OCR Text |
Show .7 Prof. Ostein formerly Vjmk CWritis His " Mexico Experiences Letter Relayed to A.M. Fleming from St. Paul, Minnesota. Prof. Ostein Says He Thanks God That He Is Able ' to Relate the Experiences. A letter written from Guatemala, 1 by L. A. Ostein, formerly) with the U. A. C. faculty, ha. Just beon received re-ceived by A. M. Fleming of. this city and relate, a most interesting ox. perience Professor Ostein had In Mexico where ho has been managing the holding of .tho St. Paul Tropical Development Company. The letter follows: St. Paul, Minn., May 7. 1914. Tho following has been received today by us, with a request that we send a copy of it to you. St. Paul Troplchl Development Co. Pajaplta, Guatemala, April 21 1914. Thank God, wo escaped wltn our lives, from Mexico. I do not know what tho papers aro saying up there, but hope notlitng to glvo you unnecessary unnec-essary worry. It whs terrible enough for us, and especially Julie, fortunately, fortunate-ly, physically we suffered nothing but' at times that might have courted to relieve the mental anguish. But to begin: About ten days ago the ltd went on In Mexlcs City or. news; we knew there was BOinuthlng doing, but our section was quiet and had always been. Lat Monday a code message came from the home office to me at Mapastepec, but the agent hakl orders from 'the govern-fl govern-fl ment not to dellyer unless I surren-!g surren-!g dered the key to the code messago. I did not care to do this na had It contained any alarming news It would not have been delivered but only used against us there as the operator la a rabid anti-American. Tuesday another an-other code message came and somo moro rumors of trouble at Teraplc.o and Vera Cruz. Then wo decided it would be safest to go while .all wae quiet, so we prepared hurrlodly after four, and left on the train at six In tho evening, stopping the train for about five minutes down the line at a spur where Edgar Phlllipn was loading lumber. The Tefe Politico (chief of pollco) of the Tapachula district dis-trict happened to be on the train oi his way home from the- capital otherwise oth-erwise this letter probably; never would 'havo been written. Thore was tonseness in the air but everything quiet until, reaching Tapachula. Here, was a mob of 1000 to 2000 people, many armed, yelling like only ft mob can, Nuera los Grlngoes, (kill the, Americans) . The Jefe was dumfoun-dod, dumfoun-dod, but like a Trojan and a power that ho is, tried first to quiet the mob, hut it was a mob; after subduing subdu-ing for a while- it swollcd again; tho Jefe obtained five soldiers who were near, and left them with instructions to guard us In tho car, and especially especial-ly Julie, with tholr lives. Ho thon ran about a mile up to tho barrrtcks at tho other sldo of town and arrang cd to havo tUQ Major come to our roacuo with soldiers; meanwhllo tho major and chiof of pollco wero doing tholr utmost to hold In check tho threatening mob; nt times the, mob threatened the frail llttlo soldiers,, Fj lif turn begged them to ' give over tho hated Grlngoes. Edgar, John Vance the1 sawyer, Ellis McFaddln, in charge of -our live stock, Julio and 1 wero thus 'assailed ana guarded for. two hours, until troops droved. Wo till had got dawn on the floor to be ouf of rango through tho windows ano had gotten our ,revoypra Ih hand expecting ex-pecting any! minute fcZ" tho last hour or more, that our gurflB would .weak- en or bo killed and that they woul-J rush tho cat; In that case we could havo only expected dcatH but we, hoped that the ones who got us would would havo to climb over tho bodies of tholr dead comrades but thank God, there were forces at work among tho mob that made for our protection, enough, lot us forget tho horrible exi perience. At last the escort came with the major and wo were for tho time safe. They marched us between, flies of soldiers to the barracks. As wo passed tho British Consulate the mayor took Julio there for protection protec-tion and tho soldiers took tho four of us to the barracks. The inob tried to start again but wero dispersed; tho people fear tho major, as ho recently re-cently shot nine of tho citizens accused ac-cused of plotting against the government. govern-ment. Now