The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-19
FIRST PHASE OF THE MEXICAN INVASION OVER WITHOUT THE
 BURNING OF POWDER
American Forces Have Reached Endangered Mexican Colonists Around Casas Grandes- Sec ond Act is Opening and Invaders May Not Get Off So Lightly Between Two Coun- tries LesSened

der assistance to anyone of them that Villa attacked. If they moved fast and were the right men they would have
 good chance to lay Villa by the heels~
 ONLY FEAR VILLA
 MT. Garcia denied emphaticaily the re- peated statements that the people ot Guerrero and Galeana are in sympathy with the fugitive
 Many of them are afraid of him, of course" he said, because of the reign of terrorism he naugurated there, but it must be remembered that the Villa of today is not the Villa of five years ago. In the early part of his career he was very liberal with the people about him. If he got s500. say in a raid, he would give half of it away. But when he began to gather power, he seized everything for himself Those people among whom he is now have long history of murders and attacks on their women to ayenge. The only hold he has on them is fear
 North central Mexico. in the neigh
 bolhood of the former Villa strong
 hold of Torreon, and about Durango,
 furnished reports of a battle between
 small bands of outlaws and consti-
 tutionalist troops. One of these ban
 dit organizations in the fight near
 Torreon was credited with being yil-
 la organization. Nothing was available
 tonight upon the outcome of this fight
 Americans, who said they dared not
 permit the use of their names ar
 rived here today with details of the
 hardships of their exodus
 We met last Sunday said one of these Americans. 'f ma hotel room in Torreon. Twenty of the Americans de-
 cided to stay behind and take their chances Some of this number said they would have to remain until they could put their business into some sort of shape.
 On Monday there was no train. We became very anxious. The officers of
 the garrison were not discourteous, but there was feeling of resentment among the soldiers that we did not 1 like. On Tuesday morning at s o'clock we succeeded in making up train 's 1 which the employees and their families /, from the Tlahualilo plantation had one | box car; the employees of tue Conti l mental Rubber company of Torreon an- other. and the third box car was oc eupieo by the employees of the Torreon 1 asltcs.s
 1 ADVENTUROUS WAIT i w Without any accommodations what ever and sitting on the floor and on our baggage. we began the journey I northeast. At Pantano we had to wait 1 for 20 hours to make connection with ! the train at Eagle Pass. while the ma l iority of the refugees went up a few
 hours earlier by the Laredo route, 1 ''We left Torreon because to us 1t <l-~ I--<A n 1 come We felt that if the constitu- l tionalists retaliated we would be made l prisoners and we knew that if Villa ! or his many sympathizers in Torreon l were to take the city or murder the 1 small garrison we would all be mas 1 sacred and, taking everything into l consideration. we felt there was only | one thing to do, and that was to come ] out and wait until the country was l restored to order.
 '''rhe food supply in Torreon is very 1 scant and the lower classes have lit- ] tie if anything. They have no work to enable them to earn money and the 1 supply of corn and beans is much l drawn upon. The people with money l can buy pretty much what they wish. but it takes money-yI should not hes l itate to say that there are 10000 un- 1 employed in Torreon.
 ! Tt is the lack of work that makes i the Mexicans of the lower class fol- 1 low soldering at all. I know them 1 well enough to know that they would | much rather be engaged in peaceful 1 pursuits. The middle classes in Tor l reon, as well as in all Mexico. are l respon sible for the state of anarchy l and naturally they are fighting. not
 fer any principles, but for their own 1 protection.
 FOREIGNERS ALSO COME
 ''ln the party that came up from l Torreon we had 42 men, women and l children Of this number P were I Americans. the remainder being Ger 1 mans, French and English. At the ] junction point where one train went l to Eagle Pass and the other to La 1 redo, we met coaches full of Americans and foreigners coming out of Mexico | City and San Luis Potosi All told the same story--they thought intervention
 had come and that it was better to be l out of the country.
 i As to Torreon it has only small gar- rison, and it is difficult to say how many of the men are Villa sympathixers Villa | is said to have told persons coming into 1 Torreon that he would take the city 6y