New Britain herald., 1916-04-17
STARVATION,
 PEONS START RIOTS
Condition of Poor in Chihuahua
 City Said to Be Desperate SOLDIERS DISINTERESTED

OUIDlEkD DlNlNlEkEolE lED Make Little Effort to Prevent Looting
 Feeling Against Americans Grows
 Dreams of Conquest by Vargora,
 Man With Imagination.
 El Paso, Tex, April 17.-Disap- pointment was freely expressed here today over the lack of any official confirmation of the death of Fran cisco Villa. Mexican officials here and in Juarez, while still professing confidence in the truth of the re- rort, could offer no explanation as to the silence of Colonel Carlos Car ranza, and the other officers and officials who were reported to have the body of the bandit in charge
 A number of newspaper correspon- dents and few other Americans left here early today for Chihuahua in the hope that the story of the finding of Villas body was true. Several other Americans who at first 1lou IIIC1loSu tO So otOdIuOlISu tIlS trip,- some through skepticism and others because of rioting that was re- ported here to have occurred in the Mexican state capital during the last two days.
 PeOns Desperate for Food
 Messages received here in regard to this rioting stated that there had been no anti-American outbreak, but that thetrouble was due solely to the desperate condition of the masses of the people who are facing starva tion. Corn is selling in Chihuahua at two pesos worth for four cents American, a quart; beans, the staple feature of the poorer Mexicans diet, costs two and half pesos a kilogram Ga little over two poundsO lard is fifteen pesos a quart. With the stan dard of pay for a days work at two pesos the laboring classes are find- ing a hard time keeping body and soul together
 According to the messages received here the rioters have footed several food shops and only very half hearted attempts to control them have been made by the soldiers, who are themselves in almost as bad a plight as the civilians.
 Arrivals from Parral report there are only three Americans left in that city. These three are men who have been married into Mexican families and regarded themselves as immune from the prevailing hostility toward the "Gringoes.'' Among the Ameri cans who left Parral following the lighting between the Mexican gar rison and the American soldiers on Wednesday was woman missionary.
 Anti-American Spirit Grows.
 'It was hopeless for me to think of continuing my work she said today The feeling against Americans was growing in volume every day and the fighting Wednesday was the climax. The people of Parral were strongly sympathetic with Villa whom they regard as a Mexican here who sis being persecuted by America. They have also been told the old story about General Carranza having sold Mexico to the United States There is no question that Parral is not a safe place for Americans at present and I am afraid that it will be a long time before the bitterness dies down -cn account of the number of Mexi- cans who were killed by the United States soldiers
 A new war of secession by which Texas Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Mexico, Utah and California will de- clare their independence with a view to annexing themselves to the Repuh- lie of Mexico, is the news that El Demo crata, a day paper published in Chihuahua City, has just announced. Jails are to be suppressed and the ne- groes and Indians, who had been sub jugated by#Yankee gold, are to be Iib- erated, if the plot succeeds.' Copies of Tsa Democrata, a constitutionalist or gan, with this exclusive piece of news spread over it's front page, have just been brought to EIl Paso by Americans from Chihuahua. The story of the conspiracy is as follows: Jose Vergara, a resident of San Diego, Texas known as Gen. Vergara founded the junta of freedom. Docum ents that he issued found their way into the editorial rooms of El Democrata revealing master mind. From his office in San Diego, Gen. Vergara spread his pro- poganda, gaining wealth and recruits, until now the North American repub- lie is on the point of splitting in halves"
 Financing an 'InvaSion.'
 In describing Vergara's method of working, El Democrata says that Yer gara's revolutionary congress gives to the various sub-chiefs not only all the money they need for propaganda and the pay of recruits but check books on various American banks against which they can draw at will. One of these check books was seen and handled by the editorial staff at IIl Democrata. It was on a bank of El Paso. The last check drawn was by Vergara in favor of himself for $1OO.