Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-06-23

|. Carpenters began erecting machine
shops.
Blacksmiths shod ponies which had
never worn q shoe before.
Gangs dug trenches to put the water
pipes under ground.
Freight trains arrived and disgorged
amazing STACKS of queerloOking boxes.
Members Of the bands began TO prac-
tice.
An alkali-covered mule train drove
In from the south. six days out of
Casas Grandes.
Twenty Indian chiefs, seventy to
one hundred years old, 'roamed about
and scrutinized the modern war mate
rial
A delegation of them waited upon
Major Sample.
Demand Wrist Watches.
They had Just been brought out Of
the White mountain reservation in the
Roosevelt Dam district of Arizona, and
they were scheduled to leave that day
for the front.
The venerable chiefs had secuted for
Uncle Sam in the various chases for
Geronimo in the district where Villa
fed.
Despite their great age they were
alert and tireless.
The night before leaving the reser-
walton they had danced the war dance
all NIGHT
They were to scale the heights of
Villas mountain Businesses. They
were to read and interpret the signs in
the desert sand where Villistas had
passed.
But today they had a complaint.
After various palavering they came
to the point.
mo CO." said the spokesman.
Major Sample approached the mat.
ter from the rear and prefaced his
why" with many diplomacies.
mo time on wrist" said the chief
tain.
The Indians had seen the officers
wrist watches and wouldn't play with
out them.
They were fitted out in uniforms,
saddles. campaign hats and the good
old-fashioned Colt revolvers.
They brought the Colts back. They
had seen the troopers with automatics,
and wanted some like them
Sun goggles were obtained by the
same tactics.
AS the chiefs solemnly started of to
the mysterious south spluttering was
heard. Glasses were turned toward
the distant mountains and q tiny but
rapidly growing speck was found 5000
feet above the ground scaling the
mountains.
In few seconds an aeroplane swept
over camp and landed in the aviation
section.
Two lieutenant aviators, the same
who were mobbed in Chihuahua City.
had come from Pershing $50 miles
away in four hours.
In four hours they had traversed
the desert, had travelled as far as the
Indians could go m weeks, as far as
the auto truck trains 60 in three days.
Bring News From Front.
They brought dispatches. mail and
stories from the newspaper men at the
front.
They brought reports of Villas ru-
mored but doubted death, Of battles, of
the deaths Of two Americans at the
hands Of Villistas in some outlying
village.
They brought stories and anecdotes
galore. to the delight of the newspaper
men, the Joy of the telegraph company
and the terror and despair of the
genial but painstaking censor.
Hardly had the sensation OF their ar
rival worn away when a dust cloud
on the desert warned the vigilant sig
nal corps of the approach of new bust
ness.
Another mule train pulled in. four
mules to canvas-covered high
wheeled wagon, galioping troopers
ahead and behind.
The train bore the first of the Viii
listas captured-six men wounded and
abandoned by Villa.
AS the auto truck men and mule
drivers came in, dust covered, eyes
bloodshot and with unquenchable
thirsts they delivered gems of wisdom
and observation.
THAT country is all upside down."
said one. You have to dig for wood
and climb for water the water be-
ing in the hills and the roots of the
sage brush being about the only avail
able wood.