The Matagorda County Tribune. (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, June 12, 1914 Page: 16 of 16
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Matagorda County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.
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e was t-------,n ..
h hat many mystify.^
a.
his IV
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ipv
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sort of guardian
bid
I ■
I assured him that I had ‘not and aslJ^
for the details.
“Seventeen men and boys,” he said “al-
leged to have been the leaders were^stood up
The remainder |rf the
The dogs who were shot were
magnificent architectural structure in Amer-
ica.
The one slides down to Vera Cruz in five
hours and is in a tropical, sea level, cosmo-
politan city. It is th© same change as trav-
eling from Denver to Galveston if th© trip
could be made as quickly.
Or if one comes by booat. The wide mouth
of the bay opens invitingly to the commerce
of the world. The outline of the city takes
form ip a two-mile sweep of the water front.
There are low houses along the bay, with
palms that wave above their eaves. There are
square, four-story, adobe hotels that back
them up. The solemn towers of ancient
churces, cross-capped, rise here and there.
The jungle slopes back the town, and beyond
these is Orizaba, magnificent among volca-
noes, smoking majestically from among her
tropical snows.
Coming in by rail I saw but a few blocks, of
square built, balconied business houses, with
residences above, before reaching any hotel.
This establishment, by name Hotel Diligen-
cia, signifies diligence. This, despite the.fact
that it was the hour of the midday siesta
and all the town was asleep. Yet perhaps
it portrayed diligence in comparison to other
institutions, and I found a motley assortment
of Europeans participating of “refrescas” in
its sidewalk restaurants.
This Hotel Diligencia is the hub of the
town from the standpoint of its external af-
fairs. It stands on the Plaza de la Consti-
tucion, which gives it an immediate second-
ary insight into the matter of extravagant
nomenclature. One has but to ask the name
of the main street which runs past the other
front of the hotel for more evidence of the
veneer, of glory and freedom that appears
on a city map. This main street is Avenue
de la Independencia.
This slumbrous hotel of Diligence on Con-
stitucion square, Independence avenue, fur-
nished a setting for the babble of all the
languages of Europe. Vera Cruz is Mexico’s
link to the outside world and the business
interests that do that business have their rep-
resentatives in that city. There are the Ger-
man. representatives of great mercantile es-
tablishments, the English representatives of
large concession holders, the Italian offices
for steamship companies, the French agencies
for automobiles, the man from Chicago who
sells refrigerated meats here in the tropics,
for the country is not self supporting, despite
its riches.
About the Hotel Diligencia runs a wide
porch, supported at the outer edge of the
sidewalk by great square pillars. About each
of these is built a table. Tropical jungle
trees add their shade to that of the porch.
So is produced a model setting for that side
walk restaurant effect much utilized in
Europe, but seen nowhere else in all North
America, but in Vera Cruz., About these
tables sit people of all nations residing at
Vera Cruz and passing back and forth
through it. .'There also, gather the local folk,
for the city is liberal with relation to matters
social. About these same tables mav be seen
those Mexican ladies of today who‘bear the
blood of the Spanish conquerers infused with
the best of the upper cast Aztecs and there
are produced nowhere on earth women of
more lustrous beauty. ■
—-----—--
mystery of the Aztecs, is a
spirit of this city sof the tropics, lhe new
sewage system of Cruz does much to
dispo^ lcs refuse, but there is still need
of the turkey buzzard for doing away with
matter left on the surface. So they flock
through the streets. They hop about the
gutters and are so tame as to be almost
stepped on. They ride majestically and
solemnly on the tail of any passing milk cart.
They sit in the trees of Plaza de la Consti-
tucion. But, above all, they flock by the
thousands about the roof of the old Parochial
churcfi across that plaza from the hotel.
