New Britain herald., 1915-06-08
MEXICAN BANDITTI
 ROB AMERICANS
Interesting Letter By C. s. Gould
 Received By "Herald" Man

| ceived by Fl. N. Lee Of the 'Herald 1 from Mrs. Gould, who is now residing ] in Berkeley, Cal.
 While living in Mexico, MT. and Mrs. Lee spent week on the San 1 Gabriel plantation as guests of MT. l and Mrs. Gould, and are familiar with l the isolated conditions at this particu- 1 lar plantation.
 The present lawless state in the
 Mexican republic shows how danger 1 ous it is now to reside in such local l ities.
 l Have Much at Stake.
 l MT. Gould and his brothers have much at stake there and with their ] indomnitable courage propose to "stay with it'' so long as there is the possibility of change from the dis orders now prevailing. They hope l for some sort of a stable government l soon and trust to their wits mean
 while for the preservation of their lives and property.
 Text of Letter.
 l San Gabriel. Yer, May z, 1915. l Its pretty hot here tonight, but tomorrow is mail day, so I will have to write, although I do not know
 when it will go as the mails are some what upset again.
 | both going and coming from Perez were robbed of the mail sacks, so we got nothing in the last mail, and now l there will be no down mail from Playa until there is an escort fur 1 nished for the carrier, and do not 1 know when that will be-. do not
 know, of course, how much mail we had in the sacks that were stolen and we will never see any of it, suppose, so if any of your letters were in it, I suppose that 1t is goodbye to them. E Now | must go back to a little history that I have not yet written you about; first, that have not had
 the time next that Ishave been so mad about 1t that did not want to write. about it. Last Saturday even- ing just as we were dispatching the l gente, just at dusk, II noticed a bunch 1 of horsemen riding in, who immedf- ately upon arriving surrounded the | store, and came marching up with
 drawn arms, demanding who was the man in charge. pleaded guilty to l the charge, as they ordered me to come out, and four fellows escorted 1 me out of the store, and started up l the road. Refuses to Go. -# l .'When I got to the corner of the l store I baked, telling them that if l they had anything to say to me, they could say it there, as I did not pro- IposeFt to be marched off into the dark l So they surrounded me, and demand- l ed $6,O0O immediately. I told them 1 that they had set their figures too 1 high, as that was more money than l we had, upon which they called for l rope, saying that after hanging l awhile perhaps I would be able to l find the money. told them that ] hanging me would not get them any, thing, neither would abuse, that they 1 were armed and I was not, and 1t l looked to me that they were lot of {! towards to try to abuse man in that
 way. { They then ordered me tied up,
 to which I also objected, after they had their rope around my elbows, so they suspended operations for awhile to try to deal with me, asking what I I would do for them in friendly I manner I told them that l would talk the matter over with my broth-
 CT, who was the cashier, and see what
 we could do, so sAmo was called out.
 told Amo in English that it looked ! as though we would have to iquidate, as we were in a pretty tight fix, so l told them that I would give them S1,OO0 if they would not plumber or
 commit abuses, to which they agreed.
 In the meantime I sent Amo in, tell
 ing him to leave as near the amount , in the big pocketbook as possible to guess, and we would pay them off. l the rest of our wealth he threw into
 corners, or any old place, leaving but
 $1,O25 in the pocketbook, the $25 in
 small bills which I asked them to 1 leave, as I needed them t0 pay the
 men with, and for a wonder they left E them.
 T They Then Loot Store.
 'sAs soon as they got the money
 they went into the store, cleaning the 7 shelves of almost everything. I pro tested that they should stand to theil
 1 word, but it did no good, and the,
 took things just the same, but failed . to discover the box in which we pu I bills during the day, which had al ' the days sales in.
 After this they demanded arms
 l and I gave them small thirty-twt { pistol which Amo brought from Vera
 Cruz, thinking that they would be sat = isfied with that, but they were not o and insisted on searching the house so marched me and Amo over there
 ltook a blanket off his bed, and thre
 l pairs of American shoes that he hal
 brought from Vera Cruz, his gol,
 watch, which was out of order, an' z he had laid up in his closet; thel
 they discovered his trunk in the din
 ing room and insisted on openin ,e that There was $1,5o0 in the to- '0 tray of that, so when he opened 1t,
 told him to lift out the tray so the
 could look into the bottom, and SC
 if he could not drop the money pack
 ages into the clothes basket whic
 stood in the corner, and they wer
 none the wiser. They took two boxe
 of toilet soap, and a small purse wit
 some $25 or s30 in it, and called tha