudges. for an these people
the Moctezumas had made war for cen
turtles and thousands OF them had
been carried off to end their lives or
the sacrificial stone at the feet Of
Huitzl. War, then, was the onl,
training Juan had Schooling he die
not have any for the first thing The
Spaniards would do would be to estab
lish q school in Oaxaca-
But Juan's early training served hin
and his country In good stead. To tn.
mors that the hated Spaniards woult
be at last driven from the country ant
that the Axtecs might once more com,
into power. Juan went to Mexics
City in 1903 and in the following yea
he was one Of the patriots who servet
to fan the fires OF revolution and o
freedom under Padre Hidalgo HI
was one Of those who shouted WV;
Mexico. Viva Libertad' when PAdr,
Hidalgo raised aloft the banner Of re
volt in the pulpit Of the little chape
at Dolores, on September Is. 1910.
After Padre Hidalgo had been shot
Juan decided to return to his evergreen
hills in tropical Oaxaca. the revolution
airy fervor In him had subsidized prin
cipally because libertad and Mexic,
stood not for . regime purely Axte
but for that Of q race Of men who hal
beAn produced by the contact Of tn,
natives and the Spanish conquisadores
Juan realized that the old days Of gle
Try would never return and for that res
SON there was NO special need for hin