tho train of circumstances leading to such an occurrence, then I will finish tho week, tho air was thick with rumors such as battles at Vera Cruz, and Tamplco, the taking of Brownvllle, of two rural police bo' lng killed by an American at San Pedro farther up tho line of the Pan American, then as h climax whei we passed Hulxtlai, two hours before reaching Tapachula Scgundo Marin, the man whom I ordered off the place (Continued on page seven) PROF. OSTEIN RELATES EXPERIENCES IN MEXICO eighteen months ago, wired to T&pa. chula that I with ten earned men waa on a train going to create trouble at Tapachula and tint Julio was the American woman who had killed the ruralea; seems It might take a thousand thous-and years for such a chain to occur again; flguro It out by the theory of tho probabilities but don't make It less than a thousand years It it Is to strlko us again. I also neglected to say that the operator at Mapastepcc wired Tapachula that there were code messages there for me and they "probably "prob-ably contained plots against tho pov-crnment. pov-crnment. Furthermore, In the afternoon, after-noon, a demonstration, or receMon, for tho Jefo Politico was arranged. The marimba was at tho station and ninny friends of Mr. Brann, the. Jcfe, but on sight of us tho mob spirit, gained the ascendency and most of tho friends ot the Jefo and of tis left 'ouunately romo remaliot and nl cltlcii luoiicnts woj.d cngago the Icndnn In arguments or would turn them by some suggestion, and thus gain time for tho arrival of tho troops Naturally wo were Ignorant of these circumstances at tho time. In addition addi-tion to other perils wo learned later, they planned to burn tho car when they saw the guards would not weaken; weak-en; there was a car of kerosene in the largo yards but tho agent refused refus-ed to give them information concerning concern-ing it. All of these charges coming hgalnst me caused them to place us incomunicado, that is not allowing anyone from outside to communicate with us in any way. On account of the British Consul and a number oN other very influential men, there being be-ing warm friends of the Jefo and myself, my-self, It wtis easy to explain Uie falsity of theso charges to tho Jefe. But at the same time thoy were there and had to be explained by long telegrams over busy wires to tho stato capital and Mexico City. Tho next day, Wednesday, April 22, mobs continued to parado tho streets, passing tho British Consulate with a poor old horse with nn American Ameri-can flag tied to his tail; this flag the leader lator rent Into shreds In front of tho Consulate for Julio's benefit presumably. By Thursday morning with tho shrewdest ot diplomacy, backed by firmness, tho Jefo had the populace again under perfect control. By tho evening of that day all orrtnrsi had really been given for our rej leaso, but tho major said he hud no orders from the war dopartment for our release; as a matter of fact, I do not think ho needed any as we had been put In his charge by the Jefe for our safety; be that as it may ho refused to give us up without such orders. or-ders. On Friday morning the Jefe wired directly to the war department for release. At five Saturday morning morn-ing the major notified us that he had orders and that we were free, and also said he would extend us protection protec-tion there until wo cared to leave, and also that he had orders to give us an escort to the border It I wished lt.i I immediately commenced arranging ar-ranging for a special train, as there was no regular train to tho border until tho following day. Sovoral hours later we went to tho hotel whero I completed arrangements for a train, and thon obtained our passports from the Jefo for leaving Mexico. Tho pass ports for Guatemala had already been secured by Consul Stevenson. Tho Jefo, Don Fernando Brann, expressed ex-pressed tho keenest regret at what had happened and assured mo ot a Bate Journoy to tho border. Ho Is a man of tho highest honor and principle, prin-ciple, and wltli It a man of power; with 99 Jofen out of a hundred wo would havo doubtloas Tieen killed. You can Imagine tho ages that Julio lived from Tuesday night until Saturday! Sat-urday! morning. On Wednesday at