El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-12-05

He had escaped from the city of Tolu-
ca with nothing whatever not even
He and the two novices described to
me their experience in Toluca. Ihe
churches and religious houses were
sacked and cOnfiscated ana the sol
diers and their women ihouIsed III
orgies before and around the affairs;
one of the lay brothers named Ma
riano Gonzales tried to save some OF
the things from the church. Inc rev
Olutionists seized him ana accused MN
of rObbing the state lie was shoI Dy
a file Of soldiers on August p last and
his dead body was left all day long in
the court in which father Fourier and
the other priests and the Two noVlces
were confined. They were kept In priS-
on Is days and then allowed TO go with
nothing but what they had on.
See Original of Letter.
bave eeen.the original of and have
II, nv DOssessfon a translation of a let
ter written on october "a by young
girl of TOluca to her pastor VINO mad
been exiled. She described how the
bisboD had been heavily fined and
She describes how the clubs Of boys
and girls for whom she had been
working had been broken up, but how
some of the boys to whom they used
to give breakfast on Sunday mornings
still OCCASIONALLY come to see them; and
she asks advice how to keep these
clubs of the poor together.
But the dreadful and pathetic part
Of the letter is contained in the follow
ing sentence: Now I will ask you a
question Suppose some one falls into
fine mower of Zapatistas. Would il be
better for her to take her own life
rather than allow them to do their will
and what they are accustomed to do?
AS never thought such a thing could
happen, I did not ask you before about
it. but now I see it quite possible. If
we had not our good God in whom we
trust, I think we would give way to
Death Rather Than Outrage.
In other words. this girl who had been
engaged in charitable work in connec-
ton with the church asks her pastor
whether she is permitted to commit
suicide in order to avoid the outrages
to which so many hundreds of Mexican
women. so many scores Of nuns, have
been exposed in the last few months
I cannot imagine any man of what
ever creed or of no creed-reading
this letter without his blood tinglfng
with horror and anger, and we Ameri-
cans should bear in mind the fact that
the actions Of president Wilson and
secretary Bryan in supporting the
Villistas have made US partly RESPONSE
BILE for such outrages.
TeTOrtures Too Dreadful to Print.'
7 have been given and shown letters
from refugees in Galveston, in Corpus
Christi, in San Antonio and Havana.
These refugees include seven arch
bishops six bishops, some hundreds Of
priests. and at least 300 nuns.
Most of these bishops and priests
had been put IN jail or in the peniten-
tiary or otherwise confined and mall
treated Two-thirds of the institutions
of higher learning in Mexico have been
cOnfiscated and more or less completely
destroyed and a large part of the ordi-
nary educational institutions have been
treated in similar fashion.
One Priests Affidavit.
Many of the affidavits before me
recite toroures so dreadful that I am
unwilling to put them in print. Tt
would be tedious to recite all the facts
set forth in these affidavits.
For instance, there is one, by Daniel
r. LOweree, a priest of the diocese of
Guadalajara, the son of an American
father. and librarian or the Seminary
and professor Of chemistry. He de-
scribes what took place in Guadalai lara
On July q. about 100 priests from the
city and country round about were put
in the jail, while the cathedral was
used as a barracks In the affidavit
of Canon Jose Maria Vela, of the cathe-
dral of Zacatecas. he sets forth how
the COnstitutiOnalists shot a priest
named Velarde, how % priests were
gathered together and under the or
ders of Gen. Villa required to produce
l,UUUrUUU pesos WlLulu "A uOuISr uuQet
penalty of being shot A committee
of the priests went out through the
city begging from house to house and
accepting even pennies from the chill
dren.
girl was forciblv violated by one
of the soldiers in the room adjoining
that in which these priests were kept.
Finally, the citizens raised a couple OF
hundred thousand pesos and the priests
were released and allowed to flee with
- al.
Fleeing Priests In Ell PasO.
Seventeen of the fleeing priests are
now in FL Paso and their names are
given in the document and those OF
some of them signed to an accompany
ing document.
In an affidavit by the reverend
Machel Kubicza, of the Society of Jesus,
whose father was a Hungarian physi-
clan. he describes how he was tortured
in order to make him give up money.
A soldier nicknamed Baca, in the
presence of Col FierrO put hOrsehair
rope around his neck and ChOked him
until he became unconscious. When
ne came to. Baca fired a revolver near
his head and commanded him to give
I'D and tell him where the Jesuit treas
ures were buried. On answering that
there were none, he was again chOked
until he was unconscious, and this was
repeated a third time The affidavit
describes at length some of the suffer-
ings of the priests in fleeing.
Many Murders of Priests.
All kinds of other ar1idavits have
been submitted to me, dealing with
torture and murder, as. for example,
the killing of father Alba, the parish
priest of Cabra, the killing of the parish
priest and vicar at Tula, the killing Of
the chaplain and rector and vice presi-
dent of the Christian Brothers college.
The one feature in the events mar
rated to me and set forth in the affida-
Wits to me which can give any Ameri-
can the least satisfaction is the state
ment of the kindness with which the
unfortunate refugees had been treated
IN Veracruz by the officers and men
of the army and navy, particular men
ton being made Of Gen. Funston.
What I have above stated is but
small part of the immense mass of facts
available to the president and Mr..
Bryan, had they cared to examine them.
They relate to Outrages on Catholics
This is merely because the enormous
majority of the religious people Of
Mexico are Catholics.
I should set them forth just as min
utely if they had been inflicted by
Catholics or Freethinkers or Protest
ants or Masons-I am myself both
Protestant and a Mason. Even if we
had no responsibility for them. I never
theless fail to see how any American