The daily Missourian., 1916-09-29
M,U, STUDENT FACED
SHOOTING IN MEXICO
Albert Won Hoffman Was
Taken by Zapatistas for
Carranza Soldier.
RESCUED BY OFFICER
Acquaintance Came Up Just
in Time-Spent Summer
on Plantation.

man. a student in the College Of Ag-
riculture of the University.
Won Hoffman left for Mexico Feb
ruary 9 to work on his fathers cof-
fee plantation, near the city of Jalapa
in the state of Vera Cruz. 1t was
on a trip from Jalapa to the planta-
ton that Hoffman had his thrilling
experience.
81 was riding along on horseback on
my way from Jalapa, our nearest rail-
road town." he says" when / suddenly
heard the command Halt Ten Mexi-
cans surrounded me and jerked me
roughly from the horse. They went
through my pockets and took my mon
ey and watch, all the time cursing
me for damned Carranzista.'
protested that / was not a Carranzis-
ia, but only an owner of a nearby
! coffee plantation. They would not be-
lieve this however, for unfortunately
was wearing khaki trousers and
looked much like a CarranZista SOL
der.
We're Ready for Execution.
They pulled me along until we
came to an adobe wall, and soon five
rifles were being loaded for purpose
that seemed to me quite plain. For
tunately an officer came up at this
time and demanded an explanation OF
their actions. He's Carranzista and
we are going to shoot him. was their
reply. The officer came up to ques-
ton me and Immediately recognized
me, because he had visited our plan
tation many times. He commanded
the men to release me, and then gave
me a few words of caution against
wearing such clothes.
while on my fathers plantation l
met and made friends with a great
number of Zapatista soldiers and Of
ficers. The headquarters Of the Ia
patista band for Vera Cruz were only
about six miles from the plantation,
and several officers meetings were
held in our home. Often l was per-
mitted to attend. One of the best
friends / made while in Mexico was
Roberto Cejudo, chief
of all the Zapatista forces in Vera
Cruz. My Mexican friends did not
know that l was an American, or
would not have been treated in such
a friendly manner. They thought
that l was a German from the old
country They hate all Americans,
because Americans have not treated
them squarely. They respect all Ger
mans, because these have been honest
in their dealings.
Columbus Incident Made Trouble.
About a month after / arrived on
the plantation l heard of the Colum-
bus incident. The majority of the
Zapatistas deplored this. The Amer
leans all around left their plantations,
and Zapatista officers took charge Of
the property. They took an inven-
tory of each place, with the idea of
restoring all property after the trouble
with the United States was over. Suf-
fering and want later drove them to
sack the farms. They needed money
and clothes, and this seemed to be the |
only alternative Our plantation was
never bothered in the least the whole |
time that l was there.
"Carranza is hated very much in
Mexico. The people in the United |
States do not hear of his high-handed |
acts because all news that goes out of |
Mexico is strictly censored. News
papers in Mexico do not dare say a |
word against him because they know
it will be at the price of their editors |
heads. Carranza's greatest ambition |
is to make money, and in this he is |
succeeding remarkable we'll. He is |
doing it, however, at the price of hun
ger and starvation of the people. 1t is |
said that he went into Office without a |
cent of money and has now more than |
nine million dollars in a New York |
bank.
Carranza Watched the Finances.
The financial condition of the coun-
try was very interesting to me-" says |
Won Hoffman. "Carranza issued a lot |
of paper money at the ratio Of 2 to 1
with American money-that is, 1 peso
was worth fifty cents. Then he made
the decree that only silver money
would be accepted in the payment of
government revenues. This immedi-
ately caused depression in the mon
ey market. When / arrived in Vera
Cruz the value of the bills had
dropped to 90 to / and later they went
to $50 to 1. l paid $50 pesos for a
pair of shoes, which in full curren-
cy would have amounted to 1915. For
one meal I paid rs pesos, which would