REMINISCENCES OF PANCHO VILLA

By NORMAN WALKER
Former Associated Press Staff Correspondent for Mexico

Folks are interested in other folks rather than abstract things. This theory is proved conclusively in the life of Villa. Talk and write about agrarian theories, plans of San Luis Potosi and Tacubaya and you will lose your audience. Tell how Villa ate his beans, wore his six-shooter or sat his saddle and you have an interested and enthusiastic audience.

One time in the thick of the Mexican revolution, I made a visit back home and talked before the student body of the University of Indiana. I expounded at length on what I thought was the basic cause of the Mexican discontent. Yawns. I analyzed the Plan de San Luis Potosi. More yawns. Then I mentioned the fact that Villa was a mouth breather, had adenoids and slept in his underwear, and I had 'em with me!

That is why Villa was always frontpage news, whether he had just purchased a $200 bathtub which he never used or had raided a town and killed a few of the home folks. And that is why right now there is more interest in Villa's killing, funeral and burial place than there is in the outcome of the recognition conference in Mexico, which means much more to El Paso and the United States than the sudden death of a dozen leaders. One story deals with abstract theories. The other with a hot-blooded, human hombre, who was as quick in the thinker as he was on the trigger.

With this for an excuse, here are a few reminiscences of Pancho Villa, picked up during 15 years of newspaper experience on the border and in Mexico. Not all are new, some may not be authentic and others may have been garbled in the telling. But they are about Villa, and Villa happens to be the story at this writing.

Fought for the Poor and Gave Them Alms

This Robin Hood stuff is anything but the bunk, as far as Villa is concerned. He fought for the poor, gave them alms, was a daredevil cuss who would delight the heart of either the original Mr. Hood, R. F. D. No. 1, Sherwood Forest, or Doug Fairbanks, Hollywood. The comparison may be carried out further in that ballads were made up by the simple country people about the exploits of Villa and sung at bailes and around campfires in the revolutionary days. Trillo was Villa's Little John and Luz Corral de Villa his somewhat fat Maid Marian.

One of the favorite legends about Villa current among the people of western Chihuahua was that he had the power to turn himself into a little dog and bark at the heels of his pursuers. He was purported to have done this when Pershing was pursuing him during the punitive expedition. Another legend is that Villa had the devil's cross on his back, and was immune from harm.

After Villa took Torreon he declared that a dance should be given in the casino to celebrate his victory. The best orchestra in town was commandeered and ordered to play until daylight. The bass fiddler, who afterward played in Hotel Sheldon orchestra for Burt Orndorff, told Burt he got sleepy along about five in the morning and was nodding over his task of furnishing the bass motif for the dance music. A pow-wow of pistol shots punctuated the dance music and a pair of bullets whizzed past the fiddler's face. Villa had fired at him to wake him up. He never missed a note after that.

An Uncanny Habit of Keeping His Word

Villa had an uncanny habit of doing what he said he would do. One time, when he was outside of Chihuahua City he phoned the Federal commander, told him it was Pancho Villa talking, and announced that he would attack the plaza at midnight. The general had planned a banquet that night, and, thinking that someone was playing a practical joke on him, he went ahead with the banquet, only to hear the rifle shots of Villa's attacking forces at the edge of town soon after the old clock in the cathedral tower struck twelve. The general got away, but missed most of his banquet.

Rufe March is authority for this story. At Villa's ranch in Canutillo, Durango, he had a number of pens of fighting chickens which he matched for his own amusement. While showing a visitor these pens, he came to the last one, occupied by an old rooster which had fought many fights and showed the scars of battle. "This is my favorite fighter," Villa said, pointing to the sign over the door of the pen. It read "Woodrow Wilson."

One night, while Villa, Trillo and his bodyguards were sleeping out under the stars, they got into a discussion as to how big and how far away the Evening Star was. Venus had just hung her lantern out in the sky. Trillo, whom Villa always called Mike, said he thought the star was as big as El Paso.

"No, you're wrong as usual, Mike," Villa said. "It's about as big as Chihuahua."

Villa turned to an American who was a "guest" in Villa's camp and asked him how big it was.

"Astronomers say it is as big as this earth and a million miles away," he replied, not wishing to get into any argument.

"The next time you see that man whose name you called, tell him that Pancho Villa said he was a liar. If that star was a million miles away, we couldn't see it."

Villa liked American food and often complained because he could not get it when in the field. Canned asparagus was his favorite dish and his cook, an Italian named Pascual Cissereta, was arrested by Department of Justice agents near Fabens when Villa was in Juarez while attempting to smuggle a half-dozen cans of asparagus across the river to Villa's camp.

Contrary to the general belief. Villa never drank. In all of my experience with Villa I never saw him take a drink. But I did see him horsewhip one of his soldiers for coming out of a saloon drunk during a battle. Villa never permitted liquor in his camp and the only time he would tolerate drinking in his army was after a long, hard battle and his men sought relaxation from the strain of battle.