The Mexicans who fired upon the Ameri-
can marines from that point of vantage must
have had to fight off these members of the
garbage crew. Particularly do the buzzards
throng the top of this gray old edifice when
nightfall comes. Every veteran of many
refuse pillages has his particular place to
roost and stands ready to fight for it. The
gargoyles on the corners become festooned
with them. They are a fringe about the
roof. They turn the great cross that sur-
mounts the edifice into a hugh black plume
studded as thick as they may stand, beside
which the melancholy raven appears jovial.
And to him who harms one of the sacred
and mysterious pillagers the long arm of the
law is stretched out and the penalty is quick
and sure.
To him who arrives by boat, the first of
Mexico he sees is the most tragic spot in
all America. This is the military prison on
San Juan de Ulna, a small, low island to the
left of the entrance of the harbor. It is not
only g/ prison but a fortress. Sheer from the
water rise its forbidding gray walls, grim,
silent,, unchanging. Here are sent the politi-
cal prisoners of whatever dictator may be at
the time ruling Mexico. When the gates of
the military prison on this gloomy island
close upon an individual it is rare that the
outside world knows aught else of him.
Porfirio Diaz shuttled men who opposed
him down to this prison in long processions.
I happened to know personally of one such
party. The incident that led to this exhi-
bition of the methods of the Indian dictators
happened during the celebration of the cen-
tennial of Mexican independence in 1910, but
a few months before Diaz was overthrown.
It was a great, demonstration that was staged
on that occasion, when the old dictator him-
self, on the night of September 15, tolled the •
historic bells of the great cathedral in Mex-
ico City. But the populace was restless and
a sullen spirit pervaded the crowd which re-
fused to cheer when the dictator appeared on
the balcony of his palace. A little later
there was a miniature riot of the rabble be-
side the palace, the worst offense in which
was the throwing of a stone that broke a
window in the palace. Then the rurales
charged into the street from two ends and
captured whoever was found in the block.
A party of us, visiting Americans, saw that
much. There was no mention of , the inci-
dent in any paper the next day. We attached
little importance to the incident. But a week
later an American of standing whom I knew
and who had lived for twenty years in Mex-
ico City, said to me in confidence:
“You have not, of course, heard the sequel
of the little riot you saw the other night?”
Y
whatever the government has accomplished
in the way of cutting out waste and intro-
. ducing first rate standards of economy is,
of course, very much worth while. But to
starve railroads into other economies, such,
for instance, as skimping on roadbeds, skimp-.
ing on.bridges, skimping on rails, skimping
on rolling stock, skimping on safety devices,
and skimping all along the line, is’quite an-
other matter. They are costly savings to the
people, dearly bought savings.
If the government would get back of the
railroads and give them a lift, the railroads
would get back of business from one end of
this country to the other and give it a lift—
would get its great broad shoulder under bus-
iness and heave it into action. Assure invest-
ors that our railroads have back of them the
great -Aanerican people, the good feeling and
spirit of co operation of the American people,
and have back of them as well the strong,
helpful hand of the. government, untold money
would flow into this country from abroad and
■vast sums ol sleepy money tucked away in
odd places here at home would straightway
come out of its hiding and go1 into railway
securities.
I hold no brief for the railroads; I am not
speaking for myself, as I hold no railroad
stocks, and don’t wish to hold any under
present conditions. Neither am I speaking
for those who do hold railroad stocks. I am
speaking for idle men, speaking in the in-
terest of better business, speaking for a
square deal for the railroads, for safe rail-
roads, sound railroads.—Frank' A. Munsey
in April Munsey Magazine.
i'iV- I
■fl
I
BUFFALO JONES’ GOR
stories were woven about this terrifically
savage animal. The natives were afraid of
the gorilla and regarded the aninrn-1 with a
superstitious awe that resulted r-i mendacious
tales of his capturing wo^en and children
and taking them to De in the forest.
R. L. Garner, a noted student of the cus-
toms of apps and monkeys, has doubtless giv-
en to tke world more authentic knowledge of
tins big animal than any other investigator.
He built a huge steel cage and for months
lived in the heart of the jungle in the Congo
region, studying them and has probably seen
more gorillas at close range than any other
man. Men have lived in and about the gorilla
district in Africa for years without once see-
ing one of these quiet, shy animals, that move
about the jungle with the utmost stealthiness.
