El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-03-18
HAD HARD TRIP To
THE BORDER LINE
Americans Came Out in Box
Cars; No Food in Tor
reon and No Work.

SUNDAY morning, March L, the
American colony at TOrreOn received
word that the American troops would
cross into Mexico in pursuit of Villa.
The word came to five of the colony
In separate messages, some of them
codes During the afternoon consul A.
l.. Williams received an official mes
sage from Washington. d C., stating
that the troops would enter Mexico. He
then called the Americans together in
meeting and word was sent to the head
quarters OF the Tlahualilo plantation,
that number of the Americans and
members OF the foreign colony proposed
to leave for the border on the first
available train.
The story of the departure from Tor
reOn was brought to FL Paso by busl-
ness man OF TOrreOn Saturday morning,
who. until the disturbance lin Mexico
is at an end, will be with his family IN
Los Angeles
Decide 10 Leave.
After falling il over in one OF the
rooms of the hotel" said the business
man, "20 of the Americans DECIDED 10
stay behind and take their chances:
Some of this number SAID they %ou li,t
have to remain until they coulu put
their business into some sort OF shape.
ION Monday there was no tram. we
became very anxious. The Officers OF
the commandments were not dlsSour
teous, but there was a feellng OF re-
did not like On Tuesday morning AZ
8 o'clock we succeeded in making up a
train in which the employees ana thelr
families from the Tlahuallio plan taliOH-
had one box car; the employees OF the
Continental Rubber company rsi S OF or or
was occupied by the employees OF the
Torreon smelter.
sat On Box Car Floors.
without anv accommodations what
ever and sitting on the floor and our
baggage. we began the journey north
east. At PantanO we had 10 walt ~! III.
some 90 hours to make connection Win
the train to Eagle Pass, while me ma
jority of the refugees went up Ie"
hours earlier by the Laredo route. e..
I'VE left Torreon because TO us II
looked as II Intervention had come we
felt that if the Constltutlon5a,lS S,I;so re-
taliated that we would be MADE prison.
ers and we know that II villa or ms
MANY sympathizers in Torreon were 10
take the city or murder the small gar
rison. we would all be massacreo' anu
taking everything into consideration
we felt there was only one thing TO
do and that was to come out and wat
until the country is restored to order.
Food supply Is Scanf.
THE food supply in Torreon is very
scant and the lower classes nave niue
il anything. They have no work 70
enable them 10 earn money anu tIe
supply Of corn and beans Is much drawn
upon The people with money can sun
buy pretty much what they wish, but
IL takes money. The business OF the
district is all shot to pieces and
should not hesitate TO say that there
are 10000 unemployed men in Torreon.
ut is the lack OF work that makes
the Mexicans Of the lower class follow
soldering at all. I know them wen
enough to know that they would much
rather be engaged in peaceful pursuits,
The middle classes in Torreon as Wen
as all Mexico are responsible for the
state Of anarchy and naturally they are
fighting. not for any principles but Tor
their own protection
Many Americans Come Out.
'In the party that came up from Tor
reon we had some AZ men, women ana
children. OF this number % were
Americans and the remainder Germans,
French and English. At the Junction
point where one train went to Eagle
Pass and the other to Laredo. we met
coaches full Of Americans and foreign
ers coming out of Mexico City and S--n
Luis Potosi All told the same story
thew thought intervention had come and
that it was better TO be out OF the
"As to Torreon, it has only a small
garrison and it is difficult to say how
many of the men are Villistas. Villa is
said to have told persons coming into
TorreOn that he would take the city
bv March %, and il he wanted to II
would be a very simple proposition. ]
doubt whether the Constitutionaliist
than 5000 men and of this number
Cen Pablo Gonzales controls the ma
iority in the neighborhood OF Mexico
City"