Although Edward Peffer got a verdict against State Game Wardens Charles and A. H. Baum for larceny of the eagle that he shot in Lewiston County, Pa., no sentence has been imposed on the wardens, and it is not likely that there ever will be. The judge of the court does not consider the verdict in keeping with the law as laid down by the State. The stuffed eagle is still in the State museum.
Mexicans Maltreat Booster of Heroes.
Americans are not properly protected in Mexico, thinks Jo Conners, of Phoenix, Ariz. Conners believes that when a peaceful American in a foreign country is deprived of his wooden leg, the act should be construed as a declaration of war. Through the American State department he has applied for the return of a wooden leg, a steel foot, and four hundred dollars in gold, which were taken from him while he was a prisoner of the Carranza forces in Guaymas.
By profession Conners is a chronicler of heroes. He was employed by General Francisco Villa to prepare and publish a volume to be entitled “Heroes of Mexico.” Villa furnished him with an automobile and agreed to pay him one hundred dollars a week in gold.
Conners found everybody in northern Mexico for Villa. Also he found that every one was a hero. By the time he arrived at Guaymas he had collected photographs and brief biographies of no less than 280 Mexican patriots who had risked their lives and fortunes that Villa might triumph and Mexico might become the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
Amid the Villa “vivas” of the populace Conners retired one night in a Guaymas hotel. He was awakened by a soldier who told him that the city was in the hands of the Carranza forces and that he was a prisoner. The 280 biographies and photographs, also four weeks’ salary, were confiscated. Conners was placed in jail and his typewriter was thrown in after him, with a scornful suggestion that he get busy and write something more about “thees Meester Villa.”
In a railroad accident several years ago Conners lost his left leg and part of his right foot. He had purchased the best wooden leg that money could buy and used a steel extension to fill out the right shoe. When the jailer entered his cell the next morning, Conners’ artificial leg and foot were lying on the floor.[{63}]
Now, this jailer had also lost his left leg, and wore a rude peg in its place. With a cry of delight he pounced upon Conners’ expensive artificial limb. His delight became ecstasy when he tried it on and found that it was a perfect fit. Saying something about a trade, he departed. For some reasons he also took the steel extension. The peg, which was the limb of a mesquite tree, was left lying on the floor.
A few minutes later the jailer returned. “I give you what you Americanos call some boot,” he remarked pleasantly. Whereupon he set before Mr. Conners a plate of luscious tomatoes.
That afternoon the American consul got Conners out of jail. Another jailer unlocked the door for him. Conners wanted to start out immediately in search of his wooden leg and steel foot, but the consul persuaded him that discretion was the better part of valor, and induced him to board a tramp steamer for San Francisco. After he reached San Francisco, Conners remembered that he also lost an automobile in Guaymas. That, however, troubles him little. The auto was Villa’s, but the leg, the foot, and the $400 were Conners’ very own, and he expects Uncle Sam to demand their return without any beating around the bush by Mexico’s warring heroes.