Imperial Valley press., 1914-06-17
MRS. REYES DID
NOT FEAR HUERTA
(By William G. Shepherd)

(Unlted Press Staff Correspondent
Vera Cruz, June 6 (By mail to
New York)-Mrs. Mary Reyes is back
again under the American flag, after
having given a certain Mexican named
Huerta the sassing of his life. With
her she brings four pretty daughters,
about whom the young lieutenants of
the army and navy are flocking like
birds. But to get headlong into the
story:
Mrs. Reyes went to Mexico twenty
five years ago and is the American
widow of Mexican who was once
wealthy. Her four daughters have
delightful little lisps, calculated to
drive white-suited young navyman
half mad. The girls learned ste
biography, after the family fortunes
waned, and in good American style
they jumped in after their fathers
death and made for themselves and
their mother a home that was one of
the brightest and most interesting in
Mexico City. When President Ma
dero was assassinated Mrs. Reyes
agreed with President Wilson that HUI
erta ought not to be recognized. 1t
was an easy matter for President
Wilson not to recognize Huerta, but
for Mrs. Reyes it was an affair of
great difficulty, owing to the fact
that the Reyes and Huerta families
were in the same social set in the cap
ital. Mrs. Reyes began to speak her
mind wherever she went. The Car
ranzistas, who were working secretly
in the city, at the risk of their lives,
sought her out and told her to be
careful.
"I'm going to talk and think as
please" said Mrs. Reyes, in American
style. The Carranzistas in the capt.
tai began to depend more and more
on the American woman and her
daughters for aid in accomplishing Sc
cret and difficult tasks. For in
stance, it's Mr.. Reyes own secret how
she did it, but it is known that four
teen deputies who had been marked
for death by Huerta were spirited
away from her home, at various
times, to safety. And every time a
deputy went to safety the wardrobe
Of one of the girls was minus a gown
or street dress. If you could just
get the Reyes family to tell the de-
tails of some of these things you'd
have play or a book that would
thrill the world. Maybe they'll tell,
sometime, they say, but-the Car
ranzistas aren't in power yet. The
crisis for the Reyes family came on
February %, not because that is
Washington's birthday, but because
it is the anniversary of the assassina-
tion of Francisco Madero, who was
almost an idol with the Reyes girls
and their mother. On that Sunday
afternoon Mrs. Reyes, taking her lib
erty and, it might have been, her life
into her hands, went to the French
cemetery, where Madero lies buried
and, carrying great bouquet of
roses, she stole her way through the
lines Of Mexican soldiers and rurales
to the door of the Madero family tomb
and placed the roses there. Carmen,
her daughter, who was standing be-
side her, suddenly felt the touch of a
hand on her shoulder. The girl turned
and found herself facing George HUI
erta, the son of Madero's assassin.
"What are you doing here?" he
asked, insolently. He's loafing young
blood of the capital and perhaps some
of his fathers cognac made him par
ticularly overbearing in his demeanor.
"Are you relative of the Maderos ?"
he continued. "What are you crying
around here for?" / was in the ceme-
terry myself, that Sunday, and |
know what sinister crowd of SOL
diers and secret service men it was
that surrounded Madero's grave. 1t
would have taken brave man to
stand at that graveside and speak
his mind, and he probably would have
paid for his words with his life.
"We're here to mourn for the good
man your father murdered"
The words came like so many shots;
spoken right into the face of the as
sassin's son; delivered in the pres
ence of grim soldiers; heard by scores
of bystanders who were secretly
mourning; thrilling me, as they did
every other bystander, until it hurt
us not to be able to cheer. Mrs
Reyes told George Huerta some more
things, too; she told him that he was
as bad man as his drunken father
She prophesied; she said the day woulc
come when his father, who had seized
the presidency by murder, would be