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Show VILLA HAVING I UPHILLJATTLE I Rebels Suffer Terrible Lowe I in Dead and Wounded and H Facing Defeat. H FEDERALS JUBILANT I Insurgents Drawn Into Traps H and Mines Exploded Under Them Column Cut to .H Pieces. El Paso, Texas, March 30. Than ' General Villa and his rebel army, if not defeated at Torroon, are at least having a desperate uphill battle, was the opinion generally expressed here today by foreign refugees from Mexl- The opinion was based on the ab-sence'of ab-sence'of advices from impartial ob-servers ob-servers from the front, on statements given out by the Mexican federal con- sul here nnd on stories told by Ameri-canB Ameri-canB from Chihuahua and other Mexl-can Mexl-can cities. A Colorado mining man just in from Parral said that the city was crowded with rebel wounded. Arrivals from Chihuahua quoted two Americans who arrived there last Saturday from the front as stating that the rebels had suffered terrible losses In dead and wounded and were by no means hav-Ing hav-Ing the success which they have re-ported, re-ported, Villa Meeting Defeat. The consul asserted that Villa had been defeated all along the line. Two telegrams from the Mexican federal consular at Eagle Pass, Tex-1 as, who said the information came di- H rect from Torreon by wire yesterday, were received and federal sympathiz-era sympathiz-era were jubilanL The messages said the rebels were drawn Into traps In the bull ring and the smelter at Tor-reon Tor-reon and that mines were oxploded under them. The consul said that the rebels had retreated at all points, in-eluding in-eluding Gomez Palaclo and Lerdo. A telegram credited to Federal Gen eral Maas said that federal troops cut a retreating rebel column to pieces. killing COO. Some-of the highest rebel-officials here today confessed they were at sea 'H over the situation. ,. JM Chihuahua, Mexico, March 30. For seven days has Francisco Villa, mill- IH tary genius of the constitutionalists' revolution, waged his battle against Torreon,. For six days the fight has been the bitterest and the loss of life the most tremendous in the his-tory his-tory of Mexico, judging from the meager press dispatches received from the front and the stories of 'H horrible slaughter which were told to-day to-day by many of the 6SS wounded vet-erans vet-erans of Torreon, who are interned in hospitals here. And today constitutionalist sympa- IH thizers and rebel officers in Chihua-hua Chihua-hua again have become most anxious as to the fate of their military lead-er lead-er and the remnants of the 12,000 men who marched to Torreon with him to engage in the revolution's first j decisive battle. No word from Villa came early today to relieve the anx-iety anx-iety which obtained throughout Chi-huahua. Chi-huahua. Reports . that heavy rein- 'M forcements were hastening to relieve ll General Refugio Velasco, the federal commander at Torreon. who has made such a resourceful resistance against the onward march of the reb-els, reb-els, were received here with misgiv-Ings. misgiv-Ings. But It Is the fact that no news of General Villa's progress has been had for many hours, that is respon- fl sible for the greatest anxiety as to fl his fate. When all went well with the rebel leader In the past, free ac-cess ac-cess to telegraphic communication was given newspaper correspondents at the front, but when he met with reverses, General Villa would allow no news sent over the wires. il Villa Troops In Danger. ijl Army officers here fear that Gen- ;H eral Villa and his army are in a most difficult and dangerous situation. The many days of almost constant aggres-sive aggres-sive warfare at Gomez Palacio and within the city of Torreon, it Is thought, have exhausted both men and supplies. From stories told by tho wounded the rebel vanguard ran into a trap at Gomez Palaclo which cost them dearly in men and am- ! munition. But spurred by the seem-ingly seem-ingly Irresistable energy of General Villa, the soldiers pushed on, wring-ing wring-ing victory from what promised de-feat, de-feat, and carried their fight to the very heart of Torreon. Those familiar with the geography of Torreon and Its vicinity cannot un- ifl derstand how General Velasco has been able to withstand the vigorous jH attack by a numerically superior force as long as he has, he having been driven, according to report to the von' southern edge of the city. The only solution which presented it- jl self was that General Velasco and his men had succeeded in holding the roundhouse and railroad buildings in jH spite of the artillery fire which Villa might have been able to direct jH against them. There are those optimistic enough jH to believe that General Villa has drlv-en drlv-en the federals from tho stronghold and Is driving them In rout down tho vnlloy to the Bouth, with the inten-tion inten-tion of bo demoralizing the federal forces that his possession of Torreon jH might be undisturbed until he can 'H re-organize his own army. But this theory is discounted because of tho fact that no news of any character from the front has been received here since Villa's message Saturday night. declaring that it was but a matter of minutes until Torreon would bo jH his |
