Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-21
RAILROADS WORN
OUT BY YEARS Of
WARS. IN MEXICO
Trains Running Over Road
beds Which Have Not Been
Repaired in Ten Years,
BY HERBERT COREy.


ne cost OF war to a country NAV
sometimes be measured by an exam
nation of its system of transporta-
tion. BY that standard Mexico 10
barely alive today. Her pulse beats
SLOWLY Her railroads are running
trains and that is about all Vet
aexico is well fed and fairly comfort
aole AFTER ten years of war and an
arcny combined under President Car
rama The peon may be ragged. but
o - NOT starving. His children may
run ABOUT in garments that display
more OF the little brown bodies than
Trey cover. but the bodies are nlumn
and the eyes are bright.
Inc reason is that Mexico is nearly
lse1-supporting. Chilli and beans and
hto a.nn tortillas and chilli and
| peans-over and over again is the
olet or the Mexican Indian. Mexico
ilves on its kitchen gardens.
10 such a country railroads are not
absolutely Indispensable Progress
cannot be had without them, but they
might be subtracted from the Next
can situation and Mexican life would
go on almost without change. Com
sequently trains are running over
roadoeds that were once the best in
the world, but which in some cases
have not had tie laid or a rail
replaced in ten years.
Railway Stations DESTROYED.
Seven stations out of ten the coun-
try over. have been burned or other
wise destroyed by regular soldiers.
ardent patriots. or plain bandits. ali
|of whom have behaved precisely
alike in the past decade. They have
never been rebuilt 1t has not seem
ed worth while.
Between Torreon and Juarez over
500 miles through a country that
fairly drips mineral riches. the right
of way is festooned with twisted
rails and the rusted skeletons of
burned cars. An enterprising bandit
put a steam crane on a fat car and
pulled up the rails behind him. On
this stretch Of road trains never run
at night for fear of capture by Villa
or some other robber. The majority
OF the cars on each train are of the
box variety, filled with soldiers On
the end of the train is always an
armored car. Sometimes it is really
an armored car such as is shown in
the illustration Sometimes it is a
steel-sided fiat car in which the little
faqui Indian guards ride with a ma
chine gun.
AT Intervals one sees from the car
windows a blockhouSe in which a de-
tachment of soldiers live. That seems
to be all the blockhouses are good
Tor. They make the soldiers safe
At all events. the bandits ravage the
countryside at will and are rarely
pursued In earnest by the ragged lit
tie soldiers of the Mexican army.
Many Untitled Fields.
Between the blockhouses one sees
das. Fields that have been untitled
for years line the right of way Some
where in the hinterland, however
crops are still being raised. The
larger plantations are idle. but the
Indians raise enough food on their
little patches of land to feed them
selves and have something to sell
On some of the Mexican roads the
passengers in the single Pullman car
that is attached to a passenger train
are fed from buffet kitchen on the
car.
Most Mexicaas travellers however,
depend on the food vendors that call
their wares through the car windows
at every station. Cheese of the cow"
and cheese of the goat" may be had.
salty. petrified hunk of a most sus-
picious odor, to a cheese that nearly
resembles good Edam. The very
| best strawberries in the world can
\ be purchased at cost of about 10
! cents. American, for a mans straw
| hat full. Dulces. or sweetened bread
and glazed cakes that have a marked
| affinity for the tireless Mexican fly
! and basketsful of wonderful fruits
are offered at prices which are un-
| believable to the American visitor.
/ What One Dollar VIII Buy.
| At Jirninez three of us ate a dinner
of soup. eggs. meat, beans, rice Pud'
ding and coffee at a cost-includlne
| tip-of one American dollar. AnC
every item was good. But one had tc
keep one hand waving over the plate
constantly to ward of the flies.
Most of the freight cars look a:
| though they had been in Severa
| wrecks. OF three I saw on a siding
one, which was fairly whole, was oc-
cupied as home for soldiers AS
Mexican soldiers carry their wives
and children with them. the lady OF
the car had added to her comfort BY
pitching a small tent at one side
| Sometimes one sees a boxcar with q
| tent on top. the interior occupied by
several families all cooking at stone
fireplaces mudded down to the cal
on the rods beneath.
| OF the other two cars one had los,
| half it's upper length. and the second
had been patched to keep it's load
| from falling on the right of way. Not
that the patching would make much
| difference. So open is the thievine
| on Mexican roads that the only way
to make sure of the safe arrival OF
freight is to send it under the care
| of a trusty guard.
| Wives Go With Soldiers.
| In another photograph the families
| of newly arrived soldiers are seen