--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Ivins, Anthony W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 12 published: 1916-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Anthony W. Ivins, "On Villa’s Trail in Mexico. II," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 12 (October 1916): 1094–1097.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1912unse start_page: 1094 end_page: 1097 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # On Villa’s Trail in Mexico. II THE FINE HOME OF BISHOP SAMUEL J. ROBINSON As it looked the morning after the looting of Colonia Dublan. On Villa's Trail in Mexico BY HON. ANTHONY W. IVINS II When the Villa forces passed through Colonia Dublan, before his disastrous defeat in Sonora, the army consisted of about fifteen thousand soldiers and camp followers, with ten thousand horses. For twenty-five days this army was quartered on a community of not to exceed two hundred people. Fences were destroyed and used for fires, crops were damaged, and supplies taken, but no personal violence was inflicted upon anyone. The character of the men considered, it was a well-behaved army. After the Sonora defeat these men came straggling back, disorganized, hungry, and many of them wounded. They blamed the United States for the failure of the campaign, and were in an ugly mood. Villa was not with them. He had crossed the Sierra Madre Mountains further south, and gone into the Guerrero district. At Dublan many of the Villa officers declared it to be their intention to abandon him, and go over to Carranza, and the rank and file were given permission to choose whom they would follow, with the result that there was a complete breaking up of the command, eich man following his own inclination. Left without the controlling influence of officeis, the soldiers assumed a very threatening attitude toward the colonists, and as night settled down it was evident that trouble was brewing. Toward mid- ON VILLA'S TRAIL IN MEXICO 1095 THE UNION MERCANTILE, AT COLONIA DUBLAN This was the largest mercantile house in the Casas Grandes District. It belonged to the colonists, and was looted of stock worth more than one hundred thousand dollars. night the army broke up into small squads, and passing from house to house threatened, robbed, looted and burned. It was a night of terror to the defenseless people, but when morning came the soldiers were all gone, and it was found that no one had been injured. Many had narrowly escaped with their lives, shots had THE BISHOP'S OFFICE AT COLONIA DUBLAN . Which was occupied by Villa troops while they were at the colony. The men shown are Villa soldiers. 1096 IMPROVEMENT ERA been fired into houses where people were, and fires had been started in a number of fine homes, but only one was entirely destroyed, the home of Bishop Samuel J. Robinson, which had been looted and then burned, and his life sought by the looters. After his unsuccessful raid on Columbus, Villa retreated over the road which leads from Palomas to Boca Grande, and on to Dublan, via Colonia Diaz, Ascencion, and Corralitos. At Boca Grande he killed the foreman of the Palomas Land and Cattle Company, an American, and going on to Corralitos executed the Polanco family, father and sons, because, he said, they were in the employ of Americans. He was now within fifteen miles of Dublan, and declared it to be his intention to kill all Americans, and Mexicans who were in American employ, in the district. The following day he moved his army to within a few miles of Dublan. During the night he broke camp and as he neared the settlement "LONG LINES OF UNTED STATES TROOPERS FILED DOWN THE WESTERN SLOPES AND ESTABLISHED CAMP IN TLIE CASAS GRANDES VALLEY." observed that lights were burning in many of the homes, and that a train was moving on the track near the station, from which he judged that soldiers were there prepared to give him battle, so he turned east, passed within gun-shot of the town, and on into the Galeana valley. Pie would go to El Valle, fifty miles away, he said, leave his wounded there, and then return and settle accounts with these "Mormons." The facts are that the night he passed Dublan the people were peacefully sleeping, not aware that he was near there were no sol- ; diers in the Colony, and the moving train was a belated passenger, as defenseless as the people of the town. The colonists were greatly alarmed, fearing that he would ON VILLA'S TRAIL IN MEXICO 1097 carry out his threat to return and attack them. What a relief it was when, toward evening, without warning, long lines of United States troopers filed down the western slopes into the Casas Grandes Valley, and established camp near the colony. So rapid and silent had been the advance of these cavalrymen that they reached Colonia Dublan, more than one hundred miles from the border, before either colonists or Mexicans knew that they were on Villa's trail. Many knees bent in humble acknowledgment of the deliverance which had come, for these defenseless people knew that under the Stars and Stripes they were safe. Lelah's Mother (A Birthday Poem) If I could backward go through all the years, Could bear thy meed of pain and grief and tears ; Could gather up Life's thorns that pierced thy feet, And scatter flowers along thy way — Oh, then I might rejoice today! And yet, if all the way were fair, If Time and Loss had left no trace LTpon thy brow, thy face would never wear Its look of patient sweetness, so serene and mild, Thy life could never be, as it is now, A blessing to each child Of thine, O mother dear, of mine ! But sacrifices unto thee shall yield a recompense of joy When thy maternal eyes behold each noble girl and boy, For that great selfless love, a spark of fire divine, From high Omnipotence, that burns within that heart of thine And hallows, with its holy flame, the name of mother, That pure love doth only ask The good of those whom Deity doth give, And, knowing this, thine own shall strive to live All worthily before the Lord — As thou to whom we say, "Fond love and greetings, dearest one, on this thy Natal Day!" Maud Baggarley.