The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1916-07-06
Mexican CAPTIVE
BEeS TO Be SHOT
Led Astray by Visions Of Loot to
Be Had In Border
Stores.
b0Y TELLS n1FA IME
American Cavalry Sergeant osseriess
censlict Between Pity and Duty
In Which Duty Wen-NaissS
- Hate orin00.

Ma41thon. Tex.-Serg. l. Sturrn-
wald, Troop A. Fourteenth cavalry.
who guarded Lieut. Col. Alvarez and
Manuel Torres, Mexican prisoners In
the RoQuillas raid, told q story OF
conflict between pity and duty IN
which duty won. He said:
1T was my business to watch the
prisoners ON the long ride to Mara
thon from the Rio Grande. For the
minute 1t was all the business ] had
and they were surely watched. Our
first camp was at Mckinney Springs.
There we gave the Mexicans steak
and onions and coffee-just what our
men had.
"They couldn't seem TO realise It.
Alvarez refused to eat at first, but
he ordered Torres to do 30. The lieu
tenant colonel, 1t seemed. feared the
food was poisoned and wanted to have
someone else try 1t.
Raised to Hate 0rineo.
Torres is little more than q boy.
When we took the road again he told
me his story. His father, he said.
was a poor farmer in the Sacramento
district. They had little to eat and
when, six months ago, Alvarez at the
head Of fifty or more bandits told him
there were food and new clothes to
be had In abundance In gringo stores
along the border, he followed. He had
been raised, he said, to hate the grim
60, and rather liked the idea.
"He claimed he had not been in
but he admitted getting his clothes
from some of the raiders who had.
HE told how the band broke into
pairs after an American pursuit be-
came certainty. He had hidden In
the desert for three nights until bis
tongue was swollen and black and he
thought he must die Of thirst. 1t was
then that he went to the water hole:
though the hole was covered by Amer
lean cavalrymen, and begged drink.
HE expected, he said. to be shot,
but he wanted to drink first. Then,
as he went on, he begged me to inter-
ceje for him. He showed me a bit
Of handkerchief. that was his moth
er's. He showed me a bit of ribbon
that his senorita had given him as
token Of love and luck.
Pleads to BE Shot.
And he told me finally If 1 would
get him a lawyer he would be CRATE
full, and, once free. would come and
work for me or do anything I asked,
as long as he had breath.
II pitied him, way down deep, but
l could not show my pity. l looked
at the officer who had led the boy and
thought evil things. remembered
how the raiding murderers had killed
tiny child. and how they had dared
to come on American soil.
II told Torres to be still, that I
could do nothing. Then he pleaded to
be shot. II would be much more hon.
orable, he said. than to be hanged, AZ
gringo land.
Again l told him to be still.
I'VE drove at night, mostly, to avoid
the heat and all through the night
Torres would ask me In his soft,
pathetic Spanish for quick end.
"You can't appreciate the effect Of
It all-moonlight. and their chains,
and the despair Of the boy who had
been led astray. But they're here
now and turned over to the sheriff.
I'm through. and I've lived up to the
oath l took when enlisted. But,
I'm glad I'm through and that oath
remains unbroken. Ny hope is I won't
have another detail like It,"