Valdez daily prospector., 1916-05-20
VILLA MUCH IN THE LIMELIGHT
Mexican Outlaw Leader the Only Man who ever Enlisted the Armed Strength of a Whole Nation in his Pursuit.

He was born Francisco Villa, Pancho is to Francisco what Jack is to John. The border knows him only as Pan cho.
 In day you can collect as many views of Rancho as the number of men you talk to.
 All agree that Villa is murderer; killer, they call it here, where near ly every second man carries "gat", or small cannon. You get wholesale impression that Villa is a throwback to some chief of the barbarians who swept from Asia to Europe and brot with them the dark ages. When in power he stood his best friends against the "dobe" wall and riddled them.
 His love of splendor showed in strutting and gold lace. On his cam- pagn he fed the war correspondents with champagne and gave them pri- vate car. He didn't love them but he loved notoriety. He could sign his own name in a mere scrawl. That was his educational limit.
 But the men who fought with him and against him agree that he had marvellous organizing skill, personal bravery, rude animal magnetism that bound his soldiers to him and made many a hero out, of peon.
 Yet Villa for nearly all his thirty eight years of life has been bandit A few weeks more than four years embraces his career in the worlds leye.
 Crossing the border with four men in March, 1912, he at one time com manded SO,0OO armed men; and around his tent was camped 1S,000 cavalry. always his most prized arm of service. Probably that was be- cause Villa is superb horseman.
 It takes a Latin nation to develop the combination of a hero and mur- derer and to give it stage space. In colder climates the vision dies.
 The border understands it, for ill the day of Villas prosperity he made many an American rich. Most of them are on this side of the border today. They don't want to cross the river. You ask them why and the should CTS shrug. Many recollect companions in shallow graves on the Mexican side. They were and are gun runners, am munitions smugglers, soldiers of for tune who thrive on border war. Some of them are Mexicans who held high offices in the Villa, Huerta, Madero or one of the half dozen con- vulsions that have shaken Mexico in the last six years.
 A Mexican passes a street group:
 "See there!" whispers one, "Villa told him to go to the bank once with $50,000 in gold. He came to the American side. He is smart man and invested his money wisely" Maybe you are curious about the Mexican generals whose names have appeared in public print for years. You can find enough of them doing porter work in Ell Paso cafes to form a general staff.
 You can organize a formidable revolution-on paper for a dozen packages of cigarette and dollar in- vested in beer.
 Up in Detroit or Milwaukee Gener- al Blank may sound like ton of gold braid.
 Take crowded Ell Paso Saturday night street and yell general" and you can get a dozen with totally good titles to the name.
 Probably all these are part of the reasons why the country at large doesn't understand Villa and the, cult that made him.
 Charles Powers, who was a pay master on the Mexican Northwestern road, with headquarters at Madero, Chihuahua, does. f
 Powers was in Madera when Villa declared war on Americans last De- cember. He got out alive with his wife. With two boxcars loaded with American refugees, Powers and his wife spent five days and nights cover ing the 125 mos from Madeira to Chihuahua.
 Villa stopped at every town and showed his captives. They expected deaths at every stop. Powers had his "45" Yn his pocket. His..Wife carried a smalten revolver in hsh hldress. Both were rsaAs for the end.
 Why don't you go bayWa and get Villa !",I asked Powers.
 "I:don't want him I'veAad all of him Iywant. I'll stay on thffSS&ae until