Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-10
WOMEN AIDED TROOPS,
ALSO BRAVED DEATH
IN VLLTSTA ATTACK
One, the Wife of American Gus
toms Officer, Stifled Infants
Cries as Bullets Whizzed
Outside Home
TRIBUTES TO THE DEAD

COLUMBUS. y. M. March lo.-Women
played an important part in defense Of
this town which was attacked yesterday
and partly burned by Villista outlaws.
Many acts Of bravery have been told and
stories Of miraculous escapes are being
recounted today.
Fears of new raids have caused uumer-
Gus families to leave hurriedly for places
of safety farther from the border, but
for the most part the women today aided
in clearing away the wreck and ruin of
yesterdays attack.
After a tense hut quiet night the town
awolSe today and took up the task of bury
ing and shipping away the bodies of the
slain Americans.
The hysteria caused by the massacre
had subsded and the residents had settled
down TO the task of removing evidences
of the tragedy.
VILLA IN COMMAND.
Americans who had met villa reiter-
ated their declaration that the rebel
leader directed the Columbus attack in
person. Their statements We're corrobor-
ated by Chvano Garcia, a member Of
the Mexican party captured by the
United States troops He said that Villa
remained in "A protected spot on the out
skirts of Columbus during the fighting
and directed his detaChmentS by buGle
calls and messages transmitted by
mounted orderlies.
Women and children made homeless by
the burning Of their abodes slept on
blankets in the town schoolhOuse, while
their husbands and fathers stood guard
with rifles and revolvers
The town was an armed camp. Sentries
4 Il
termination was revealed by the faces of
the seutinels No frontier post during
the Indian war had tenser vigil.
SOLDIERS WEE FREED.
The VilIistas alleged determination to
make torch of every American they
encountered failed before the bravery of
Mrs. S. r. T.. Ryan, wife of the captain
of Troop L.
Attempting to make her escape during
the height of the Columbus fighting, a
Mexican Erasped her arm and demanded
where she was goinS.
Mrs. Ryan replied calmly that she was
going for her automobile. The Mexican
released her Mrs Ryan crouched in the
automobile throughout the remainder Of
the battle and escaped unhurt,
The action of Mrs. A. l., Riggs. wife
of the Customs officer, in sitting her in.
fant's cries as the MeNicans were shoot
ing outside her home was another of the
numerous instances of herOism on the
part of the American women OF Column
bus. The Riggs house was riddled with
Mexican bullets, but she and her two
babies escaped injury.
WIFE CALLS FOR HUSBAND.
While ]. J. Moore lay dead, his wife.
herself seriously wounded, was calling for
him pitiously. She was told that her hus-
band was safe and well. 1t is feared that
the shock of learning of her husbands
death will be fatal
In the little schoolhouse a baby girl
cried herself TO sleep IL the midst of pain
caused by injuries inflicted by the glass
of a window shattered by Mexican bull
let i'm the room where the child and her
mother covered in terror.
At the camp of the 18th Cavalry ar
rangements were being made to ship to
their distant homes for urial the bodies
of the soldiers allied. Tributes to the
valor of the slam soldiers were paid on
all sides today. The finest came from a
grizzled sergeant, who said, his eyes blaz-
ing with wrath at the Villistas:
These boys certainly stood up to their
work like veterans. The boys had never
been under fire before, but they never
faltered."