Huerta keeps very calm, these days, Nelson says; no nerves there while waiting for news. I suppose he knows just how bad his men are, and also the very indefinite quality of the rebels. He talked of two years’ work being necessary for pacification, and then of going to live in Washington, to prove that he is neither a wild Indian nor a brigand. He is very pleased to get his loan; the money is here, and he has known how to get hold of it.
At the outset Huerta was surrounded by experienced and responsible men, but when it became generally understood that the United States would not recognize his government, intrigues were started against him, and he was forced to make changes in his Cabinet. Later on, when a friend reproached him with this, he answered, quite frankly, “No one regrets it more than I; for now, unfortunately, all my friends are thieves!”
Yesterday’s copy of Mister Lind has, as a frontispiece, Mr. Wilson and Villa, standing in a red pool, drinking each other’s health from cups dripping with blood. It is awful to think such things can exist, even in imagination. N. has protested to the Federal authorities.
March 28th.
This morning the newspapers give the “sad” news that Carranza seems to be lost in the desert—the mountain lost on its way to Mohammed! General Aquevedo, who knows that country as he knows his pocket, is supposed to be after him with 1,200 men. I don’t think Villa would weep other than crocodile tears if anything happened to Carranza; but what would Washington do without that noble old man to bear the banner of Constitutionalism? “One year of Bryan makes the whole world grin!” The idealization of a pettifogging old lawyer (licenciado), who had already laid his plans to turn against Madero, and the sanctification of a bloodthirsty bandit, might well make the whole world grin, if the agony of a people were not involved.
I went with Dr. Ryan, this morning, to visit the General Hospital. It is a magnificent establishment, modeled on the General Hospital in Paris, with complete electrical, hydro-therapeutic, and mechanical appliances, thirty-two large sun- and air-flooded pavilions, operating-rooms, and special buildings for tuberculosis patients, children, and contagious diseases. The sad part of it is that it is only about a third full. The leva (press-gang) always rakes in a lot of men here. They hang about the handsome doors and grab the dismissed patients, which makes the poor wretches prefer to suffer and die in their nameless holes.
On returning, I went down to the Palacio Nacional with N., who was on a still hunt for the President. The arms are not yet in the Embassy. As I was sitting in the motor with Elim, the French chargé got out of his motor with Captain de Bertier, the French military attaché just arrived from Washington, and looking very smart in his spick-and-span uniform, ready for his official presentation to Huerta. They had their appointment for twelve, which had already struck, but the President was not there, having departed to Popotla. Huerta works along his own lines, and a missed appointment is little to him.
Just home. Mr. de Soto has called me up to tell me there is bad news from the front; but I think even the bad news is a rumor, as every line around Torreon has been cut for days.
March 28th. 11.30 P.M.
At last news is in from the north (by the Associated Press), from Gomez Palacio and Ciudad Juarez. Two train-loads of rebel wounded had arrived, and Villa had hastily telegraphed for more hospital supplies, though he had taken with him an enormous quantity. At the end of five days’ continuous fighting the rebels had failed to make any break in the almost impregnable defenses of Torreon and Gomez Palacio. Wounded troopers say that by order of Villa they charged into almost certain death at Gomez Palacio, bringing upon themselves the heavy cannonading from the Federal guns; that they were deliberately sacrificed in order that other forces might be able to attack the town at other points without encountering much resistance. And there are strange rumors of Villa’s succumbing to temptation from the “movie” men, and holding the attack back till daybreak! It is terrible to contemplate the slaughter of unquestioning and innocent Pepes and Juans. I burn to go with the hospital service. There will be terrible need on both sides, and a wounded man is neither rebel nor Federal.