El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-09-21

~
ID thrown to the hogs in Torreon
when the party of $50 refugees
left the COahuila town for the border.
Fred Wiebens. of San Diego, Calf,
member of the expedition which left
TOrreOn on September l and arrived at
the border IS days later, in charge of
vice consul Allen, of Torreon, is here,
en- route to his home in California, and
his story Of the suffering of the refugees
IN irving to get away from the besieged
town of TorreOn is the first authentic
information received here from the
town
The party of $50 foreigners, including
Two Germans and three Spaniards, as
Sembled at the Torreon rubber factory
near the main part of the city on the
nlght OF August 81, Mr.. WiebenS says.
The start was made on September 1,
with passports from Gen. AnaStacio,
VINO SaNe-them permits to carry arms
for. self protection. They also carried
passes from the rebel COMMANDERS
The party had $50 mules and horses for
the trip, and a supply of canned goods,
preserves, fruits and anything else
which could be purchased in the de-
pieted stores of the Forreon merchants.
thinking that the trip would not last
longer than eight days at the most, the
party undereSumated the amount of
food necessary and Mr.. Wiebens saws
that be had stale bread and one lone
onion as his total food supply for one
Jay 4AAS occurred Wnen the SuDDlY
wagon got separated from the main
BODY and Wiebens was forced to turn
cook for the 81 in the division, of
which was member. They finally
reacneo SaItlIlo, proceeded to Monterey,
and then by train to Laredo and the
United States.
Conditions in Torreon.
Conditions in Torreon were improv-
ing when we left" Mr. Wiebeus said
They were beginning to clean I'D the
town and the feVers were not as bad
as during the hardest of the fight It
IS true that the bodies of the dead
soldiers were burned in the streets of
the outskirts and even saw hogs feed
ing off the bodies of the soldiers. and
o1Zzards camping on their carcasses
ne Iood supply was very scarce and
prices kept going higher and higher.
while exchange kept dropping until
no foreign exchange was offered by
the banks; The thousands of soldiers
ana their horses were. CHARTERED in the
streets and the lack OF sanitation made
conditions almost unbearable. The air
was filled with bullets all the time
during the fighting, and the FOREIGNERS
and non-combatants were forced to re-
main close within doris to escape be-
ing killed.
Has Close Call.
I first had a room at the san Car
los hotel during the earlier fighting
and l remained in my room. One day
saw a man on the roof with q six
shooter and a rifle. I went up there
and told him that If he did not get off
that roof L would throw him off Pretty
soon. federal officers and soldiers came
up ana searched my room saying that
some one from the San Carlos had shot
a federal officer and soldier Ny life
was saved by. the clerk who knew me
ana gave assurances that had not
done the deed. A further search was
made and the man with the rifle was
fcund IN bedroom and promptly shot
Many were shot within the town who
were not hit by rebel bullets.
Rebel SympathIzers Shot.
The home guards did good work in
ferreting out the rebel sympathizers,
who were promptly taken out and shot
1 saw these home guards; Guardians
of Society; they called themselves, take
IS suspects out and shoot them at one
time. The Salvador hotel, where I OBJ
tanned room after the San Carlos !
cupled by 24S people, and the other
public and private houses were equally
crowded.
Threatened By Rebels.
"On the trip out we were threatened |
Dy a small band of rebels who said
they were going to kill all of the grin ]
goes but we outnumbered them and /
they did not modest US. They had been |
and were only acting up We
saw numbers of bands of rebels but l
they always respected the letters which ]
we carried After we left SaltiIlo by 1
rail, we saw but two cars that had not I
been burned by the rebels All of the /
stations, culYerts, bridges, water /
tanks and other railroad equipment be- /
tween Saltillo and the border had been /
destroyed by the rebels. We had one /
Ease of intestinal fever and five other !
eases of various kinds which were (
placed in the hospital wagon coming I
0ut The rebels took some of our |
horses and saddles once, but did not 4
otherwise bother US.
Cannot Take TOrreOn.
THE rebels viii never be able to take /
Forreon the way it is fortified, or was i
when we left The federals have plenty
II machine guns, cannon and small |
arms and unless some internal trou-
)les arise, the rebels will never cap !
-ure the town. The home guards have 1
his phase OF the situation in hand and |
CarranZa is up against it when he /
.ackles Torreon."