sunrise with tho firing ot tho sunrise gun, though sho bad not closed hor eyes, roused with a shriek rushing Into tho hall Baying, It waB all over, and begging to know what was hap- I penlng. Again on Friday mornlns when we were still In the barracks telegram came from the British Am-bassador Am-bassador to Consul Stevenson saying that American charge O'Shaughnessy had been given his passports two days before and that all American Consulates were to be taken over by the British Consuls and we were still in the hands of the Mexican government gov-ernment and army. Poor Julio's heart sank again and tho futuro seemed dark. Whllo our detention in tho barracks from day to day gave us plenty ot chanco to think of what had been done times without number to prisoners, pris-oners, tho treatment and manner of tho soldiers was reassuring; they seemed rather anxious to get H shot at sortie, ot tho men who had headed tho mob. Even Incomunicado we had less to worry about than my wlfo out-slo out-slo who could hear nil rumors yet do but Uttlo. Knowing tho reputation reputa-tion of the greed of tho Mexican army ar-my officers for money, sho had tie-to:mined tie-to:mined firmly on Friday evening, that If Wo wero not released by noon on Saturday that sho would aBk for a private Interview with tho major and try the Influenco of money up to tho thousands, If It had been necessary; neces-sary; fortunately orders for our release re-lease and. escort to tho border camo during Friday night, or at load we were Informed of this early Saturday morning. At ten Saturday morning wo went to the hotel whero I completed arrangements ar-rangements for a special train nnd all papers for a trip to tho horder. At noon we left, and at about 2:30 we wero across the river at Ayutla. I lost about threo Inches In belt measure and probably twelve pounds in weight; It was enough to make anyone of tho flvo live ten years In a day. In Ayutla I sent a telegram to the U. S. Minister In Guatemala City sayjng: Cablo J. L. Stephens, , Shu-bert Shu-bert Building, St. Paul, wo aro all safe; wire Osteins, Cross, Myers, Phillips. Phil-lips. All who get copies of this lettor havo doubtless received notice of our safety beforo tho date of this writing. Am writlnl this at length and If wo make connections nt Guatemala City, as wo hope. Edgar and Mr. Vanco will tako this letter to Now Orleans whero they will mall It to tho home, office, and they will make copies and send to list that I shall enclose. April 28, 1914, 12 p.m. We reached Guatemala City this evening at six; I have mado all arrangements, ar-rangements, Including medical certificates certi-ficates for Edgar and Mr. Vance to go out. I also called at American Consul Owen's home two hours ago; ho had Just received, a telegram shying shy-ing that 150 refugees (Americans) had Just landed at San Jose; they came by U)e Salvador S.' S. line from Sallna Cruz; they will reach here tomorrow to-morrow evening. Consul Owen said he was rather busy, with, the matter as the telegram said that they wero coming at expense ot tho government but that he had no advice from Wash- Ington. Wo also hear that n party of twenty twen-ty Amerlcnn 'women and children were taken from a train near Vera Cruz and massacred. Wo also hpard on good authority before leaving Ayutla, Ay-utla, that ten American men, ono woman wo-man and eight children retreated lo n .mountain canyon hack of San Pedro Pe-dro after tho killing ot rurales and wero preparing to protect themHtlvos to tho last; they woro quito well supplied sup-plied with ammunition, and soveral pf tho men wero dead shots. I took that up with tho Consul hero and will see see whether it will bo possfblo to get a cruiser to land marines off the coast nnd with guides try to got thorn. Tho Consul also 6ays thut thoy received re-ceived a telegram .from Loslier, net ing Consul at Tapachula, sent from Guatemala, that twonty-flvo Americans Ameri-cans had been killed in the district. I might go on and glvo you pages moro of cxpcrlenco nnd rumors but I have nnothcr letter to writo nnd wish to get up at 5:30 nnd help the boys off for "God's country.' They go by Puerto Bnmos and Now Orleans. Julio Joins In love to you all. . Yours, L. A. OSTEIN. i . , |