The Alaska citizen., 1911-05-08
WOMEN FOLLOW
 THE ARMY
WANTONS IN THE WAKE OF THE MEXICAN FEDERAL
 FIGHTERS.

FlSH eNS.
 Conquering armies since Caesars time have had camp followers. They followed the Roman legiOns through the Gallic wars; they were trailing sherman to the sea. and were with Shafter's command before Santiago
 IL was left for the armies of the Mexican republic to present the most vivid picture of this scum of hu- manity. the camp followers. that has been known in the history of war fare, ancient or modern. The army of Diaz has as it's camp followers women. Not the beautiful senoritas of fiction. but women nevertheless The old gray eagle of ChapultepeC- DiaZ provides no Commisary for his fighting men. No camp kitchens or cooking equipment is carried on the long marches the federal troops make across Chihuahua in search of the insurreCtO bands. A few pennies are issued to the men each day with which to buy food This is given to the sandal shod women, the wan tons of the republic. who follow the
 
 when they ride and tramping behind them when the forced marches over land are made across the desert wastes. They buy a bit of flour or corn meal with which 70 make tor. tillas for the fighting men. These they carry with them from place to place, doling them out to the sol diers whenever a stop is made.
 They were with Laque al Ojinaga with Rabago at Bauche. and they rode into 1uarez with Navarro, huddling in freight cars. the grime of months of campaigning Cn their faces and their thin cotton dresses in tatters. When Col Rabago's troop train was wrecked by the insurrectos under Oro"co at Bauche these women were the first that alighted from the Yer min-infested troop cars. They hud- died behind those cars during the entire battle of Bauche like fright ened animals. At that range the insurreCtos on the hills opposite could not distinguish the soldiers from their women, and three were killed during that sunday engage ment.
 Of the twenty-siX wounded that were brought to Juarez from this battle. six were women; two died and another cannot recover. One woman had her babe shot from her arms at Bauche while she was trying to escape the Mauser fire of insur- recto rifles. Two others were wound ed and were given medical atten- ton at the insurrectO emergency hos pital. They were provided with food and clothing and allowed to return to their regiment, which had marched off without them to Juarez.
 Many of these miserable women carry children in their arms and others have tots of two and three playing around their feet while the battles are in progress. When the skirmish between the federal troops and Rabago. and the insurrectos com manded by Orozco took place just across the Rio Grande from Fl Paso. the camp followers were every where in evidence. When column of infantry was brought up from the rear these miserably clothed wretches were traipsing alongside the column, exposed to the firing of the inSurreCtOS.
 When Navarro's column arrived in JuareZ after long delayed march from Chihuahua city. the soldiers and their women-feW if any were married to these wantons-were hud- died into the box cars that had been pressed into service on the National lines. They had been thirty-siX hours without water and with nothing more than one of the native flour cakes for food They had spread dirt upon the floors of the cars and upon this had built fires for both heating and cooking. They trooped along be- hind the soldiers when they march ed 10 the bull ring where their camp was established and soCn had fires burning around the outer wall of the bull ring and were busy with preparations for the only meal of the day.
 Of all of the pictures of dead in surrectos which have been taken in Chihuahua, the bodies were shown in nude or semi nude condition. . Where clothing was left on the bodies the pockets could be seen to have been turned wrong side out and their contents taken. This was done by these same women. The sol diers were too busy fighting from behind the rocks to rob the dead 1. It was left for the human harpies . to prey on the dead victims of their ]. common enemy. Many of those who | arrived in Juarez with Navarro wore clothing which had been stripped ! from the insurrecto dead All who | wore shoes had obtained them in this way, for no shoes are furnished :! the federal soldiers.
 Their children are emaciated and l ragged as the Indian famine suffer i CTS. Their little faces are pinched i with the hunger of the northern . Mexican campaign, and their bodies . covered with the terrible vermin of the soldier camp. These are the . children of the regiment. of Navarro's . Fighting Fourteenth. and as such are . the most abject specimens of de prayed humanity. ITALY'S NEW WAR LEVIATHANS