Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-06-27
A PIT|FUL SITE
AT u. S. CUSTOMS
From Prairie Schooner at Columbus
Result of Villa Raids On
Mexican Family.
WHAT UNCLE SANS SONS SEE.
Down There On the Mexican Border--.
Sights That Try Mems Souls and
Sere Women's Hearts.
Special to Evening Capital, by Jean
Cabell o'Neill, Columbus. N. NJ,
June 20, 1850

June 20, 1850
A pitiful pile of ragged clothes. bed
of straw-filled ticks, dilapidated house
hold belongings, the inevitable water
jar, half-dozen equally inevitable ba-
bies, two old and two young Mexican
women and several men, had been dis
gorged from an old prairie schooner in
front of the United States Custom
House at Columbus when / passed by
returning from the headquarters oppo-
site where had regretfully said adieu
to our officers of the Twentieth, who
were en- route for Ell Paso.
The chief customs officer was in
vestigating the departing Mexicans,for
this forlorn group was turning away
from the United States with its COM
paratiye welcome, ami facing the land
of desert and poverty. Why, who can
tell but there is an axium from these
borders homeward, on the part of the
Mexican people, that is pleasing to all
of us, who think the Government is
unwise in its generosity to race that
thinks we are afraid.
Lee A. Riggs, who has charge of the
customs here and has had for many
years, is an efficient and clever man,
also wise and kind The Mexicans are
all pathetic-looking people and he is
gentle to them, but not one gets by
with ammunition now with material
which may be later used against the
Unlto States, not while Rigsg is on
the job. And when he showed the
Mexican women where to sit to be out
needful overlooking of their bags and
bundles went on. i could but think Of
his own babies banished from his COM
Portable home here because of his
young wife is so much a nervous
wreck from the experiences of the
Villa raid that for months the home is
so carefully made for his little family
ami scars of Mexican bullets to keep
ever before him that the flag he serves
so faithfully is not powerful enough
to protect his home.
The most pretentious home in Co
lumbus is this guardian of the border.
and the flag flies over it all through
the daylight hours. Here on the night
of the raid the villistas took stand
and even used the sill of one windaw
to place their shells while they load
ed and discharged their guns from the
shelter of the wall directly into the
quarters of the Thirteenth.
Through and through the house the
bullets tore, and hundreds of scars can
be seen. The piano has it's top ragged
from lead and the dining table was
shot through oddly from below. The
floor is full of holes and the rain of
lead two babies and their young moth
er was conferred. One room where the
window was used by the Villistas, as
told above, has twin beds in it, and in
one bed the babies were asleep when
the nosie awoke them.
The floor was not much safer than
the bed, but the father pulled the
cotton pads half off the beds and made
a barricade, so the children were
comparatively safe ALI this was done
by the light of the flashing guns, but
the great trouble was the six-months'
baby was hungry and wanted to cry
That would never do. So small alec
stove was carried into little closet
On the floor light was struck and milk
warmed for the child, while the battle
ragged all about and the bullets tore the
sides from the door over the fathers
head as he tried to shelter the pre-
cious milk with his body. The baby
got its food and went to sleep, but for
nearly three hours the family lived
through death valley with the fury of
the battle of which the customs house
was the storm center.
Flowers and trees and hard work
with watering pot and hoe has made
this an oasis in the desert, but the
sound of the baby voices is heard no
more, ami the fathers heart is longing
for his little ones in California, where
the mother is completely free from
memories of ther aid This is one in
ctient of what Uncle Sans sons meet
with on the border.