Rebel Chief Had Few American Friends

Villa never had much use for Americans and had very few friends among the border Americans, although many bragged that they were close to Villa. John Bascom, a former customs broker here, who died several years ago, was one of Villa's closest friends. When Villa's men were holding up trains and robbing and killing passengers, Villa gave Bascom a secret signal to shout in case he should be caught by one of Villa's men. Bascom said he never had to use it, but always felt safer when traveling Villa's country.

In justice to Villa, Martin Lopez was credited with having originated the plan of attacking passenger trains, robbing and killing the men passengers, taking the clothing of women and children passengers from them. I saw a train come into Juarez with all the windows broken, the floor of the second-class car covered with blood of victims and the poor peon passengers wrapped in blankets and wearing old clothes furnished them by charitable people of Chihuahua City after they had been stripped of their clothes by Lopez's crew.

One time Villa was placing an order for uniforms for his officers and ordered the showiest ones with the most gold braid for his secret service men.

Yet he had one of the shrewdest, cleverest secret service operatives with him during the last three years of his operations Mexico has ever produced. He is Senor Gomez M., now stamp collector in Juarez. Gomez M. made many trips to Washington for Villa, brought a message to Gen. J. B. Erwin from Felipe Angeles, following the last attack on Juarez and rendered valuable service to Villa in gathering information from within the enemy lines in Mexico. The most remarkable part of it was that Senor Gomez M. does not speak English, yet he made his way across the border, delivered Villa's messages and returned with the replies without having been arrested.

Later, when Gomez M. became a member of Congress, he denied a statement that Americans were all grafters by citing the fact that, when he was detained at Marfa, and was forced to leave hurriedly without a money belt containing a large sum of money, an American army plane followed his car to the border and dropped the money to him in a sack of sand.

Feared His Enemies Would Poison Him

Villa had an obsession that his enemies sought to poison him. He would eat with different men of his command almost every meal, would never eat twice in the same place and was always suspicious of the food served to him after he had captured a town and ordered some native family to cook for him. Once in Jimenez, he grew suspicious of the dinner cooked for him, ordered the head of the house to eat some of it first and, when he refused, hanged the entire family.

Villa's aversion to Chinese was due to the fact that he felt the Chinese in Mexico were intermarrying with the Mexican people and he said they would soon produce a race of half-breeds. When he was especially bitter toward Americans, he would refer to them as "Chinos blancos" or "white Chinese."

Many as were the killings directly due to Villa, many were charged against him when he was miles away. No evidence was ever developed that he was present at Santa Ysabel massacre when Charlie Watson and 21 others were killed while fleeing from a train going to the Cusi mine.

Villa admired bravery wherever he found it One day, at the Cusi mine, Villa ordered a Mexican miner shot. The man wore a good suit of clothes and Villa commanded him to remove them and give them to one of his men who was ragged. The man, angered by this last humiliation, snatched off his coat, threw it at Villa and told him to take his suit and his life if he was that kind of a man. Villa laughed and remarked that the man was "muy bravo" and made him a petty officer in his army.

When Villa was encamped near the race track in Juarez directing his last attack on the town, he would laugh and pretend to catch the little one-pound cannon balls which the single artillery piece in Fort Guadalupc fired about once an hour. That night, when the American artillery opened up from the milling plant with real cannon and shrapnel, Villa knew the difference in a minute, jumped on his horse and was gone to the south before the American cavalry had crossed.

An American doctor went to Juarez when Villa was in command there to perform a minor operation on him. Villa refused to take ether. After the sawbones had spread his instruments out on a table in Villa's private room and started to roll up his sleeves preparatory to getting down to business, he looked over Villa and saw that he held a big blue-steel six-shooter in his right hand. The doctor packed up his instruments and returned to El Paso without operating and without his fat fee.

Frank Knotts has a deer hide in his possession which he claimed is the most expensive deer in existence. It cost him $21,000, for that was what Villa charged him for his liberty, throwing in the hide of a deer he had killed near Villa Ahumada for good measure.

Wrist Watch Saved Mine Near Parral

Villa was given a beautiful gold wrist watch of the stylish square pattern by an official of a well-known mining company operating in the Parral district. But he never wore it, preferring the old, cheap watch he had worn so long with a silver coin attached to the chain. He said the wrist watch hurt his wrist, and he scarcely wore it. But the American's mine was not raided after that.

An old Spaniard who ran a cantina near the plaza in Juarez took a pot shot at three of Villa's men after the first battle of Juarez. He was taken before Villa and Villa shot him with his own six-shooter in the police station. Villa was always ready to back his men against the world.

His loyalty was manifested in his treatment of George Holmes, an American who was convicted of violating the neutrality laws. Holmes went to Mexico and joined Villa. Holmes was given a position as a commercial agent and Villa always took care of him after that, saying that Holmes had got into trouble helping him and he did not propose to desert him.