The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-02-24
OR VILLAIN


Pancho Villa is, according TO his
enemies, the most bloodthirsty, re-
vengeful and barbarian chieftain i'm
aginable, half Indian and half
| beast a creature to be viewed only
with detestation and repulsion.
To his friends, however, he is a
| man driven to a Robin Hood life by a
regime Of tyranny, forced to wild
acts of outlawry in self-preservation,
being at heart most gentle and hui
name
All accounts of Villa start with his
first Staying. Before that he is only
known as a six-foot scion of one of
the best families in Northern Mex
| leo, proud, naughty, athletic, a dead
shot and born leader.
He was left the guardian of his
sister, a dark-eyed beauty, on the
death of his father. A jefe politico,
or high sheriff, who lived near the
Villa ranch, eloped with the girl who
had been left in Pancho's care. There
was no marriage. Pancho decided
| the stain on the escutcheon could be
removed only by the death of the
sheriff
Mounting his swiftest horse, he
| galloped after the clippers, caught
| them and arranged their marriage.
Then he forced his brother-in-law to
| sign his own death warrant, dig his
own grave and lie down on the
! mound at the side of it. He DELHI
erately shot the bridegroom and roll
ed the body into the pit, which he
: then filled with earth.
| The father of the dead sheriff rode
| on to the Villa ranch and was shot
| dead as he knocked at the door
| Then Pancho fed into the hills and
a price was placed upon his head by
Porfirio Diaz.
| When he fed after his first STAY
ing, he gathered about himself a
body Of wild men of the mountains,
outlaws like himself. Far and wide
he pillaged the estates of the Diaz ad-
| herents. Some say he exercised little
| discrimination in his taking. At any
rate, by 1910 he had gained the dig
nifty of head of an irregular army
with which he marched from his
| mountain principally to San An
dreas, about 3 ) miles west of the city
of Chihuahua. There he made his
headquarters and married.
Maderos recognition of Villa gave
! him his first step upward from the
condition of outlaw leader. Madero
commissioned the bandit a colonel
and thus made it possible for Villa
to enter Chihuahua, which he had
left a murderer ten years ago, as &
conqueror
Villas fierce nature and his wild
jealousy made him a difficult man fol
i'Madero to handle. His two rival:
were Pascual Orozco and Garibaldi
the grandson of the Italian iberator
In the battles near Abumada an6
Casas Grandes, engagements which
were to complete the triumph of Ma
dero, "Pancho the Tiger" as the!
then called Villa, fought like thu
beast whose name had been given t
him.
During most of the Madero regim,
Pancho led an existence so peaceful
it must have seemed strange to him
Then, five or six months ago, he be
gan to loom large again. He was nov
no longer the bandit; he was "Gener
al Villa, at the head of several thou
sand men, capturing city after city
wrestling from the merchants ant
mine owners millions of dollars, ant
winning battles by the very terror o
his name.
His greatest feat was the secont
capture of the city Of JuareZ. Re
treating northward from Torreon
hemmed between two forces of fed
erals, he met and captured a south
bound federal troop train. Almos
instantly he had seized the neares
telegraph station and sent messag
hack to Juarez, whence the trail
had come, signed with the name O
tie federal officer in charge Of tn
S train. The federal officer (per Villa
y reported his way barred by rebels
and declared he must hurry back t
Juarez. Then Villa loaded so
troops on the train and started 70
= Juarez. The train would stop littl
S way from each station, and pickle
squad would go forward and seiZ
. the telegraph operators. In this wa
he proceeded all the way to Juare
undetected. ran into the middle @
) the city in the night, and put the fed
erals to fight by sunrise. Then b
again loaded his army on cars and re