Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-03-17

superintendent Of schools, is his
mother.
"Quien vive?"
LOS F%ederalesl"
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tatl BoomI Zip!
An Ell Paso reported crawled hur-
riedly over three other reporters
and began hugging the rug on the
second floor of the home Of Harry
Mitchell, Juarez cafe operator, as q
bullet whizzed through q window
and buried itself into a mirror.
The battle of Juarez was on, and
machine gun fire was raking the
streets only 80 feet from the dug
out" of the scribes. The reporters
remembered it was Friday. and
Friday isn't known as a day of
good luck. They looked at the
broken mirror. and none of them
remembered having heard of good
luck and broken mirrors buddying
around together.
The writer, who was reared in
Brownsville and who witnessed two
hard fought battles in Matamoros
in 1913 and 1915, and a third near
Tampico in 1921, peeked out a win
dow to see a group OF cavalrymen
charging a small group Of infantry-
men directly in front Of the house.
"Quien vive?" one of the cavalry
men screamed.
1t was the same old cry that I had
heard as a boy in Brownsville and
MatamOroS. There's q certain faS-
cination to that cry. provided one
has been reared In a Mexican bor-
der atmosphere.
Given Assignment"
It was just breaking dusk when
Bill Hooten and I were assigned to
cover the Juarez battle. We knew
that a fight was close at hand. for
we had been watching the federal
troops prepare for action all day
long Thursday.
We reached the Mexican side OF
the Stanton street bridge just as tbs
firing started only four blocks to
the southwest. The federal guards
turned us back. Half pleading, half
threatening, we talked the captain
Of the volunteer guards into permit
ting us to pass. We walked past the
temporary breastworks at the bridge
just in time to see cavalrymen
charging up Sixteenth Of September
street, four blocks away.
Behind us the federa1s opened
fire. We looked for a place to duck
in. but every door and window In the
city was barred. There was only
one thing to do. We did it. Ran
as we never ran before.
Harry Mitchell, kindly cafe oper-
ator, saw us tearing up the street
as he peeked from a window TO
watch the battle. He met us at the
door and we rushed in just as a
bullet crashed into the wall Of the
home. only two feet above the door.
Everybody dived for the floor, and
the writer is frank in admitting that
he was not the last in the race.
Crawl to Safety
Crawling like alligators, we made
our way to the telephone, and called
up the paper. The telephone girls,
bless their hearts. stayed on the job
until the lines to FL PaSo were cut,
although firing was going on in
less than a block on the JuareZ tele-
phone exchange.
Mrs. Mitchell, calm as any of the
rest, suggested that we go outside
and survey the damage to the house
as soon as a 1ull came in the firing.
Ten minutes later we were outside
counting bullet marks in the house.
The battle appeared to be over, at
least in u sector. There came
| suddenly the rat-tat-tat-tat of ma
| chine gun fire. We glanced up the
| street to see a group Of soldiers in
hand-to-hand combat, and the bull
lets were coming Jul way. An iron
gate in front Of the home had to be
repaired after the battle as a result
of that scramble for the house, and
it wasn't a bullet which damaged it.
The damage was caused by a flying
ankle attaches to the lower extrem-
tiles of the writer, who believed he
was shot until his friends in the
house convinced him that his ankle
had been only slightly sprained.
Again crawling like alligators. we
peeked out the window to see q
group Of cavalry charging directly
toward the house. and only LOG
yards away. The Mitchell home i.
situated on Lerdo avenue, at Ochoa
street. The house standing directly
in the face of Ochoa, and it was on
Ochoa that the horsemen, one OF
them carrying a Thompson machine
gun. were bearing down upon a de-
tachment Of infantry men directly
in front of the house.
Bravery Shown
MeXicans may be ignorant as to
the manner Of modern warfare. and
they may be the poorest shots in
the world, but they are not towards,
For five minutes these two groups OF
soldiers fought within a range OF
less than 25 feet. Not a one Of them
ran. A horse was killed and a SOL
dier was wounded in the face.
Lest we attract fire by moving
window curtains, we had to be ex-
tremely careful in taking turns in
peeking out the windows. Shippers
semed to be everywhere.
From a rear window we saw fed
eral troops defending their head
quarters in the Rio Bravo hotel
Here vas the hottest fight of the
day. and we we're in less than two
blocks OF the place. One trooper