The Elbert County tribune., 1916-03-17
PLOT TO BURN AND SLAYI
WOMAN CAPTIVE TELLS OF
VILLA DASH AT COLUMBUS
Slain, Baby Stolen, Forced by
Bandit to March In Raid.
lYe.lern Newsrnper Union News servlee.

| Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Columbus, N. M, March 14.-Mrs.
Maud Hawk Wright, who stated that
she and her husband and baby were
captured by villa several days ago
and she and her baby liberated just
before the fighting started, said at
that time Villa declared: Il am going
to shoot up Columbus and make a
torch of every man. woman and
child" Mrs. Wright's husband, Ed
ward John Wright, formerly of Hous-
ton. Tex, and youth named Frank
Hayden. employed by the La Booker
sawmill, were taken from the Wright
ranch March ] and presumably killed.
When they took her prisoner and
forced her to ride away with them a
olas Cervantes gave her baby to a
Mexican family
Mrs. Wright was cared for on the
9th at the home OF Mrs. Slocum, wife
of the colonel commanding the Thir.
teenth cavalry. There she told the
story OF her capture, and experiences
from the time she was taken from the
ranch at Colonia Hernandez. west of
Pearson, where the Carranza govern
ment is supposed TO maintain a heavy
garrison for the protection of Amer
leans.
Up to the Sth, she said, villa wore
civilian clothes with queer little
round straw hat and rode little mule,
but just before the fight Thursday
morning, clad in the trim military uni
form he wore at Juarez, he mounted
one of three splendid chargers which
had not been ridden at all during the
long march from the border, and led
nearly 1000 men upon the sleeping
American camp, which harbored less
than 300 troopers of the Thirteenth
cavalry, and the fight that ensued re-
suited in the death of sixteen Amer
leans, many wounded, and when the
bandits were driven out the town of
Columbus was left in flames.
Mrs. Wright said she was told by
some of her captors, men detailed to
guard her during the march north.
that Villa had 5000 men and G,000
horses. She added, at looked to me
as if ho had twice that many horses
and men,
Just before she and her husband
were taken prisoners with the Hay
den boy, Mrs. Wright said, the villa
men told her they had raided Colonia
Juarez, one of the American Mormon
settlements west of Pearson, and had
looted all stores of flour and provi-
sions and had slain some foreigners
She had no means of ascertaining the
truth of this.
"He-told his officers how he would
wipe out the town of Columbus, and
then when the United States tried to
invade Mexican territory Germany
and Japan would step in to interfere
villa, believed this firmly.
How | wanted to escape to tell the
people of Columbus about the attack,
Mrs Wright was guarded outside OF
| Columbus at place about 500 yards
distant while the attack was made
on the city. She asked to be released,
but her guard said he would have to
have Villas consent. When the troops
retreated. she started toward Co
lumbus.
Eel Paso. Tex.-Mrs. Maud Hawk
Wright, the American woman who
rode ten days with the Villa troops
preceding the raid on Columbus. N.
NJ, learned that her baby. which had
been taken from her and given to a
Mexican family, was safe at Pearson.
Mexico, and that her husband had
been murdered by the soldiers in