The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-20
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF
 MEXICO'S REVOLUTION


 l 191e, a shot was fired that was heard l all over Mexico. It was the signal for the raising of the curtain on a | tragedy that has startled and horri- fled the civilized world. Ever since that night Mexico has been the stage On which has been enacted a contin- uous performance of revolutions, with only now and then a brief respite for a shift of scenery and change of cast. One actor after another has held the ltmeAght, srutted the boards for a brief period of glory, and then vanished from the scene. In this g1- gantic spectacle there has been no element of comedy, such as is pop u1arIy supposed to attach to Latin American revolutions. It has all been grim. deadly, ferocious. It has been war to the sword, and the sword to the hilt, with no quarter asked nor given.
 When the curtain went up, on that night three years ago, the stage set ting showed the house of Aquila, serdah, In the city of Puebla, capi- tai of the state of the same name, not far from the capital Of the re-. public. Aqufles serdan had plotted revolution just as thousands of oth- CTS all over Mexico had plotted rev oIution. He was a patriot, and he loved liberty more than life. He had seen Mexioo-that ''prosperous and civf1fzed'' Mexico of which we read so much in the press at that period become the prey of small group of
 men, cruel and interruptions. Por- firio Diaz, of the strong will and the iron hand, was a, despot, but a despot who still had some conception of the mentng of the words justice and lfb- erty. But D1az was growing old. The iron hand could no longer maintain it's grip, the strong will was falter- ing. Cunning men took advantage of the opportunity. and. preying on the weakness of age, divided Mexico among themselves. Tn Mexico, mans home was no longer his castle. The plunderbund held vast tracts Of the most fertile land of the republic, and the common people became their serfs. The prisons were filled to ov- erflowing with men whose only crime was devotion to liberty.
 So AquiIes Serdan. like many an other, plotted against the government. The authorities, through one of their dan's defection, and the soldiers and police swooped down upon the house of the rebel Serdan and his brother in-law, Serdau's wife, Maria, and her three sisters, were within. The reb- els realized that they were marked for death, and determined to die fighting. Several of the officers of the law fell dead, and others were wounded, in the attack. before Ser dan and his male companion were slain. Maria Serdan and her sisters then seized the rifles and revolvers,. and continued the fight. Over the corpses of husband and brother they poured vol1ey after voIIey into the att tackfng party. At length the door was battered down, and the first fem mine revo1utionists of Mexico were overpowered by force of numbers. They set an example that was fol- lowed by thousands of their liberty loving sisters in the subsequent rev. olutions.
 The affair at Pueb1a was called a '.riot'' by the government, and at tracted little or no attention outside of Mexica- In that country 1t was a clarion call to arms, and soon armed bodies of rebels were marching over the land. For a time the outside, world, ignorant of the depth and breadth of the uprising. confidently believed that the iron hand of Dtaz would clutch the rebels and crush them. History had different tale to tell Soon it was .'Exit Diaz.'' and Madero strode upon the stage. while the orchestra played and the audience shrieked approval. But soon the populace grew suI1en and silent. A shot rang out, the curtain fell. and rose again to show Huerta, smiling, triumphant, standing in the place where Madero had been.
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