Evening star., 1928-10-22
u S. HOSTAGE IN BANDIT DEN
SCANS MEXICAN OUTLAW BAND
Ignorant Rebel Soldiers Spend Hours
Cleaning Guns They Cant Shoot-Re-
ligion Supreme, Sanitation Unknown.

and I never heard one complaint on
that account.
Find Joy in Murder.
One of their qualities which didn't
appeal to me very much, however, was
the apparent pleasure they derived
from killing. No anecdote ever found
such appreciative listeners among them
as a tale describing the death throes OF
some enemy who died slowly and pain
fully. Particularly did they relish tales
of fancy carving done on some hapleSS
foe with a knife, for they were all
handler with their knives than with
their rifles, and they were in con-
tinual state of regret that in battle
with federal troops they rarely got
close enough to use knives.
When the army was not on the
march the soldiers day consisted OF
only four activities. drill, cleaning and
polishing of rifles. meals (if there was
enough food) and prayer. There were
morning and evening services. and
hymns were sung at the latter. One
of the most vivid memories of my life
shall always be that of the unkempt
looking rebels gathered in the dusk in
their mountain fastness, singing plain
tive hymns with that fervor peculiar
to simple, untutored souls.
Periodically the soldiers were gath
cred together by their leaders and ex-
horted on their mission. Under the
influence of fiery Latin eloquence they
shouted their willingness to follow
their leaders to the bitter end. Except
when at these rallies or at their re-
ligious devotions, however, the privates
were inclined to be gay, and utilized a
good deal of their leisure time either
listening happily to tales of blood let
ting, or in the preparation of prac-
tical jokes.
But they didn't have as much
leisure time as the outline I gave of
their daily activities might indicate.
for one of the activities enumerated
took up more of their hours than
probably in any other army in the
world. That was the rite of cleaning
and polishing the rifle.
Few of these simple poems had ever
possessed rife before they joined the
bandit army and a rifle represented to
them the utmost any avaricious human
could desire. Each of them cherished
his weapon as he would favorite son.
He was never without it. He ate with
it slung on his back and he slept with
III lICStlC0 III dIIi. f1IIQ dAlltOot
every spare moment he devoted to pol
ishing it and playing with it as If IL
were never-ending source Of delight
Workmanship Is Poor.
He did everything but shoot It, Am
munition had to be conserved for
actual combat, and target practice was
something ! never saw indulged in
Considering how little experience the
| bandits had had with rifles before
| joining the cause" the quality of their
craftsmanship when they did get into
battle can easily be imagined How
ever, the federal troops probably
wasted as little time in target practice
for their craftsmanship seemed to be
just as poor on the few occasions
observed 1T.
The living accommodations Of the
bandit forces we're of the crudest. Filth
and dirt were taken for granted. Sani-
tation was something to which they
paid no attention at ALL Food was
prepared without any regard to the
cleanliness of the person preparing it
AS result, at least 10 per cent of the
1a &....-yS 1l.vapacltated by
| illness.
| That factor Of uncleanliness repre-
sented the only real hardship I suf-
| fered during my captivity. At any
/ moment I expected to be laid low By
! one of the common camp diseases