Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-02

the worst side of him have never pic
tured him better than primitive man,
still the red-handed bandit he was
years ago. Others see him Saviour
of Mexico"
Sketchings what is most interesting
about Villa rather than what, perhaps,
is the most veracious. there is the ro-
mantle story of how he turned bandit.
Born in 1868, in the little mining town
Of Las Moves, in the state of Duran
go, he remained there until the death
of his father. Then, as protector of
his mother and sister, he became a
cowboy in western Chihuahua. From
their parents, who were poems of north
ern Mexico (some accounts say of
very good family, the children had in
herited Spanish and Indian blood and
traits. The story is that when regi-
| ment of Porfirio Diaz' soldiers once
visited the town, the eyes of
| captain alighted on Villas sister.
There was an elopement without mar
riage. The most melodramatic ac-
counts say that Villa galloped after the
clippers. caught them and arranged
their marriage. Then he told his new
ly acquired brother-in-law to sign his
own death certificate, dig his own
grave, and lie beside it. Villa shot the
bridegroom and rolled him into the
grave. President Diaz, hearing of his
| officers death, set price on Villas
head. Whatever the exact truth, some-
| thing of this sort occurred.
Villa escaped to the Mountains and
became a bandit His real name had
been Doretao Orange, but as a bandit
| he became known as Francisco and
'Pancho" Villa. He gathered together
number of desperate men of the
Northern mountain country, and with
in few months his name was the
terror of the region. He was Robin
Hood incarnate. He and his band sub
sisted by robbery and pillage on the
Chihuahua mountains.
According to the more generous es-
Inmates of Villas life at this time, his
outlawry was rather in the form of
guerilla warfare than actual brig
andage, for the purpose of satisfying
his revenge upon the dictator, Diaz.
At the outbreak of the Madero revolt
against Diaz in 1910, Villa, unasked,
cast his lot with the Maderists, and
rendered such valuable aid that Ma
dero was forced to recognize the peon
commander. When Madero sent Gen
eral Huerta into the North to combat
the Orozco rebellion, Villa and Huerta
came to a clash. They were much
alike. Each contemptuous of the other.
Huerta had Villa arrested and con-
| demned to death by a military court
| for INSTRUMENTATION, but Madero's debt
to Villa saved him from this extreme
! penalty. He was taken to Mexico
City as a prisoner readily escaped.
and pushed his way north again, seek
ing refuge across the Texas border.
| Villas rise to his present power
dates from the day-a little less than
two years ago-when he started across
the Rio Grande with two companions,
| six borrowed horses, ST in money,
and a meager supply of beans, coffee
| and sugar. Less than year later
he was the head of equipped
army of nearly 10000 men, whom he
had personally gathered largely in his
own home region; war chest of sew
eral million dollars, which he had ac-
cumulated by the seizure of rich es-
tates; and full equipment of weap-
ons, including artillery, practically all
| of which he had seized from the Fed
l cIdl IOICSS. Ills bdCtlCS CON-
tinued to be those of a raider, but
they were eminently successful. From
Juarez in the North to Torreon in the
South he had control of more than
half of Mexico.
And there was doubt abroad that
this military genius, credited with the
ambition to become President of Mex
leo, could even read or write. Villa
himself is said to have owned that he
learned to write his name while in
/ prison in Mexico City. 1t was said
he could read slowly. but that an ordi-
nary newspaper paragraph was about
all he could master at one time.
His development, however, is such
that his friends today maintain that
Villas greatness can in no wise be
measured by what he was five years,
or even a year ago. On the other
hand, the anti Villa estimates de-
clare that it is only the cohesive
power of loot which has held Villas
great army together. He is openly
the hater of Spaniards, which poiiti-
cally is a strong issue with his peon
followers. He is confirmed enemy
| Of tobacco and alcohol.
| What his program will be if he Is
acknowledged master Of Mexico, is
as much of an enigma as is his true
personality.