CAPTIVE CURED OF STOMACH ILL
T. G. MacKenzie Made Well by Life With Bandits
Canadian Power Project Head Makes Escape
Intends to Return to Duties on Mexican Soil
BY NORMAN WALKER
[EXCLUSIVE DISPATCH]
EL PASO (Tex.) April 26.— Have you stomach trouble, suffer from indigestion, have that stuffy, heavy feeling after meals, or suffer from heartburn?
If you have, here is a sure cure, take it from T. G. MacKenzie: Just get yourself captured by a band of Mexican bandits and live off the country for a couple of months and you will be a well man, with all the vigor of young manhood. He was forced to try the treatment and was cured. Aside from blistered feet, a few saddle sores and a loss of avordupois in the region of his stomach, MacKenzie is all to the good after his imprisonment by Hipolito Villa and his bandits. The treatment didn't cost him a cent.
MacKenzie, general manager in charge of the Canadian hydroelectric power project on Boquillas, Chihuahua, Mex., has arrived here to join his family and catch up with his eating after his experience as a prisoner of the anti-Obregon Villistas in Northern Mexico. When he was made prisoner and held for ransom MacKenzie was suffering from an acute attack of indigestion caused by a chronic stomach trouble which had bothered him for years and had cost him many dollars in specialists' fees. After living the simple life in the open spaces of Mexico, where there are open spaces to burn, MacKenzie returned to the border feeling fit as a fiddle, tanned the color of old saddle leather, lean as a coyote and the picture of health.
The capture of MacKenzie was the sensation of the De la Huerta revolt. He is one of the best known of the foreign operators in Mexico. Representing the Compania Agricola and Fuerza Electrica S. A., which has millions of dollars in holdings in Southern Chihuahua, he was made a prisoner while going to Boquillas with his family. A ransom of $200,000 gold was demanded of his Canadian company by Hipolito Villa. This was refused. MacKenzie laughed about this when he reached the border.
RANSOM TOO HIGH
"I appreciated the compliment they paid me as to my intrinsic worth," the Canadian said. "But I think they set their price a little high and doubt if my company or any other company would place an equally high value upon its manager—even in Mexico."
When this refusal reached Hipolito Villa, brother of the famous bandit, he first contemplated executing MacKenzie, but changed his mind and took him with the ragtag force under his command. They lived off the desert country, eating when there was anything to eat and going without when there was nothing to eat, MacKenzie said.
"When they ate I ate," he said. "If there was nothing to eat we all shared alike. Often a Villista would disappear and go to a cache which the Villa followers from the Canutillo ranch had established before revolting against Obregon. Then we would have fresh beef and maybe some corn tortillas or Mexican pancakes. We kept on the move and it was a bit difficult to get a bath or shave out there in the open. The bandits treated me with every consideration and, except for the guard at my feet, I might have been a guest instead of a prisoner with a ransom on my head. The Villistas saw that their hroses were well fed for that meant a quick escape if the enemy appeared. Often we saw the horses eating corn which we would like to have had to parch. Because of the pursuit of the Federal troopers we had to go without fires and, in a mountain country in winter, this was not so pleasant. We kept on the jump, sleeping in caves, in abandoned adobe houses and often out under the stars.
SEIZES CHANCE
"At first they guarded me closely and would not let me get out of their sight. Then the vigilance relaxed and I was permitted to go where I pleased. This gave me my chance to escape. I knew I could not get away at night for there was always a guard beside me. In the morning they were up early and that gave me no chance. So I decided upon sundown, while the men were busy with supper, as the best time. So I started out in the opposite direction from the nearest town and walked fifty miles over the bare rocks so I would not leave a trail.
"My riding boots were worn through to the skin and I suffered considerably from blisters, but I reached a place where some Mexicans were going toward town and I got a ride and reached the railroad. That's about all there was to my capture and escape, except that I am entirely cured of indigestion and chronic stomach trouble. But I would hardly recommend a repetition of my experience even to the worst dyspeptic."
MacKenzie is a native of Nova Scotia and has been in Mexico many years. When Pancho Villa was living he and MacKenzie became fast friends. Villa often stayed at the Boquillas hydroelectric power plant when he was in the field as a bandit. Because of his friendship for his brother, it was thought by American mining men that MacKenzie would be liberated soon after his capture by Hipolito Villa. But the latter apparently had a grudge against the Canadian and intended holding him until the big ransom was paid. Mr. MacKenzie intends to return to his power project, which supplies the mines of the Parral district with power, as the Obregon Federals are now in complete control of the district.