The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-21
HEROINES WHO
SHOWED METTLE
American Women Con-
spiCu0uS During
Mexican Battle
Ambassador Wilson's Wife Fear.
less Amid Shot And Shell
of 10 Days Horror
(By a Staff Correspondent of the
United Press.)

(By a Staff Correspondent of the
United Press.)
Mexico City, Feb. 21.-The part
played by Americans in general and
American women in particular during
the 10 days horror of the bloody
bonn bardment was of such character
as to cause thrill of pride to their
fellow countrymen everyone. In the
long list of American and English
heroines who suffered cheerful1y and
uneomplaingly- the dangers and hard
ships of the great battle four names
stand out prominently.
Mrs. Henry Lane Wilson, wife of
the American ambassador, won great
admiration.
of the editor of the Mexican Herald,
remained with her husband in his
newspaper office in the heart of the
battle zone throughout the fighting.
Mrs. Burge McFaI, wife of an
other neWspaperman who, with her
children, lived for a week in the base
ment of her house with machine
gun firing from her front porch and
sharpsho oters on the roof.
Victoria Hastings, an English girl
who acted as volunteer newspaper
correspondent and braved dangers
throughout the battle that no man
dared face.
Among other heroines, the Mexican
telephone girls who remained at their
posts until all the wires had been cut
by shells and their building partly
demolished, won the greatest admira-
ton.
Mrs. Wilson knew better perhaps
than any other woman in Mexico how
crucial was the situation and on what
slender thread hung the chance of
American soldiers being rushed here
in time to prevent a wholesale sIaugh-
tor. .Of he ov1ff i1-n
feeling should reach the demonstra-
tive stage. But, encouraged by her
husband. the brave woman moved
gaiFy aTusng-- the fear-stricke ea Kea
fugees, laughing at their ferrors,
cheering them with assurances that
the American government was keep
ing such close watch on the situation
that there could be no real danger
and administering all aid in her pow
er to those of the women and chill
dren in actual want.
Mrs. Wilson was assisted by other
equally fearless American women,
many of whom seemed actually to en-
joy the novel and exciting experience,
even while fully realizing their peril.
Mrs. Hudson was the guardian an
gel of a number of newspapermen
and children refugees marooned dur
ing the entire first week of the bat
tie. With indomitable courage she
refused to leave her editor-husband's
side while the building shook and
rocked from the detonations of the
shells bursting overhead. She enter
tained and cneered the stranded re-
fugees and it was not until the armis-
tice of last Sunday that she consented
to leave the building and go to her
home on the outskirts of the city.
McFaI, serving in the center of the
city as a correspondent, was unable
to reach his home during the first
daVG Of almost inRaSS2nf f1rin er
that preceded Sundays brief armis-
tice. He frequently called up his wife
on the phone during lulls in the battle
but the game little woman never told
him of her dire straits. Mrs. McFal1s
cheerful telephone messages meant to
deter her husband from risking his
life to reach her side, had been sent
| in the face of the fact that the upper
stories of her house were ridd1ed with
bullets and battered by exploding
shells aimed to rout the group of fed
! era1 soldiers who had seized it as a
fighting position.
Mrs. McFaH took refuge in the
| basement. There she remained with
her children during the lombard
nent, coming upstairs during Iu1ls in
the fighting to prepare scanty meals
and answer cheerfuf1y her husbands
eager inquiries over the telephone.
Victoria Hastings won the unquali-
fed admiration of every man who was
| in a position to observe her bravery.
| She speaks six languages fIuentIy and
was of invaluable service in getting
news in the foreign quarters, through
! which she circulated, rningling with
Mexican ms, French, Germans, Italians
and haIfbreed Indians, penetra ting the
| heart of the battlefield, alert and
| daring to a heroic degree She passed
| through the lines when the battle was
at its fiercest, hunting news where no
| man would go. Equally at ease with
diplomats and pitados, deputies, beg
gars, generals and privates, she gath
cred information and ran risks enough
| to make a novel of adventure, and
| throughout it all she called it Jolly
good sport
| There were countless instances OF
| feminine heroism of the kind that is
not spectacular but the homely, solid
sort shown by the women who cared
| for the wounded, who visited the
homes of the poor to aid and soothe
and cheer. These women, the ma
jority of them Americans, were as
| this historic battle of the City of
! Mexico.
How imminent was the danger of
a general massacre was known only
to those in official circles and the
newspaper correspondents During
the early days of the bombardInent
there was a menace in every grain of
gendered by rumors that the Aneri-
can battleships were on the way,
grew until the United States took on
an attitude of actual invasion in
which event a massacre following an
anti-foreign outbreak seemed proba-
bic.
One agitator was promptly muzzled