The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-02
VERA CRUZ |S NOW
 GETTING ICE FROM
 MEXICAN CAPITAL
Trainmen Have to Carry OvercOats the Year Round Because of the Rapid
 Climate Changes

Vera Cruz, Mex. July 4.-(Special Cor
 respondence )-This has been the great day for sensations in Mexico. An extra
 was out few minutes ago stating that Carranza would arrive tonight on his way
 to Mexico City, and that acting Presi- dent Carbajal would send a special train down from the city to meet him and hold conference for the purpose of turning over the provisional government to Car the zapatistas were on the warpath loot ing in the city, with Indian bands com hitting depredations around Pueb1a; Villa had again broken with his chief. In fact you could pay your three cents Mex. and get a paper giving you any news you wanted. Even the staid old Fl Dictamen was out with an extra telling
 of the anticipated arrival of the new President. But the best thing of it all is that the train from Mexico City Is rum ming only two hours late tonight and has car of ice by express something that this hot country needs, as we have suf- fered for 1t for weeks, the train has car of cabbage and oranges and every
  wish.
 I was in the telegraph office tonight and grande senorita Qarge young lady) was
 making the wires hum with messages covering tomorrows movement of traffic.
 heard the dispatcher tell her that the train got over the mountain division on
 time, and then some station cut into 70.
 s. as the train had passed him. Over the senorita's desk, where she was telegrap ph- ing with the ease and speed of a veteran,
 an old spider had spun his web while the dogs of war were unclaimed and business suspended, and in his net two dead flies
 were waiting until the spider chose to
 make his meal. Out in the yards car
 wheels were rusty, rails were rusty, en- zines were rusty In fact, everything was rusty, because this thing we glorify as war had full sway. l wondered as l gazed upon the scene of traffic attempting to assert itself if the time woud ever come when men would worship more at the shrine of education and less at the shrine of Mars. I saw railroad superin- tendents staggering under the load of traffic that had to be moved, conductors working with might and main to get the freight trains lined up, and other em- ployes doing their utmost to relieve the tension, and I thought what a fine thing 1t would be if we had school for naval officers where they might be taught what war really means, and be less testy about demanding certain saluteS that the rules of navies might call for but which. in our case seems to have plunged our country into a course of conduct little contem- plated by diplomats and statesmen. hope that Secretary Daniels may get such a school started, and that his first pupils l may be the young men of the navy who will have to succeed to important com mands.
 1 This is a peculiar country. This morn l ing when the Mexican postal clerks went | out on their run north they each had overcoats. I asked one why they carried them in such a hot country, and he told | me that coming down over the mountain | it gets very cold, especially at night | They need these coats on the mountain division and I noticed that the engine still had it's steam heat couplings at- l tached. Think of running on line where l one has to carry overcoat the year round The Mexican mail cars are well l fitted up and have electric lights Just 1 as we do back home. They do not have 1 the rack room that United States postal | cars have, and each sack is tied up with string instead of being locked.
 1 They have splendid oil burning locomo- I tives, and the one that went out to Mexico City today could easily handle eight cars up Springville mill or the Toom- | suba grade at speed of 35 miles per hour The most of the engines are of | English type that I have seen so far | The main line to Mexico IS owned by the | English. Another line Is to be opened | to Alvarado in the morning, then on Sun l day there will be another to Tierra Blanca and thence to the Pacific coast l and on down into Guatemal. A thing 1 that would strike our railway men as odd | is that they cannot turn wheel here I until they get permission from the Mexi- | can government, but President Carbajal | is. wiring permission as rapidly as the notices come in that tke lines are ready. From the quick way in which lines have been restored I feel sure that the damage done to tracks has been exaggerated, nearly as much as the refugee stories of | hardships endured. But things are com ing back to normal with a whoop. The | dove of peace may not be safely perched 1 on the limb of reconstructed government. but still it is there. The sword of Villa may have to defend the limb on which l this good bird is perched before all is | we'll BILL SYKES.