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37 - Insurgent Mexico by John Reed · Insurgent Mexico

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of Insurgent Mexico. This is a 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 Timothy Livewright. Chapter twelve contreras Men assault. Wednesday, my
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  Speaker 1: friend the photographer, and I were wandering across a field
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  Speaker 1: when Villa came by on his horse. He looked tired, dirty,
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  Speaker 1: but happy, reining up in front of us, the motions
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  Speaker 1: of his body as easy and graceful as a wolf's.
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  Speaker 1: He grinned and said, well, boys, how's it going now?
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  Speaker 1: We answered that we were perfectly contented. I haven't time
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  Speaker 1: to worry about you, so you must be careful not
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  Speaker 1: to go into danger. It is bad the wound hundreds.
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  Speaker 1: They are brave, those Muchacho's the bravest people in the world.
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  Speaker 1: But he continued, delightedly, you must go and see the
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  Speaker 1: hospital train. There is something fine for you to write
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  Speaker 1: your papers about. And truly it was a magnificent thing
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  Speaker 1: to see. The hospital train lay right behind the work train.
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  Speaker 1: Now forty box cars enameled inside, stenciled on the side
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  Speaker 1: with a big blue cross, and the legend Cervicio Sanatario
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  Speaker 1: handled the wounded as they came from the front. They
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  Speaker 1: were fitted inside with the latest surgical appliances and manned
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  Speaker 1: by sixty competent American and Mexican doctors. Every night, shuttle
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  Speaker 1: trains carried the seriously hurt back to the base hospitals
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  Speaker 1: at Chihuahua and Parl. We went down through San Ramon
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  Speaker 1: and beyond the end of the line of trees out
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  Speaker 1: across the desert. It was already stinging hot in front.
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  Speaker 1: A snake of rifle fire unfolded along the line, and
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  Speaker 1: then a machine gun. As we emerged into the open,
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  Speaker 1: a lone mouser began cracking down to the right somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: We paid no attention to it at first, but pretty
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  Speaker 1: soon we noticed that there was a little plumping sound
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  Speaker 1: on the ground around us. Puffs of dust flew up
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  Speaker 1: every few minutes. By God, said the photographer, some beggars
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  Speaker 1: sniping at us. Instinctively, we both sprinted. The rifle shots
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  Speaker 1: came faster. It was a long distance across the plain.
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  Speaker 1: After a little we reduced it to a jog trot.
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  Speaker 1: Finally we walked along with the dust spurting up as before,
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  Speaker 1: and a feeling that, after all, it wouldn't do any
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  Speaker 1: good to run. Then we forgot it. Half an hour
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  Speaker 1: later we crept through the brush a quarter of a
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  Speaker 1: mile from the outskirts of Gomez and came upon a
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  Speaker 1: tiny ranch of six or eight adobe huts with a
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  Speaker 1: street running between. In the lee of one of the houses,
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  Speaker 1: lounged and sprawled about sixty of Contrera's ragged fighters. They
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  Speaker 1: were playing cards and talking lazily down the street. Just
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  Speaker 1: around the corner, which pointed straight as a die toward
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  Speaker 1: the federal positions. A storm of bullets swept continually, whipping
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  Speaker 1: up the dust. These men had been on duty at
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  Speaker 1: the front all night. The counter sign had been no hats,
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  Speaker 1: and they were bare headed in the broiling sun. They
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  Speaker 1: had had no sleep and no food, and there wasn't
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  Speaker 1: any water for half a mile. There is a Federal
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  Speaker 1: cortell up ahead there that is firing, explained a boy
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  Speaker 1: about twelve years old. We've got orders to attack when
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  Speaker 1: the artillery comes. And an old man squatting against the
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  Speaker 1: wall asked me where I came from. I said, New York. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I don't know anything about New York, but
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  Speaker 1: I'll bet you don't see such fine cattle going through
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  Speaker 1: the streets as you see in the streets of Jimenez.
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  Speaker 1: You don't see any cattle in the streets of New York,
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  Speaker 1: I said. He looked at me incredulously. What no cattle.
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  Speaker 1: You mean to tell me that they don't drive cattle
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  Speaker 1: through the streets up there or sheep? I said, they didn't.
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  Speaker 1: He looked at me as if he thought I was
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  Speaker 1: a great liar. Then he cast his eyes on the
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  Speaker 1: ground and thought deeply. Well, he pronounced finally, Then I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to go there. Two skylarking boys started at
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  Speaker 1: a game of tag. In a minute, twenty full grown
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  Speaker 1: men were chasing each other around in great glee. The
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  Speaker 1: card players had one short deck of torn cards, and
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  Speaker 1: at least eight people were trying to play some game
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  Speaker 1: and arguing about the rules at the top of their voices,
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  Speaker 1: or perhaps there weren't enough cards to go around. Four
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  Speaker 1: or five had crawled into the shade of the house,
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  Speaker 1: singing satirical love songs. At this time, the steady infernal
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  Speaker 1: din up ahead never relented, and the bullets spattered in
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  Speaker 1: the dust like rain. Dry Occasionally, one of the men
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  Speaker 1: would slouch over poke his rifle around the corner and fire.
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  Speaker 1: We stayed there about half an hour. Then two great
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  Speaker 1: cannons came rocketing out of the brush behind and wheeled
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  Speaker 1: into position in a dry ditch seventy five yards away
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  Speaker 1: on the left. I guess we're going in a minute,
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  Speaker 1: said the boy. At that moment, three men galloped up
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  Speaker 1: from the rear, evidently officers. They were entirely exposed to
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  Speaker 1: rifle fire over the roofs of the huts, but jerked
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  Speaker 1: up their horses with the shots yelling all around them,
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  Speaker 1: contemptuous of them. The first to speak was Fierro, the superb,
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  Speaker 1: great animal of a man who had murdered Benton. He
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  Speaker 1: sneered down at the ragged soldiers from his saddle. Well,
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  Speaker 1: this is a fine looking crowd to take a city with,
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  Speaker 1: he said, But we've got nobody else down here. Go in.
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  Speaker 1: When you hear the bugle pulling cruelly in the bit,
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  Speaker 1: so that his big horse reared straight up and whirled
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  Speaker 1: on his hind legs, Fierro galloped off rearward, saying as
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  Speaker 1: he went useless, those simple fools of Contreras. Death to
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  Speaker 1: the butcher, said a man furiously that murderer killed my
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  Speaker 1: compadre in the streets of Durango for no crime or insult.
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  Speaker 1: My compadre was very drunk walking in front of the theater.
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  Speaker 1: He asked Fierro what time it was, and Fierro said you,
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  Speaker 1: how dare you speak to me before I speak to
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  Speaker 1: you first? But the bugle was blowing, and up they got,
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  Speaker 1: grabbing their guns. The tag game tried to stop but couldn't.
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  Speaker 1: Furious card players were accusing each other of stealing the
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  Speaker 1: deck Ouiga Fiancio cried one soldier, I'll bet you my
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  Speaker 1: saddle I come back and you don't. This morning I
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  Speaker 1: won a nice bridle from Juan. All right, yeah, my
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  Speaker 1: new Pinto horse. Laughing, joking, rollicking. They swept out of
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  Speaker 1: the shelter of the houses into the rain of steel.
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  Speaker 1: They scuttled awkwardly up the street like little brown animals
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  Speaker 1: unused to running. Billowing dust veiled them in a hell
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  Speaker 1: of noise. End of chapter twelve.