They rove in bands of ten or twelve, each
male accumulating a harem of two or three
wives and numerous children. Everybody
wu^lrs but father in the gorilla family. He
stands guax-a af the f00t of a tree, while the
women and chilui^ forage for food and
bring it respectfully to 0]d man? who
gnaws his fruit or flesh at his et«Q ancj com_
mands considerable fear and authoi^y in
his own family.
When on the rampage, the gorilla knows
no fear. His method of attack is by striking
ar,d biting and is generally preceded by the
temiio roaring which no words can describe,
accompanied by a vigorous beating of the
chest or of tye paws upon wood, that fairly
resounds- throughout the forest. Other beasts
hide and. tremble at the sound. The gorilla
is suspicious and wary and seldom captured
^2 \raPs- Garner succeeded in capturing sev-
ts carefully. The gorilla does not live lonp-
txcaptivity—three years being the longest
eat "hown* He becomes sullen, refuses to
socifcd pines away for his freedom and the
It ibof his kind.
custodiid that Buffalo Jones, when he was
stone, oc?f the National Park at Yellow-
on the beaTiially. manifested his authority
them and bphat infest the park by roping
sion. The s spanking them into submis-
ing to have "ned old cowbov hunter is go-
he( attempts t experience of his life when
cer ce. '.auk 4 gorilla into acquies-
The gorilla \
„ stands erect, ther<) be-
From this town center branch off innumer-
able narrow streets that multiply themselves
until they have developed a city two miles
long as the coast runs, and half as deep. Al-
together it furnishes habitations for some
90,000 pooplo and. ia tlio Iqpprpcjf oitj Uli all
the coast of Mexico. It i-s the logical ship-
ping point for the trade of a nation and
would multiply itself by ten if the Yankees
had Mexico for as many years. It has paved
streets, sewers, sanitation, harbor improve-
ments. It is magnificently situated—a city
of ihe future.
It is two blocks from the plaza to the water
front and it was up the street that leads that
way that the first American rifle -shots were
fired when Vera Cruz was seized. It was
in the street beside the Hotel Diligencia that
a machine gun was set up and a few turns
given its handle to clear Plaza de la Consti-
tucion of its fighting Mexicans. It was from
the roof of the Parochial church, gray and
forbidding, across the plaza, that the shot
was fired that killed the first American ma-
rine.
This Plaza de la Constitucion abounds in
grape laden arbors, beneath which sit gaily
dressed people of the town of an evening
and sip their “ refrescas. ” There is music in
the square on three nights of the week and
it is converted into a dress parade. It wakes
in the cool of early morning, for the Vera,
Cruzans rise early and transact their business
before the heat of the d$y arrives. At 11
o’clock the shops along Avenue de la Inde-
pendencia put out their shutters. The whole
public retreats into its sleeping quarters be-
hind thick, adobe walls where the cool of
the morning still lingers because of the early
dosing of every aperture, and takes it siesta.
No doubt the Vera Cruzans resented the
landing of marines more because the hour
of 11:30 was chosen than because of an of-
fense against their liberties. That may be
what made them fight. American naval of-
ficers -should be more considerate about these
little matters, for it is the little things that
.count in the land of manyana. When Presi-
dent Taft.met President Diaz on the middle
of the bridge at El Paso, and wore a bus-
iness, suit for the occasion, he offended more
deeply than he could have by any one act.
I went through Mexico shortly after that
event and heard, throughout the country, of
the unpardonable offense. The Mexicans ex-
pected President Taft to wear on this oc-
casion a suit of pompous regalia.
But while Vera Cruz -sleeps from 11 to 1
nature’s scavengers are at work. It is a
weird scene that meets the American who
passes down the deserted streets of this port
of a rich nation at the siesta hour. With
shutters up and all the human life of the
city suspended, one walks the deserted
streets with a feeling of weird desolation.
It appears to the unaccustomed visitor as
a city of the dead. He feels that Orizaba
must have blown the breath of her fumes
down upon the city and snuffed out its life
or that he has turned back the page of some
Aztec Pompeii.
And as he passed through the still, sunlit
streets bereft of human companionship, there
is ever with him that weird presence of the
scavenger buzzard. This, the sacred bird of
against a doby wall at sunrise the following
morning and shot. The remainder the
eighty were sent to tlm military prison at
Vera Cruz. The dogs who were shot were
lucky.” x. ■
“How do you know this?” I asked, in-
credulously.
“Three of the boys,” he said, “live in the
same block with me. Their people know F
through the mysterious channels of the low-
ly.”
1
For a hundred years of alleged Mexican c
independence the country has been in the
hands, mostly, of iron-handed dictators. For
three centuries before that it was ruled by
the cruelest nation that ever outraged colon--
ists, the Spaniards. Through all those half
a thousand years these lines of prisoners
have moved on to the fortress at San Juan de
Ulna, and rarely has a man entered its gates
who has ever again been seen. So, I say, here
is the most tragic spot in all America.
Yet this tragic island is rich in historical
events with which e.very man is acquainted,
but the exact setting for which he has forgot-
ten. Here it was that Cortez burned his
ships in 1519. He first landed at this little
island with his band of soldiers of fortune
gathered from among the adventurous spirits
who were then wont to rendezvous about
Porto Rico. The ships were burned that re-
treat might be made impossible and the
march inland was begun, 600 men against
the millions, with no possibility of retreat.
There is not a more romantic chapter in the
history of the continent, but it is tarnished—
as is all else Spanish—by the inhuman cruel-’
ties that were practiced. It was from this
point that the silver fleet,” broad pooped
galleys laden with the loot of ,the Aztecs
sailed back to Spain a little later. Here came
Sir John Hawkins in the days of Queen Eliza-
beth and fought so unsuccessfully for plunder
that he lost the greater part of his ships.
It was from the battlements of this fortress |
that the Spanish flag came down at last, three
centuries later. It was here that the Ameri-
cans landed in 1847, and pushed, on that oc-
casion, to the interior and stormed the bat-
tlements of Mexico City. It was here, again,
that the French landed in their support of
Maximilian, who was made emperor of Mexi-
co while the United States was too busy with
her civil war to take care of the Monroe doc- i
trine. And this was the last point seen by I
the retiring French when our war was over I
and we reasserted that policy. - I
Finally, it was from the shadows of these l
gloomy walls that American marines asd | U
bluejackets clambered into their boats a fort-—
night ago and hurried to avenge an insult to ■
the flag. It was from this point of vantage V
that the men of the fleet watched the landing W|
on that jetty of granite that offers wharfage - 1
below the big, white stone customs house that,
was the object of attack. And if the flag of
the United States leaves Mexico it will flutter - -
its last farewell as her vessels steam past
tragic San Juan de Ulua, in the port of Vera
Cruz, the city of the “true cross.”
Copyright, 1914. i
Hunters of big game are awaiting with
deep interest the results of the work of the
Buffalo Jones expedition into the heart of
the French Congo country in Africa to cap-
ture gorillas. '
Buffalo Jones of Kansas, the famous king
of the cowboys, has never captured a gorilla,
and expects to accomplish the feat with a
lasso. \
If he does he will be the first hunter to
capture a grown gorilla alive. There has
never been but one brought to the United
States alive and it lived but five days after
arrival. It was a baby gorilla, at that.
The gorilla in his native haunts is one of
i the shyest of the jungle beasts, although he
is termed the Terror of the Jungle. When ho
walks abroad every animal in ttie forest gives
him the right of way. Even the lion cringes
before the terrific roar of the gorilla, which
has every other animal wound boaf.en a mile
in ferocity and warning.
Experienced hunters in the African jungles
declare that this roar is calculated to inspire
more real terror than any other sound of the
jungle. The gorilla prefers low, hot, humid
regions, close to the swamps, although he is
saio. +o dislike the water and rarely enters it.
His terrAory is adjacent to the basins of Lake
Nkomi, l^ake Tzonga and the Nkomi river.
He is one of the largest, cf the wild animals,
frequently measuring six wmm giuvvn,
with a weight of from 200 to OOo v^unds. He
s also one of the ugliest and most ^pulsive
c ihe jungle residents, regardless of x;g re
seiYance to man in size and shape. E
sullen nd morose and leads a nomadic liiv, in traps. Garner succeeded in capturing sev-
sleepmgon the ground, unlike the rest of onesand in this studied their hab-
the ape who live in trees. And al-
though D<win might have had some slight
ground foThis declaration that the gorilla
was original the head of the human family,
yet few men <mld care to claim acquaint-
ance, much les. relationship, after the first
glance at his hieousiy fierce countenance
and his huge, uneiniy body.
The pgoril^ was yrst repOrted in 1847 by
Dr. T^',mas 7ava3 on his return from an
African 'rip- , U' -bt e was then known of
>is habil or
■ ■ XPEDITION
mg no calf to the leg and no tendons strong
enough to admit of walking erect. It is a
dull black in color, graying with age. The
face, palms of the feet and hands are jet
black and velvety soft in texture.
If you read of a live, full grown gorilla in
captivity, set it down as a canard. There is
no such thing. Sometimes one of the larger
apes i-s palmed off on a credulous public as
a gorilla. The zoo at Swope Park had a mag-
nificent specimen of a yellow baboon which
was eagerly purchased by a circus company
last year and this season is being billed as
the “only known gorilla in captivity.”
Buffalo Jones has his work cut out for him
and if he succeeds in bringing home a gorilla
safely locked into the big steel cages he has
something that has never before been done,
built for this purpose he will accomplish
THE RAILDOADS AND THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE.
The railroads are structurally a part of
our national life—fiber of our fiber. They
are the arteries of our very being through
which courses the life blood of the nation.
We cannot do them harm without doing our-
selves harm. Starve them and the pinch
of poverty grips us.
The railroads were built by private capital
and are owned by private capital, and yet
they have little of the inherent freedom of
m-ivate property. Their charters constitute
them common carriers, public service con-
cerns, and as such they are in a sense owned
m common by the public and by private cap-
ital—no actual public ownership in them,
dollars and cents owuarship, but in the out-
working the “senior partner” influence and
dommancy of the public makes it amount to
about the same thing.
We ought to have, and I am satisfied that
the American people demand, the best and
safest railroads in the world. It is a cer-
tainty that we cannot have them without
paying the price—railroads with every new
device, every improvement that means safe-
ty and better service. And we can well af-
ford to pay the price when the failure to do
so means inferior railroads, dangerous rail-
1*03.0 S» 9
Forcing railroad managements into a po-
sition where they have beer compelled to
squeeze paltry dividends out cf half-fed, half-
nourished pronerlies that they might keep
their roads out of bankruptcy, is a rotten pol-
icy. \
Legptaate economies are fundamentally
to honest, able management, anjd
I
i
I
TEXAS WILD FLOWERS.
Boys and girls are gathering wild flowers
all oyer Texas and no one can remember a
time in this state when there were more or
prettier wild flowers than now.
The blue bonnet over spreading the hill and
valley, with delicate blue tints, contrasting
beautifully with the myriads of white lilies
The air rises warm and soft with the per-
fume of opening flowers and the thousand
tints with which nature clothes her babies
blend in a blur of colors that no pen can de-
scribe any more than we could give words to
the chorus of voices that greet the sun in
the morning.
And so June come-s to us with the soft prat-
ter of passing flowers and still softer flutter
of breezes, as she gently leads the host of
opening flowers and bursting leaves along the
pathway toward the full blossom and glow-
mg warmth of July. 1
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Smith, Carey. The Matagorda County Tribune. (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, June 12, 1914, newspaper, June 12, 1914; Bay City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1299678/m1/16/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.