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36 - Insurgent Mexico by John Reed · Insurgent Mexico

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty five 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 volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Margaret espayat Insurgent Mexico by John Reid, Part thirty five
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  Speaker 1: and Outpost in Action, Chapter eleven a People in Arms. Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: early in the morning, the army was in motion again
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  Speaker 1: toward the front, straggling down the track and across the field.
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  Speaker 1: Four hundred raging demons sweated and hammered at the ruined track.
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  Speaker 1: The foremost train had made half a mile in the night.
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  Speaker 1: Horses were plenty that morning, and I bought one saddle
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  Speaker 1: and all for seventy five pesos about fifteen dollars in gold.
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  Speaker 1: Trotting down by Saint Ramond, I fell in with two
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  Speaker 1: wild looking horsemen in hi sombreros with little printed pictures
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  Speaker 1: of our Lady of Guadalupe so on the crowns. They
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  Speaker 1: said they were going out to an outpost upon the
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  Speaker 1: extreme right wing, near the mountains above Leerlo, where their
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  Speaker 1: company was posted to hold a hill. Why should I
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  Speaker 1: want to come with them? Who was I anyway, I
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  Speaker 1: showed them my pass signed by Franciscovilla. They were still hostile.
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  Speaker 1: Franciscovilla is nothing to us, they said, and how do
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  Speaker 1: we know whether this is his name written by him?
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  Speaker 1: We are of the brigarapuarrees Calixto Contrerashentte. But after a
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  Speaker 1: short consultation, the taller grunted come. We left the protection
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  Speaker 1: of the trees, striking out diagonally across the ramparted cotton
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  Speaker 1: fields due west, straight for a steep high hill that
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  Speaker 1: already quivered in the heat. Between us and the suburbs
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  Speaker 1: of Gomez Palacio stretched a barren flat plain, covered with
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  Speaker 1: low mesquite and cut by dry irrigation ditches. The Serro
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  Speaker 1: de la Pilla, with its murderous concealed artillery, lay perfectly quiet,
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  Speaker 1: except that up one side of it, so clear was
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  Speaker 1: the air we could make out a little knot of
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  Speaker 1: figures dragging what looked like a cannon. Just outside of
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  Speaker 1: the nearest houses, some horsemen were riding around. We immediately
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  Speaker 1: struck north, making a wide detour, carefully on the watch
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  Speaker 1: for this intermediate ground was overrun by pickets and scouting parties.
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  Speaker 1: About a mile beyond, almost along the foot of the
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  Speaker 1: hill ran the high road from the north to Lerdo
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  Speaker 1: we reconnoitered this carefully from the brush A peasant past, whistling,
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  Speaker 1: driving a flock of goats. On the very edge of
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  Speaker 1: this road, under a bush was an earthen jar full
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  Speaker 1: of milk. Without the least hesitation, the first soldier drew
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  Speaker 1: him revolver and shot. The jar split into a hundred pieces,
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  Speaker 1: milk spurting everywhere. Poisoned, he said briefly. The first company
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  Speaker 1: stationed over here drank some of that stuff. Four died.
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  Speaker 1: We rode on up on the hill crest. A few
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  Speaker 1: black figures squatted, their rifles tilted against their knees. My
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  Speaker 1: companions waved to them, and we turned north along the
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  Speaker 1: bank of a little river that unrolled a narrow strip
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  Speaker 1: of green grass in the midst of desolation. The outpost
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  Speaker 1: was camped on both sides of the water in a
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  Speaker 1: sort of meadow. I asked where the colonel was, and
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  Speaker 1: finally found him stretched out in the shade of a
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  Speaker 1: tent that he had made by hanging his serape over
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  Speaker 1: a bush. Get down from your horse, friend, he said,
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  Speaker 1: I am glad to welcome you here. My house, pointing
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  Speaker 1: quizzically to the roof of his tent, is at your disposal.
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  Speaker 1: Here's cigarettes. There is meat cooking on the fire upon
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  Speaker 1: the meadow, fully saddled grazed the horses of the troop,
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  Speaker 1: about fifty of them. The men sprawled on the grass
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  Speaker 1: in the shade of the mesquite chatting and playing cards.
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  Speaker 1: This was a different breed of men from the well armed,
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  Speaker 1: well mounted, comparatively disciplined troops of Villa's army. They were
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  Speaker 1: simply peons who had risen in arms, like my friends
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  Speaker 1: of La Tropa, a tough, happy race of mountaineers and cowboys,
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  Speaker 1: among who were many who had been bandits in the
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  Speaker 1: old days. Unpaid, ill clad, undisciplined. Their officers merely the
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  Speaker 1: bravest among them, armed only with aged springfields and a
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  Speaker 1: handful of cartridges apiece. They had fought almost continuously for
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  Speaker 1: three years. For four months, they and the irregular troops
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  Speaker 1: of such guerrilla chiefs as Urubina and Oroblis had held
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  Speaker 1: the advance ground around Torreon, fighting almost daily with federal
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  Speaker 1: outposts and suffering all the hardships of the campaign, while
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  Speaker 1: the main army garrisoned Chihuahua and warres. These ragged men
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  Speaker 1: were the bravest soldiers in Biaz Army. I had lain
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  Speaker 1: there about fifteen minutes, watching the beef sizzle in the flames,
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  Speaker 1: and satisfying the eager curiosity of a crowd as to
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  Speaker 1: my curious profession. When there was a sound of galloping
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  Speaker 1: and a voice there coming out of lerdo to horse.
