Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-11-07
MRS. DD'S. VIEWS
WIFE OF WILSON'S SPECIAL en-.
voY TELLS or CONDITIONS IN
SOUTHERN REPUBLIC.
SIGHTS EVERYWHERE
MAKE ONES HEART ACHE
Declares Mexican PopuIace, Even
Husrta and His Advisers, Are Just
Like childrsn-Poor Arc No Better
Than Slaves - 0esoiution Despite
Sunshine and Opportunity.

Minneapolis, Nov. 6.-Afraid? Never!
Well. perhaps just once!"
Mrs. John Lind, wife of President
Wilson's special envoy to Mexico,
| back from turbulent experiences in
that land Of decay and sunshine and
flowers drenched in blood" as she
terms it. sat peacefully in her home at
171o Colfax avenue south and told a
reporter all about It,
| Mrs. Lind arrived at a. m. and
Jennie and Winifred Lind, at the Mil
waukee station. She was driven di-
rectly home. where, after changins
from her travelling suit into q house
gown, she breakfasted and met the
| newspaper men.
1T Is good to be back in the United
States said Mrs. Lind after four
months in Mexico. Mighty good! Was
l afraid? No, indeed-well, let me see,
just once. perhaps, and that was dur
ing the twenty minutes drive after our
arrival in Mexico City from the rail-
! road station to the American embassy.
The streets at that time We're full of
surly. growing people, yet there was
an ominous quiet about them all that
seemed to bode no good.
Occasionally a stone was thrown,
not at US, but in some side street,
striking the walls Of the houses. Other
than that, the trip was without terrors,
tho full of discomforts.
Even Sunshine is DesoIate.
Poor Mexico!" sighed Mrs. Lind
There is something desolate and
doomed about her, the sunshine has
the brightness OF decay and the flow
ers seem drenched in blood, a land
where the prayers are the groans of
the dying and the incense the smell
Of burnt flesh.
What the whole country needs is
education. Oh, the pitiful ignorance
Of them all Going there is like walk
ing back into the middle ages,
medievalism boasting automobiles,
telephones and Paris frocks.
Poor Arc Like Slaves.
The rich are very rich and the poor
are very poor, AMI the very poorest
are no better than slaves. The great
estates are titled by these slaves, who
are paid something like s cents a day,
and are beaten with whips and herded
like veritable serfs. Tho they are nom
inally employees, they can not leave the
estates. and in remote country districts
the employer Is said to have the right
Of life and death over those in his pay
II had few million Of dollars they
would go toward the establishment of
schools to bring light to benighted
Mexico. ~ sf}Io 81
1.-THE people are not immoral but
immoral. like children. They have the
cruelty of very young children, the
naivete. the Indifference to pain. Even
the distinguished diplomats are chill
dren.
"Huerta himself is child-a spec
tacular child. One diplomat, Gamboa,
and wise-acting and far-thinking. His
reply to President Wilson. my husband
and myself belieye to be classic Of
diplomatic literature
Leaves Politics to Husband.
"The political situation? Now
really you must not ask me to talk
Of politics. I leave that for my hus-
band when he returns. can only speak
on general things-things that noted
and that appealed particularly to me.
"The disposition of American resi-
dents in Mexico irritated me. Little
wonder the Mexicans do not love us.
These residents are mostly persons of
no station at home. yet after a few
years in Mexico they become unbear-
ably autocratic, abusing the natives
and and putting on large amount of
what the English call side Servants
are cheap in Mexico. One may have
six in Mexico for the price Of one
maid Of all work in Minneapolis. The
American residents have many serv-
ants, and mostly they treat them like
dogs. They are not a nice class, these
Americans in Mexico.
1.-THE condition Of women is very
fearful. Concubinage is virulent and
even women of the best class are IL
literate. Drunkenness, too, is preva-
lent.
Always Well Treated.
1--WE were treated with politeness
everywhere" said Mrs. Lind, land any
alarm our friends may have expert
enced was unnecessary. Yet often our
hearts ached at sights we saw and
which we were powerless to prevent.
There wer whole regiments Of little
boys of from ~ to Is years, for in
stance, veritable babies, carrying guns:
there were piles Of bodies burned In
the public streets; there was starva-
ton, sickness. suffering on every side.
"a lot was made Of the incident of
the holding up of the steamer MORO
Castle in Vera Cruz harbor," she said,
"but in reality there was no cause for
alarm. Those of us on board had not
moments uneasiness. However,
(here Mrs Lind laughed) confess I
am glad to be back"