The Washington times., 1914-05-13
THE BEST
Photoplay Department in
WASHINGTON
Moving Picture Men
Under Fire With
Villas Army
in Mexico

doing business in Mexico there are
a score or more OF moving picture
men who are working hard at th&ir
trade and not getting many eulo-
CYSTIC stories in the newspapers
about themselves. The average
war correspondent writes
screaming account Of his expert
ences the first time he Is under
hre-or rather the first time he
has heard the sound OF battle
CLOSE up" as they would call 1t
in the moving picture studios. The
business of being a war CORES
pondent does not requires the per-
son engaged it to take any un-
necessary risks and while there
are q number Of brave and reck-
less men working at the trade, 1t
is only by accident that many OF
them actually get under fire. On
the other hand, the man who
works the crank of the moving pic
ture camera must necessarily be
pretty CLOSE up" or he'll not get
many pictures that will carry the
thrill the people who go to the
photoplay houses pay their dimes
TO get.
1t so happens that in the work
ing out Of the constitutionalist
plans for the revolution Of Mexi-
can national affairs the moving
picture business has played a most
important part. Large sums of
money have been paid to the con-
stitutionalist forces for the priv
ilege of photographing the battle
fields during the battles, some OF
this money having been used to
support the constitutionalist gov
ernment. With Villas armies there
has been a squad OF camera men
making pictures almost constantly
and the Mexican general has given
them every opportunity to get into
the thick of the fighting.
One of these. H. NJ. Dean, of the
Mutual Film Corporation, has just
returned to New York with a set OF
battle films, and he tells a most
interesting story of the capture Of
Torreon by the troops under Villa.
Contrary to all the reports" said
Mr.. Dean, there was no close fight
ing at Torreon- General villa (Mr.
Dean pronounces it 'VeyahD took
Torreon by strategy of the highest
order. Brave war correspondents
back in FL Paso told how the city
was occupied under terrific fire and
the streets ran with blood They
told of the difficulties in crossing tho
River Nazas which, according to
them, was at its 'springtime food
Really, the river was dry and soldiers
crossed its empty bed to find only
two dead in the streets of Torreon-
q
10 where the evacuattng federals
were burning defective ammunition
the night before Villa occupied the
town.
THE real fghtig of the Chihuahua
to-Torreon campaign was at Leredo
and Gomez Palacio. For twelve
days, 'el nino" (Which means baby
boy the cannon car on which we
placed our cameras. was under con-
slant fire. Eighty millimeter shells
burst near il and over US. The
federal range was good always.
They had foreign gunners. On board
''el nino" with US was a French recoil
chamber 0-nillimeter gun Of the
most modern pattern. Behind US in
an a-Inored gondola car. soldaderas.
the women of the army. prepared
at the front. So far as / am aware.
and l had every opportunity to OBJ
serve. there were only four Ameri-
cans, two war photographers and
two war correspondents, who accom-
panied the constitutionalist troops
through the entire campaign at
Gomez Palacia. Bermetillo. Yermo.
COnchas, Torreon and the operations
at San Pedro.
We slept. ate and worked under
fire constantly during the last fifteen
days OF the campaign. The desert
dust bothered US terribly. My part
ner, H. S. Martin. for five days was
helpless from mountain fever. And
Tor thirty hours at one stretch we
were without food after a previous
tWelve-day diet Of tortillas.
Our cameras, of course, offered
the finest sort Of q target for the
federal marksmen. In order to get
up on some sort OF an elevation, and
the federal range finders seemed to
pick US out almost instantly. Fed
"ral gunners up on Cerro Grande.
& mountain to the south of Torreon,
watched us set up our camera on
an outlying 'dobe house and sniped
at us with Mausers and shells We
got the picture, and as soon as we
left the roof the firing ceased
Il soon got TO know what TO do un-
der fire. When We heard a sound
like the ripping of coarse cotton
cotton cloth. sometimes preceded
and sometimes followed by a shriIl
whine above our heads. we imme-
diately threw ourselves fiat in the
dessert sand. no matter whether the
mezquite barbs were biting sharp
AZ the time or not.
That whine meant that a Hotch-
kiss or Colt automatic machine
gun was endeavoring to connect and
the tearing sound signified that the
pellets were coming our way at the
rate OF thirty a second. 1t sounds
almost unbelievable. but these guns
work so fast with their automatic
bullet feed that one federal soldier.
caught unawares by an alert con-
stitutionalist gunner. was literally
shct away between the waist line
and the knees before he could drop
TO the ground On this connection I
cannot speak too highly of Villas
hospital service. In battle a wounded
soldier lies but an instant on the
ground before the alert Blue Cross
corps has him in the litter and on
the way to hospitalD
We carried our machines on our
backs when marc hing. after we
found it impossible TO pack them on
a burro and still keep them in good
working order. Often our pictures.
taken under most dangerous condi-
tions. were really improved by the
dust kicked up by the shrapnel fall
ing upon US.
Usually we carried I5.0O0 feet Of
film. but when we took to the desert
We carried about 300 feet apiece
The tripod proved highly cumber-
some baggage. We dispensed with
il sometimes when taking views
from the armored gondola or from
el nino.' At Gomez el nino was
a., pIaiD Nriaw of tho federal q rtiIIary