The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-26

selves crowded about the train and
cried for food. He said they fought
as beasts over bits of orange peeling
which fellow traveller threw from
the coach.
Moving Border Garrisons.
San Antonio, June 26.-News reach
ing army headquarters today would
seem to indicate that the Mexican
Matamoros to Juarez either have with
drawn their main strength from the
border or are preparing to do so
1t is also indicated. however, that
these troops are taking station at stra-
tegic points along a line well south Of
allow of the rapid handling of troops,
or where the topography of the coun-
try would permit of q strong defense.
Their new line. it is reported, paral-
lels in a way the course of the Rio
Grande and would command the main
lines of advance toward the strategic
points of Monterey and Saltillo; the
Coahuila coal mines, which furnish
the main fuel supply of Mexico and on
which the movement of locomotives
depends; Paredon, the main railroad
junction point between Monterey and
Saltillo and Torreon, and which prob
ably will be the main base of the
Mexican army; and Chihuahua City.
The Mexican garrisons at Mata-
moras, Nuevo Laredo and Juarez are
said to be mere shells. But negh-
gible force is said to be stationed OPP
posite Del Rio and the strongest force
along the border, that at Piedras Ne
sras, opposite Eagle Pass Is reported
preparing to evacuate at moment s
notice.
Await Washington's Orders.
The force at Piedras Negras is COM
manded by Gen. Francisco Murguia,
whom General CarranZa is said to
have had difficulty in controlling In
times past. General Funston's FORCES
along the border are ready ana walt
ing for any movement which the Mex
lean situation may make necessary.
Unless some overt act of the de facto
government should cause It. such
move will come only at the express
direction of officials at Washington.
Army officers here express the BELIEF
that even should negotiations with the
Carranza government as a result of
the note dispatched by Secretary OF
State Lansing yesterday, be long con-
tinued the feeling now prevalent
among the Mexicans across the border
would cause some act that must pre-
cipitate a clash
The complete story of the Carrizal
fight, partly told last night in the let
ter from Captain Morey of the Tenth
cavalry. eagerly is awaited by General
Funston. Captain Morey'S message to
his wife last night in which he an
nounced his safe arrival at the Arneri-
can column, would indicate that his
physical condition after his extraordi-
nary escape from death or capture
after he had been left, at his own COM
mand, to die of wounds and thirst, was
such that his report would not be long
delayed
Not an Empty Threat.
Army officers are convinced that
Gen. Jacinto Trevino'S staten ent that
he would attack American troops ap-
preaching Ojo Caliente and San An
tonic was not an empty threat and are
waiting anxiously for more news of
the two squadrons of the Eleventh
cavalry sent toward Carrizal. Some
conjecture has been caused as to the
identity of American troops reported
approaching those places as there are
five Ojo Calientes in that part of the
Chihuahua and San Antonio is also a
common name for the villages there.