Mrs. Taylor

Mrs. Taylor

An Incident of the Mexican Revolution* By Agnes Bluth

The sound of horses' hoofs, beating in the road, and the voices of men, came floating through my open window as I lay asleep. Half in a dream, I thought of the cowboys who often came bringing cattle to and from the ranch; but when the wolfish yells, which were so terrifyingly familiar to^my ears, came sharply in, I was out of my bed and peering into the twilight before I realized what was happening. The sight that met my eyes! Armed men were creeping around the house, clicking guns and unsheathing swords and knives. Red flaggers! They had come to kill my step-father! I ran to the room in which he slept and told him that we were surrounded! He arose, quickly slipped on a few clothes, took his gun in hand and hid behind the organ, in the front room, leaving mother and me as guards. "Don't open the doors on any condition," he told my mother, "if they get in they will have to break in; and as they know I have a gun, they will be afraid to do that. I won't shoot, except to scare them, or in self-defense."

*Written by request.

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The grumbling Mexicans pounded on the doors and windows. They threatened to break in, but made no attempt to do so. Getting no response from within the house, some went across the street where a son-in-law of Mr. Taylor's lived (Ray Oberhansley, principal of the Juarez Stake Academy). After capturing him, they said they would hold him until Mr. Taylor appeared. They brought him over, and he knocked on our door, calling to mother as he did so. "If I open the door, the Mexicans will come in." She told him. "But I must come in, I must talk to you," he answered. On hearing voices from within the house, the Red Flaggers crowded around the door, and as soon as Oberhansley was admitted, they pushed in. Manuel Gutierez, their leader, a tall, heavy man with a square jaw, sagging eye lids, and blood-shot eyes, leaned against the door-frame. He was giving orders to the men who were cautiously going from one room to another. "Do not molest the women," he told the men. "It is Mr. Taylor, his gun and saddle that we want." They tiptoed through all of the rooms, looking in all the drawers, under the beds and behind the pictures. One man, finding the pantry door shut, commanded me to open it. He made me go first, for he was afraid he might meet something. I was sent to the neighbors to get a man or two to come while the Mexicans were there. Soon after I left, the Red Flaggers decided that Mr. Taylor was not to be found, so one by one they filed out of the house, complaining of their fruitless efforts. All but one boy, thirteen years of age, had gone out. He wanted to make sure that Mr.

Mexican Homes

324 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Taylor was not in the house before he gave up. He went to the organ and was just going to look behind it when mother pulled him away. She told him he might get something he was not looking for, if he went there. The boy called to the men outside. In they rushed, almost knocking each other over in their attempt to all crowd through the door at once. Mr. Taylor, knowing that he had been found, and that they were a cowardly lot, thought that perhaps if he shot they would be afraid to capture him. The boy reached to pull the organ out just as the gun went off. The bullet hit him across the back of the hand, taking a strip of skin and parts of the bones. However, there were no bones broken. With a scream the boy ran out of the house. With terror in their eyes, the men followed pell-mell after him. Their leader alone stood in the center of the room. "Come back, you cowardly dogs!" he commanded. Back in they came with renewed determination to kill. They were yelling like fiends. One man shot behind the organ. As Mr. Taylor stood up to come out, another man shot at his head, but Providence took the bullet two inches too high. He then walked out and mother stood in front of him so that they could not shoot him without first injuring her. Gutierez's heart softened at this, and he gave command for his men to stop shooting, but they would not listen. A big, burly fellow rushed up and pointed a pistol at Taylor's head. