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35 - Insurgent Mexico by John Reed · Insurgent Mexico

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty four of Insurgent Mexico. This is at LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Margaret espayat Insurgent Mexico by John Reid, Part thirty
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  Speaker 1: four Between attacks a People in Arms, Chapter ten. About
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  Speaker 1: a mile back the flight was stopped. I met the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers coming back, with the relieved expression of men who
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  Speaker 1: have feared an unknown danger and been suddenly set free
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  Speaker 1: from it. That was always Villa's power. He could explain
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  Speaker 1: things to the great mass of ordinary people in a
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  Speaker 1: way that they immediately understood. The Federals, as usual, had
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  Speaker 1: failed to take advantage of their opportunity to inflict a
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  Speaker 1: lasting defeat upon the Constitutionalists. Perhaps they feared an ambush
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  Speaker 1: like the one Viilla had arranged at Mapula, when the
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  Speaker 1: victorious Federals sallied out to pursue VIA's fleeing army after
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  Speaker 1: the first attack on Chihuahua and were repulsed with heavy slaughter. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: they did not come out. The men came straggling back,
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  Speaker 1: hunting in the Mesquite for their guns and blankets and
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  Speaker 1: for other people's guns and blankets. You could hear them
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  Speaker 1: shouting and joking all over the plain. Oiga, what are
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  Speaker 1: you doing with that rifle? That's my water bag. I
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  Speaker 1: dropped my set up right here by this bush, and
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  Speaker 1: now it's gone. Oh, Juan, cried one man to another.
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  Speaker 1: I always told you I could beat you running, but
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  Speaker 1: you didn't Compadre. I was a hundred meters ahead, flying
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  Speaker 1: through the air like a cannon ball. The truth was
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  Speaker 1: that after riding twelve hours the day before, fighting all
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  Speaker 1: night and all morning in the blazing sun, under the
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  Speaker 1: frightful strain of charging an entrenched force in the face
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  Speaker 1: of artillery and machine guns, without food, water, or sleep,
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  Speaker 1: the army's nerve had suddenly given way. But from the
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  Speaker 1: time that they returned after the flight, the ultimate result
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  Speaker 1: was never in doubt. The psychological crisis was past now,
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  Speaker 1: the rifle fire had altogether ceased, and even cannon shots
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  Speaker 1: from the enemy were few and far between. At the ditch,
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  Speaker 1: under the first line of trees, our men entrenched themselves.
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  Speaker 1: The artillery had withdrawn to the second line of trees
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  Speaker 1: a mile back, and under the grateful shade the men
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  Speaker 1: threw themselves heavily down and slept. The strain had snapped.
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  Speaker 1: As the sun rose toward noon, the desert hill and
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  Speaker 1: town throbbed silently in the intense heat, sometimes in exchange
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  Speaker 1: of shots. Far to the right or left told where
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  Speaker 1: the outposts were exchanging compliments. But even that soon stopped.
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  Speaker 1: In the cotton and corn fields to the north, among
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  Speaker 1: the sprouting green things, insects chirped, the birds sang no
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  Speaker 1: more because of the heat. It was breathless. The leaves
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  Speaker 1: stirred in no wind. Here and there little fires smoked
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  Speaker 1: where the soldiers rolled tortillas from the scanty flower they
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  Speaker 1: had brought in their saddle bags, and those who didn't
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  Speaker 1: have any swarmed around baking a crumb. Everybody simply and
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  Speaker 1: generously divided the food. I was hailed from a dozen fires,
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  Speaker 1: with hey, compagnero, have you breakfasted? Here's a piece of
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  Speaker 1: my tortilla. Come and eat. Rows of men lay on
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  Speaker 1: their stomachs along the irrigation ditch scooping up the dirty
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  Speaker 1: water in their palms. Three or four miles back we
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  Speaker 1: could see the cannon car in the first two trains,
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  Speaker 1: opposite the big ranch of elber Hell, with the tireless
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  Speaker 1: repair gang hard at it in the hot sun. The
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  Speaker 1: provision train had not come up yet. Little Colonel Cervin
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  Speaker 1: came by, perched on an immense bay horse, still dapper
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  Speaker 1: and fresh after the terrible work of the night. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what we shall do yet, he said. Only
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  Speaker 1: the General knows that, and he never tells. But we
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  Speaker 1: shall not assault again until the Brigada Sarragosa returns. Benavides
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  Speaker 1: has had a hard battle over there at Sacramento, two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty of hours killed, they say, And the
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  Speaker 1: General has sent for General Robres and General Contreras, who
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  Speaker 1: have been attacking from the south, to bring up all
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  Speaker 1: their men and join him here. They say, though, that
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  Speaker 1: we are going to deliver a night attack next so
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  Speaker 1: that their artillery won't be effective. He galloped on. About
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  Speaker 1: mid day, thin columns of sluggish, dirty smoke began to
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  Speaker 1: rise from several points in the town, and toward afternoon
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  Speaker 1: a slow, hot wind brought to us the faintly sickening
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  Speaker 1: smell of crude oil mingled with scorched human flesh. The
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  Speaker 1: Federals were burning piles of the dead. We walked back
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  Speaker 1: to the trains and stormed General Benovita's private car in
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  Speaker 1: the Brigadas Airacosa train. The major in charge had them
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  Speaker 1: cook us something to eat in the general's kitchen. We
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  Speaker 1: ate ravenously, and afterward went along the line of trees
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  Speaker 1: and slept for hours. Late in the afternoon we started
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  Speaker 1: once more for the front. Hundreds of soldiers and peons
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  Speaker 1: of the neighborhood, ravenously hungry, prowled around the trains, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to pick up discarded food or slops, or anything at
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  Speaker 1: all to eat. They were ashamed of themselves, however, and
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  Speaker 1: effected a sauntering indolence when we passed. I remember that
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  Speaker 1: we sat for a while talking with some soldiers on
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  Speaker 1: top of a box car, when a boy criss crossed
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  Speaker 1: with cartridge belts and lugging a huge rifle, came past.
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  Speaker 1: Beneath his eyes searching the ground, a stale dordella, half rotting,
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  Speaker 1: crunched into the dirt by many passing feet caught his attention.
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  Speaker 1: He pounced upon it and bit a piece out. Then
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  Speaker 1: he looked up and saw us, as if I were
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  Speaker 1: dying of hunger, he said scornfully, and tossed it away
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  Speaker 1: with contempt. Down in the shade of the alamos. Across
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  Speaker 1: the ditch from Saint Ramon, the Canadian captain Treston was
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  Speaker 1: bivouacked with his machine gun battery. The guns with their
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  Speaker 1: heavy tripods were unloaded from the mules, and all around
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  Speaker 1: lay the unlimbered field pieces, their animals grazing in the
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  Speaker 1: rich green fields. The men squatted around their fires or
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  Speaker 1: lyons stretched out on the bank of the ditch. Treston
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  Speaker 1: waved in ashy tortilles. He was munching and bawled, say read,
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  Speaker 1: please come here and interpret for me. I can't find
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  Speaker 1: my interpreters, and if we go into action, I'll be
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  Speaker 1: in a hell of a fix. You see, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know the damn language. And when I came down here,
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  Speaker 1: Bia hired two interpreters to go round with me all
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  Speaker 1: the time, and I can't ever find the sons of guns.
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  Speaker 1: They always go off and leave me in a hole.
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  Speaker 1: I took part of the proffered delicacy and asked him
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  Speaker 1: if he thought there was any chance of going into action.
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  Speaker 1: I think we'll go in to night as soon as
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  Speaker 1: it's dark, he answered, Do you want to go along
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  Speaker 1: with the machine guns and interpret? I said, I did
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  Speaker 1: a ragged man near the fire, whom I had never
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  Speaker 1: seen before, rose and came across smiling. I thought, when
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  Speaker 1: I looked at you that you seemed to be an
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  Speaker 1: ombre who hadn't tasted tobacco for a while. Will you
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  Speaker 1: take half my cigarette? Before I could protest, he produced
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  Speaker 1: a lopsid headed brown cigarette and tore it across in
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  Speaker 1: two pieces. The sun went gloriously down behind the notched
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  Speaker 1: purple mountains in front of us, and for a minute,
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  Speaker 1: a clean fan of quivering light poured up the high
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  Speaker 1: arc of stainless sky. The birds awoke in the trees,
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  Speaker 1: leaves rustled, a fertile land exhaled a pearly mist. A
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  Speaker 1: dozen ragged soldiers, lying close together, began to improvise the
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  Speaker 1: air and words of a song about the Battle of Torreon.
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  Speaker 1: A new ballad was being born. Others singing came to
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  Speaker 1: us through the still cool dusk. I felt my whole
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  Speaker 1: being going out to these gentle, simple people, so lovable
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  Speaker 1: they were. It was just after I had been to
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  Speaker 1: the ditch for a drink that Trestan said casually, By
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  Speaker 1: the way, one of our men found this floating in
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  Speaker 1: the ditch a little while ago, I can't read Spanish,
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  Speaker 1: so I didn't know what the word meant. You see,
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  Speaker 1: the water from these ditches all comes from the river
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  Speaker 1: inside the town, so I thought it might be a
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  Speaker 1: Federal paper. I took it from his hand. It was
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  Speaker 1: a little folded white piece of wet paper, like the
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  Speaker 1: corner in front of a package. In large black letters
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  Speaker 1: was printed on the front arsenico and in smaller type
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  Speaker 1: guidado beneno arsenic beware poison. Look here, I demanded, sitting up. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: have there been any sick people around here this evening?
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  Speaker 1: That's funny you're asking, he said. A good many of
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  Speaker 1: the men have had bad cramps in the stomach, and
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  Speaker 1: I don't feel altogether well. Just before you came, a
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  Speaker 1: mule suddenly keeled over and died in that next field,
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  Speaker 1: and a horse across the ditch fatigue or sunstroke probably,
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  Speaker 1: Fortunately the ditch carried a large body of swiftly running water,
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  Speaker 1: so the danger was not great. I explained to him
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  Speaker 1: that the Federals had poisoned the ditch. My God, said Treston,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps that is what they were trying to tell me.
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  Speaker 1: About twenty people have come up to me and said
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  Speaker 1: something about in Beninavo. What does that mean? That's what
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  Speaker 1: it means, I answered, Where can we get about a
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  Speaker 1: quart of strong coffee? We found a great can of
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  Speaker 1: it at the nearest fire and felt better. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we knew, said the men. That is why we watered
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  Speaker 1: the animals at the other ditch. We heard long ago
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  Speaker 1: they say that ten horses are dead down in front,
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  Speaker 1: and that many men are rolling very sick on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: An officer on horseback rode by, shouting that we were
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  Speaker 1: all to go back to Elbergel and camp there beside
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  Speaker 1: the trains for the night. That the General had said
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  Speaker 1: that every one but the advance guards were to get
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  Speaker 1: a good night's sleep out of the zone of fire,
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  Speaker 1: and that the commissary train had come up and was
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  Speaker 1: just behind the hospital train. Bugles sounded, and the men
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  Speaker 1: struggled up off the ground, catching mules, fastening their harness
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  Speaker 1: on amid shouting and braying and jingling, saddling horses and
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  Speaker 1: limbering guns. Tresten got on his pony and I walked
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  Speaker 1: along beside him, so there was to be no night attack.
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  Speaker 1: Then it was now almost dark across the ditch. We
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  Speaker 1: fell in with the shadowy forms of a company of
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  Speaker 1: soldiers trotting northward, all muffling blankets and big hats and
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  Speaker 1: ringing spurs. They hailed me, Hey, compagnio, where's your horse?
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  Speaker 1: I admitted, I had none jump up behind me, then
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  Speaker 1: chimed in five or six altogether. One pulled up right
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  Speaker 1: beside me, and I mounted with him. We jogged on
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  Speaker 1: through the mesquite and across a dim, lovely field. Some
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  Speaker 1: one began to sing, and two more joined in a round.
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  Speaker 1: Full moon bubbled up in the clear night. Oiga. How
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  Speaker 1: do you say, Mullah? In English? Asked my horseman, God
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  Speaker 1: damn stubborn fat head Mule, I told him, And for
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  Speaker 1: days entire strangers would stop me and ask me, with
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  Speaker 1: roars of laughter, how the Americans said, Mullah? Around the
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  Speaker 1: ranch of Elbergel, the army was encamped. We rode into
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  Speaker 1: a field dotted with fires, where aimless soldiers wandered around
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  Speaker 1: in the dark, shouting to know where the Brigado Gonzales
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  Speaker 1: Ortega was, or Jose Rodriguezes Hinte, or the Amitriodoras. Downward,
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  Speaker 1: the artillery was unlimbering in a wide alert half circle,
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  Speaker 1: guns pointing south to the east. The camp of Benavides
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  Speaker 1: Brigadas Arragoza, just arrived from Sacramento, made an immense glow
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  Speaker 1: in the sky from the direction of the provision train.
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  Speaker 1: A long ant like file of men bore sacks of flour, coffee,
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  Speaker 1: and packages of cigarettes. A hundred different singing choruses swelled
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  Speaker 1: up into the night. It comes to my mind with
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  Speaker 1: particular vividness. How I saw a poor poisoned horse suddenly
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  Speaker 1: double up and fall thrashing. How we passed a man
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  Speaker 1: bent to the ground in the darkness, vomiting violently. How
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  Speaker 1: after I had rolled up on the ground in my blankets,
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  Speaker 1: terrible cramps suddenly wrenched me, and I crawled out away
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  Speaker 1: into the brush, and didn't have the strength to crawl back,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, until gray dawn. I rolled, very sick on
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  Speaker 1: the ground. End of Section thirty four.