Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-27
S{EN
M GENUS ROLE
k Engineer, Former Em-
Pnityer of Mexican Rebel,
Tells Characteristics.
BILE TO READ, BUT
X CAN SHOOT STRAIGHT
fhaiey Sees in Bandit Chief
',,ne Right Man to Rule
War-Stricken Nation.

Some interesting sidelights on. the
personal. character of Pancho Villa
the Mexican revolutionist and bandit
are told by william McCauley, of 12s
Garrison street, who recently returned
from the southern republic.
Villa and his forces are now said to
be in practical control of all Northern
Mexico. He formerly worked as a
common, ordinary laborer for the
Newark man, but the latter, never
theless, has considerable respect for
Villas military genius.
1t was while McCauley was engineer
for the 2SO-foot dam of the Rio
Conchos, near Rosalia, chihuahua
that he was boss of Villa and other
poems. When things became too hot
the Mexican Northern Power Com
pany, which was building the big
COnchos river dam, was forced to
throw up its hands and quit opera
fions entirely until the civil war comes
TO an end.
At the outset of the recent uprising
against the Mexican government villa
was hardly known outside of his
haunts in Chihuahua. He was looked
upon generally as a brigand, who oc-
LAclOnAAly NOthCds LII lhC DtiSL SPISI
of a few months he and his comrades
have taken complete possession of the
railnoad lines in the northern part of
. Mexico and have SO completely tied
up the transportation system that the
federal troops cannot move against
him and his army. He is now an in
ternataonal figure.
Knew villa Intimately.
II know Villa very we'll" said Mr..
McCauley' to an Evening Star re-
porter. "lHe worked for me for nearly
six months, and I talked with him
often.
Il had him working on the cable
ways in the work done in La Boquilla
by the Mexican Northern Power Com
pany. He was in charge of a gang ~
oilers
"Pancho Villa can neither read nor
write, but he has a great head for
working out problems. He has heaps
of horse sense, and, together with his
ability to shoot straight, I've is a dilfi-
rult proposition for the federal armies
to tackle.
You may think 1t strange that he
can neither read nor write, nut 1t isn't
lat least not in Mexico. There are
millions in that country who can
tlCktltT Atdu hui WIN.
"Out of 1000 men I had working for
me scarcely one hundred could write
their'own names.
when ] hired Villa / knew he was
q bandit After President Diaz re-
signed Villa and his band of outlaws
came down from their natural forts
in the mountains. He applied to me
for Job, said he was broke and had
to do something. So | gave him job
~ 1raxs
and never had to complain about
him."
What is your personal opinion of
Pancho yE1la?" Mr.. McCauley was
asked
Gold of Heart
"Wen. to begin with" he said, 1T
would say he's hard-headed lobster;
and he is as cold of heart as he is
hard OF head OF course, that's the
kind of a man that Mexico needs to
rule her.
Every one knows he's bandit. He
has been outlawing for nearly eigh-
teen years. He turned outlaw after
the home of his sister, according to
common gossip in Mexico, was at
tackled by General Pasqual Orozco,
which action Villa swore he would
avenge with the death of the federal
leader.
villa sought several times to end
Orozcos life, as a result of which a
price was placed on his head, and the
authorities started to crowd him so
closely that he had to take to the
mountains. He and his band OF
twenty-seven have been fighting ever
since. Those twenty-seven are known
as Villas 'right-hand' men. They
counsel and guide him, and in all the
eighteen years those twenty-seven
have been with him not one of them
nave even been so much as wounded
wilma bullet.
.AsNa rule, Villa will lose less men
in lsattle than any other general,
FederaSst or Constitutionalist.
Mr., NcCauley says that after
pancho VILLA got the upper hand in
Santa Ros9lia he declared that "all
American ffQbusters" would have to
get out of Mexico or he would kill
them. He locIoed UP all women. of the
best families in Santa Rosalia and
confiscated their homes and furniture,
seized all the money in the town and
declared he would kill the American
officials of La Bodnilla dam.
These statements, Mr.. McCauley
saws. were made by villa to DIR. G. e.
Shackelford, an American citizen, who
was a victim of the rebel general. DR..
Shackelford is a native Of Franklin,
Ky
Ordered Him to Quit
When villa entered Santa Rosalia
he sent for DR.. Shackelford and in
formed him that he would have
twenty-four hours in which to reach