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Show Dei Toll In Mexico City In Month Estimate At 5000 Moxlco City, Mnrth 8. Flvo thousand thous-and men, women nnd children, It is estimated, havo died horo ot pestilence pesti-lence and starvation within tho past month. Epidemics of dlsoaso bred In lllth and nurtured by hick of food have shot tho death loll to on nvorago of 100 per day. Twenty two per cent ot tho population today Is suffering somo illness. Unsanitary conditions, caused by lack ot water, hae reached nn In-describnblo In-describnblo stago nnd u sickening stench pervaded tho entlro federal district. Starclty of food precipitated precipitat-ed a tcrrlblo situation, but that situation, situ-ation, accompanied now by lack of water and attendant dlscaso Is un bearable. Mexico City is undergoing tho crudest slcgo slnco Ladysmlth, nnd what Is perhaps tho strangest In world history, tho capital Is being bo-sieged bo-sieged by tho very army which Is occupying It. Unless relief comes In some form within a fow weeks Ladysmlth will bo outdone. Nover boforo hns a city not only been besieged by tho army controlling It, but used by that urmy as a baso ot supplies. Tho exhausted exhaust-ed supplies of this stricken city nro being sapped away to supply Vera Cruz, Puebla, Cordoba, Orizaba, San Luis Potosl nnd Qucrctaro. Carranza, revenging hlmso'.f against tho city that has manifested deep hato for him, Is drawing away tho foodstuffs und storing them In Vera Cruz, an unblockndud port. Tho city water BUpply Is derived from Xochlmllco, which is In the hands of tho Zapatistas only because Cnrranza's forces hero havo in tholr obvious efforts to breed disease, made no real effort to tako tho vll-laco. Proof of this camo when three nun dred constitutionalists attempted to reach Xochlmllco through tho underground under-ground water mains and woro drowned drown-ed to a man llko rats in a trap when tho water was turned on. Tho bodies of theso troops nro still rotting in tho great water mnln nnd a nauseating sickness has result" ed all over tho city as a result ot tho water drunk hero tho twenty rlnuto flow. |