The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-05-26
EVERY SOLDIER
HAS A WOMAN
Mexicans Follow the Troops AMI
Take Care of the Men
in Faithful
Manner.
DOG LIKE PATIENCE
Huerta's Army Has Been Recruited
Mostly by CONSUMPTION
Of the Worst
Kind.

[By William G. Shepherd, United
Press Staff Correspondent
VERA CRUZ. May 26.-(By mail to
New York)-Shells were flying over
the city of Mexico; Madero's star was
sinking, amid bloodshed and fire. In
the suburbs of the capital was the
Twenty-ninth regiment, the crack or
ganization of the Mexican army. #
Madero could get them into the city
he would win his fight against Felix
Diaz. banquet was at their head.
What side he would take was the ON
inous question, which Banquet him.
self soon answered. He would keep
the Twenty-ninth regiment out of the
city. The turn of affairs rested with
these 900 soldiers. And so Madero
| fell.
There isn't fiercer body Of men in
any army than the Twenty-ninth.
They are all full-blooded Indians.
Their salary is 81 day, which is
double that of other Mexican soldiers
Their uniforms fit them, rare thing
among Mexican soldiers. Their ac-
countrements are of the best and
they are proud of the regimental flag.
"Those men, said Banquet one day,
would die for the wrong as well as
for the right" But when you come
ito compare the crack Twenty-ninth
with even an ordinary regiment OF al
most any other civilized army in the
world, you get fair glimpse OF the
extraordinary crudity Of Mexican mill
Itary affairs.
| The Twenty-ninth hasn't any COM
missary department. Each soldier
has his woman, who follows the regi-
ment, even on it's parades about the
lcapital, feeding him and carrying his
clay water bottle. On a parade day In
Mexico City, while the regiment Is
passing through the streets and ad-
miring crowds fill the curbs, there's
an even more interesting parade on
1.-The sidewalk of hundreds of poorly
clad Indian women, carrying babies
and food and dragging along tired
children, each woman, with dog-like
!patience, keeping near her man and
watching for his slightest signal. At
the move of his finger she will run
out and hand him water bottle. At
the end of the parade, she will rush
Through the disbanded soldiers to get
him a tortilla, which Is pancake
folded over a mess OF beans. At night
the patio of the presidents palace,
where the soldiers sleep about on the
: stone floors, will be filed with little
groups of soldiers and their women
land children. Faithful to DEATH is
4lI p,yt
as soon as her soldier man is killed,
she'll have another soldier for these
women seem to love the life OF SOL
diering. A woman who has had two
soldiers killed is considered hoodoo
and she'll have hard time finding a
J third. The Twenty-ninth regiment n
followed by some twenty women, 1t is
: said, who have lost three soldiers
!. each. and who can't find fourth ones.
The Twenty-ninth has no tents.
Mexican battles are never fought IN
sparse country but always center
about a town, so the officers and very
often most of the men find houses to
) sleep in. Sleeping out of doors is
, thing which Mexicans will not do, II
, they can avoid it, for it is a national
, characteristic that they greatly fear
| pneumonia or even slight colds.
) Many Mexican soldiers, therefore, If
they are forced to sleep out of doors,
will not lie on the ground, but will
lean against walls and sleep, stand
ling up, through the entire night,
} wrapping their heads in their blan-
jkets. The Twenty-ninth regiment, by
the way, is the only one in the Next
can army that has overcoats. The
serape is the cold weather covering
of the others The average Mexican
soldier, however, is a pathetic figure
, No man was ever known to enlist in
the Mexican army, voluntarily. Most
i of the soldiers, before Huerta's time
, we're men who had been arrested IN
: 1.-THE large cities for drunkenness OF
stealing and who were given thei1
: choice of going to Jail or becoming
: soldiers. There really isn't much diff
; ference, but the fear of Mexican pris
: ons kept the army well filled. A pris
5 oner who has made this choice woulo
e Iibe Immediately removed from the
, court room to the nearest barracks
t Werd would be sent to his wife ant
: children that he had Joined the ar
d my and she would pack the few house
d hold belongings, take the children aDs
a join him.
t Huerta, however, within the pas
= year has made his army of some 50
n 600 men, mostly by conscr1ption
s lSuuads of soldiers went, now an
l. then to the market places in Mex1c
l. City, surrounding them and seizin
e all the men caught in their net
lsoldiers would enter q neighborhO0