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  Speaker 1: Half a hundred men, reluctantly and in a leisurely manner,
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  Speaker 1: made for their horses. The colonel rose yawning, He stretched
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  Speaker 1: blank blank the animals of Federals, he growled. They stay
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  Speaker 1: on our minds all the time. You never have time
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  Speaker 1: to think of more pleasant things. It's a shame. They
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  Speaker 1: won't even let us set our dinner. They were mounted,
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  Speaker 1: soon trotting down the bank of the stream. Far in
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  Speaker 1: front sounded the pin pricking rifles. Instinctively, without order, we
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  Speaker 1: broke into a gallop through the streets of a little village,
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  Speaker 1: where the Pacificos stood on the roofs of their houses,
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  Speaker 1: looking off to the south, little bundles of their belongings
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  Speaker 1: beside them, so they could flee if the battle went
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  Speaker 1: against us. For the Federal's cruelly punished villages which have
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  Speaker 1: harbored the enemy beyond lay the stony little hill. We
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  Speaker 1: got off our horses, and, throwing the reins over their heads,
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  Speaker 1: climbed on foot. About a dozen men already lay there,
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  Speaker 1: shooting spasmodically in the direction of the green bank of trees,
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  Speaker 1: behind which lay Leo Unseen. Scattering shots ripped from the
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  Speaker 1: blank desert between about half a mile away. Small brown
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  Speaker 1: figures dodged around in the brush. A thin dust cloud
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  Speaker 1: showed where another detachment was marching slowly north in their rear.
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  Speaker 1: We already got one sure, and another one in the leg,
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  Speaker 1: said a soldier, spitting How many do you make them out,
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  Speaker 1: asked the colonel, about two hundred. The colonel stood bowled
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  Speaker 1: upright carelessly, looking out over the sunny plain. Immediately a
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  Speaker 1: roll of shots swept along their front. A bullet chirped overhead.
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  Speaker 1: Already the men had gone to work unordered. Each soldier
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  Speaker 1: picked out a smooth place to lie and piled up
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  Speaker 1: a little heap of stones in front to shield him.
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  Speaker 1: They lay down, grunting, loosening their belts and taking off
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  Speaker 1: their coats to be perfectly comfortable. Then they began slowly
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  Speaker 1: and methodically to shoot. There goes. Another announced, the colonel, yours, Pedro,
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  Speaker 1: not Pedro's at all, interrupted another man, fretfully. I got him.
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  Speaker 1: Oh the devil you did, snapped Pedro. They quarreled. The
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  Speaker 1: firing from the desert was now pretty general, and we
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  Speaker 1: could see the Federals slipping toward us under the protection
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  Speaker 1: of every bush and arroyo. Our men fired slowly and carefully,
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  Speaker 1: aiming a long time before they pulled the trigger. For
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  Speaker 1: the months with scanty ammunition around Torreon had made them economical.
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  Speaker 1: But now every hill and bush along our line held
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  Speaker 1: a little knot of sharpshooters, and looking back on the
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  Speaker 1: wide flats and fields between the hill and the railroad,
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  Speaker 1: I saw innumerable single horsemen and squads of them spurring
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  Speaker 1: through the brush. In ten minutes we would have five
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  Speaker 1: hundred men with us. The rifle fire along the line
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  Speaker 1: swelled and deepened until there was a solid mile of it.
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  Speaker 1: The Federals had stopped. Now the dust clouds began slowly
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  Speaker 1: to move backward in the direction of Leerbo. The fire
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  Speaker 1: from the desert slackened, and then from nowhere we suddenly
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  Speaker 1: saw the broad winged vultures sailing serene and motionless in
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  Speaker 1: the blue. The Colonel, his men and I democratically ate
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  Speaker 1: lunch in the shade of the village houses. Our meat was,
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  Speaker 1: of course scorched, so we had to do the best
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  Speaker 1: we could with jerked beef and pigole, which seems to
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  Speaker 1: be cinnamon and bran ground fine. I never enjoyed a
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  Speaker 1: meal so and when I left, the men made up
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  Speaker 1: a double handful of cigarettes as a present, said the colonel, Amigo,
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  Speaker 1: I am sorry that we had not time for a
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  Speaker 1: talk together. There are many things I want to ask
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  Speaker 1: you about your country, whether it is true, for example,
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  Speaker 1: that in your cities men have entirely lost the use
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  Speaker 1: of their legs and don't ride horse back in the streets,
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  Speaker 1: but are born about in automobile's. I had a brother
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  Speaker 1: once who worked on the railroad track near Kansas City,
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  Speaker 1: and he told me wonderful things. But a man called
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  Speaker 1: him a greaser one day and shot him. Without that
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  Speaker 1: my brother did anything to him. Why is it your
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  Speaker 1: people don't like Mexicans. I like many Americans. I like you.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a gift for you. He unbuckled one of
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  Speaker 1: his huge iron spurs inlaid with silver, and gave it
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  Speaker 1: to me, but we never had any time here for talk.
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  Speaker 1: These blanks always annoy us, and then we have to
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  Speaker 1: get up and kill a few of them before we
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  Speaker 1: can have a moment's peace. Under the Alamo trees, I
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  Speaker 1: found one of the photographers and a moving picture man.
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  Speaker 1: They were lying flat on their backs near a fire,
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  Speaker 1: around which squatted twenty soldiers, gorging ravenously flower tortillas, meat,
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  Speaker 1: and coffee. One proudly displayed a silver wrist watch that
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  Speaker 1: used to be my watch, explained the photographer. You see,
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  Speaker 1: we hadn't had anything to eat for two days, and
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  Speaker 1: when we came past here, these boys called us and
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  Speaker 1: gave us the most magnificent feed I ever tasted. After that,
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  Speaker 1: I just couldn't help giving them a present. The soldiers
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  Speaker 1: had accepted the gift communally and were agreed that each
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  Speaker 1: should wear it for two hours from then on until
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  Speaker 1: the end of life. End of Section thirty five.