South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-05-15
What Americans Are Doing in
Vera Cruz; a Vivid Picture
Of a Night on the Plaza

in poems who are drunken on vino.
/ rhey think they are going TO die.
! Tomorrow. sober they will be re-
| leased and fed. Already they are
| learning that TO be arrested Oy the
/ AmericanOs is not half bad.
In the stand in the middle Of the
plaza a soldier band is playing. When
J * strikes up The Star-Spangled
! Banner. We rise our soldiers and
American planter who has lived in
/ Mexico 20 years. says: by -. that
/ listens good"
Don't Take Sides.
But the Mexicans sit scowling at
] their little tables and. a group of
British naval officers from the Essex
remain seated No discourtesy is
meant To stand at such a time
might be interpreted as taking sides.
Not so group of French marines
IN their top-heavy white helmets. They
rise 20 their feet and bare their
heads They are short. stocky men,
and they look efficient. for all their ill
faces is an almost sickly pallOr that
contrasts curiously with the rudy
complexion of the Americans
The band strikes up a lively ragtime
tune. Two soldiers. khaki-clad, slither
over the tagged floor of the plaza.
A rifle is slung over the shoulder OF
one of them.
Even the MeXicans are compelled TO
smile glUmly at their antics.
Very difficult to place are the wom-
en- at the tables. A few are the wives
/ of officers. Others are expatriates.
Even the young among them seem old
! They are over-dressed. Their faces
are strained. Perhaps it's the heat.
I one imagines they are tired. and that
their gayety is artificial and forced.
There are celebrities on the plaza.
/ Jack London, in lOOse-fitting khaki.
! knows every one and continues his
bout with John Barleycorn. Richard
| Harding Davis. the novelist. looking
uncomfortable in correct and starchy
clothes. holds aloof
To him comes a filthy beggar. whin-
| ing and showing hideous sores. Davis
shudders and turns away.
Crowds at Tables Thin.
! The crowds at the tables thin. The
women have gone TO bed to toss
through sleepless hours in sitting
rooms. For in Mexico. no woman of
virtue may go abroad without escort
at any hour, and not at all after 9
| O'Clock
Come then pretty and smiling senor-
itas of the underworld Come too,
Sinking from the alleys. the creatures
of the Mexican night. TO search for
scraps among the tables, and in the
| cutters. Gaunt they are. and very
| timid.
Taps has long since sounded. The
magpies in the plaza no longer chat
ter. All round the lights are winking,
from hill and ship and steeple
They are telling the story OF the
Inight-that there is order in the city.
and the federals are keeping n re-
| spectful distance from the OutpOsts--
and alrs well!
And 50. finally. we go to our beds
walk of the plaza when boy stole a
roll from my plate. He expected in
slant death. So when | spared his
| life and let him eat the roll he ex-
| planned to me in dumb show that his
father, too, was hungry.
| The waiter Whose English was bet
ter than my Spanish, would have
driven him away
why are they hungry l asked.
They were prisoners, senOr," the
waiter said. THE sailors of the
Americanos came and released them
from over yonder."
"Over yonder" was the bull pen be-
hind the Constitution. II can he seen
from the plaza. huge building, like
| a public market place, but barred.
| why are they prisoners
| With many gestures and shoulder
shrugs the waiter told the story.
1T was Diaz who put them there
they and many others. They We're
poems and very poor. Their masters
told them to fight the soldiers of DiaZ.
So they fought They did not know
why they fought, save that the master
told them to.
Madero ousted Diaz. Still fingered
the father and son in the bull pen.
They were forgotten.
Many Die i'm Prisons.
! Huerta came into power. Still they
stayed in the bull pen. They stretch
! their skinny claws through the bars,
| begging food. They lost all track of
| time. Maybe il was two years, maybe
| three or four.
often prisoners died. The corpses
| lay untouched for days. rotting in the
/ heat.
When the Americanos came and
| opened the doors. the prisoners
| thought they were some new and
strange kind of Mexican rebels and
that they would be Immediately slain
| Instead the doors were opened and
they were given food and let go.
They couldn't understand it. They
| can't now.
ASK them where they came from
and why they don't go home?"
They had worked for the master.
II was far away. How should they
know how far? Where? They did
| not know.
| Had the man wife, the boy a
mother? 81. senor Alive or dead e?
| How could they tell?
! Did they know what the Americanos
We're doing in Vera Cruz? Nh, senor
! / gave them % cents Mex TO pose
] for a picture and they called down
upon me the blessing Of the particu-
/ lar Virgin of the district whence they
I came.
There was the look in their eyes
1 that YOU see in the eyes Of mongrel
who expects a kick and receives a
| caress.
ICIJIR WOMEN MAY PITT