The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-19
SCENES OF WAR.
Mexico City Wreckted by Bull
let's and Racked With Hunger.
Loss of Life Great for, a Banana
Revolution.

Mexico City, Feb. 19-AIl the horrors
of bombardment have been expert
enced by the residents of this city for
many days and to those that might be
expected have been added the effects of
vicious machine guns and rifle fire in
the streets at a range sometimes of less
than 100 yards
Scarcely a district of the capital has
escaped injury. over and through
every quarter at some time shells have
torn and screeched and exploded. Little
round shells from the automatic POM
poms have added to the terror and de-
struction.
Hundreds of buildings attest by their
hole-marked sides and wrecked inter-
iors to the destructive qualities of nod
ern artillery.
How many have been killed or
wounded is a question which none can
answer with any exactitude 1t is
doubtful whether even the government
records will ever reveal the correct
number.
From a source usually conside. ed
careful and conservative, it has been
stated that the number of dead is not
less than 2.000 while the total of the
wounded amounts to from 5000 to AZ, 000
The great majority of these are not SOL
diers, but men, women and children
unable to escape the lines of fire. This
estimate was made after hearing the
reports of scores of officers of the
White and Red Cross societies and of
the hospitals.
1t is a well known fact that detach-
ments of 80 and 100 men have been
slaughtered here and there at various
times when caught in the narrow
streets and moved down by machine
guns.
Carts piled high with bodies have
been seen to be driven past a certain
point to a spot in the outskirts of the
city where the dead have been burned.
Every morning may be seen what ap-
pears in the zone of the actual fight to
be piles of burning rubbish. These
heaps are for the most part rubbish
but the odor of burning flesh tells an
other story.
A practical, though gruesome method
has been utilized in one place The
gas escaping from broken main has
been lighted and there in that steady
flame has been improvised crematory.
In the basement of an apartment
house a few blocks from the arsenal
is the grave of Mrs. e. w. Holmes
one of the two American women kill
ed early in the fighting by the en-
trance into her home of a shell. For
three days her husband stayed alone
there with the corpse, unable to move
it and unwilling to leave it perhaps to
suffer further mutilation.
Soldiers entered the apartment where
he kept vigil and before his eyes rob-
bed the place.
The absolute cessation of all indus
trial and business activity is fast bor-
dering on starvation. The more for
tunate are in many cases able to take
care of themselves, but the closing of
the banks has made precarious the
condition even of some of these.
The provisional banking institution
established for American residents
who find themselves in difficulties has
been meeting their demands with cur
rency. Aside from the question of
money, however, the situation has
been rendered more difficult by the
failure of vegetables and other farm
produce to reach the city for some
days. During the night quantities
enter but not nearly enough to sup
ply the demand and meat is some
thing with which thousands have had
no acquaintance for days.
Neither the forces loyal to Presi-
dent Madero nor those commanded by
the rebel chief, Felix Diaz, had been
defeated at the close of fighting in
the center of Mexico City on Monday
night Nor did either side show in
dications of giving way.