Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-09-07

Mrs, L.. l.. 22S NOTtn MCLEAN
street, has returned to tue United
States after working for about a year
In a gold mine in Mexico, Mr.. Lodwick
is at present in New York and will
come to Ottumwa later. He ran a dia.
mond drill in the mine at Ell Orc and
had many interesting experiences, some
Of which he describes In the following
letter to his parents, written in March,
but Just received: 3 .- =
Ell ORC, Mexico, Apartado, s,
March "a, 1915.
Dear Folks:
For about. two months now l haven't
heard from anybody nor nave peen
able to send any mail away except
when we heard there was a special
courier going out. During thai time,
however. we have been seeing different
things and there have been many hap
penings among which were three bat
ties. or such as you may call them.
When the last trains were running
here the Zapatistas held this town and
also Mexico City, but they were driven
from there by the ~Carrancistas. one
afternoon when at work some men
came and said There is a battle going
on in town. the C~arranc1stas nave
driven the Zaps out" Well, that SOUND
ed good as the Zaps were inclined to
be surly and in general made them
selves hated. The C~arrancistas remain
ed in town for about two weeks When
they heard that the Zaps were coming
so they I'D and beat 1t without firing a
shot. That evening the Zaps entered
and the next morning trouble started.
They looted all the business houses
and committed all sorts of crimes and
had no respect for anybody.
~ I managed to keep away from them.
but two American boys were taken IN
hand and the company gave 1,4o0 pesos
to have them turned loose.
Things went on for about ten days
and still the Zaps kept up their good
work" shooting all those whom they
believed to favor the other side and
business in town was at a s~tandstill.
The business houses had all been loot
ed but it was possible to buy fruit,
vegetables, meat and eggs. We gradu-
ally became accustomed to them n
started to work again.
On the afternoon Of the last Wednes-
day In February I came from the mine
at about 4 o'clock and heard scattered
rifle shots. AS the mine Is on the side
Of a mountain, I went out on the dump
and watched the battle that was In
The C~arrancistas had the city
it being in a V shaped val
ley in the mountains and they were out
the hills driving in the Zaps. Well
the Taps didn't make much resistance
as their fighting is all done on the run.
Some came down the hill just behind
us, but were toe much in a hurry to
even notice us and after trying several
methods Of escape, finally left town on
their horses as fast as they could go on
road leading along the edge Of the
But they never escaped for the
had a bunch of men in
ambush there and killed them all.
I also saw another bunch Of several
hundred men leaving town without any
effort to help their comrades. They
up a hill close to us but when
half way UP saw the Carrancistas there
also, so they turned tail and went
down a great deal faster than they
went up and hiked across the valley
toward the town OF Tultenango about
six miles away. The C~arrancistas made
no effort to follow and we considered
there were two train loads of troops
awaiting them which captured the
whole push.
That evening the people of this town
went wild as the Zaps had all been
captured and they began clamoring for
the troops to kill them (the Zaps) all.
AS fast as the prisoners came in town
they were killed. They would take them
and line them against a wall and soon
they would drop. In one place they
were trying to shoot a young fellow and
ne kept running In among them so
they couldn't shoot. Finally a major
grabbed him from behind around a
telephone post and said Nov shoot"
In another place they had = small en-
closure about ter feet square and five
men shot forty-two others In that place
one man falling on top Of the other
and the others awaiting their turn. In
another, they had o bunch tied togeth-
err hand to hand and they shot them
down one at a time, the live ones hold
ing up the one thai had been shot.
Well that night the same thing kept up
and the next day they gathered up
two car loads Of dead n too them
into the country to bury, taking forty
five prisoners along to dig the graves.
When they had placed the dead in the
graves, the prisoners were shot and
put in with them.
On Thursday the townspeople heard
that the Carrancistas were to leave at
once. Then began an exodus. OF all the
sights that / have ever seen that was
one of the most remarkable. On all the
roads leaving town was an almost
never ending line of people, some car
rying their belongings on their backs,
some on burros. Their main idea was
to leave town, knowing that when the
ZLps returned the town would be de-
stroyed and everybody killed. Inside Of
hours, this place which has
a population Of about twenty-five thou
sand had less than five hundred peo-
pie. That night word came to us that
there was a train leaving for the Viii
lasta lines and practically all the
as well as about twelve
hundred natives left on that, baggage
and all. The train was made up of
box n cattle cars and none
were any too clean. Every car was
packed and men. women and children
were on top. We landed in Maravatio
the next morning and 500 all found
Many were placed in empty
but bedding was finally secur-
ed and we got along fine.
I remained here for a week and was
finally called back to work as no Zaps
had yet appeared and four Of us walked
back together, q distance Of about
thirty miles, and over mountains at
that. When about half way we, met a
native who said that part Of Ell Orc
had been burned the night before and
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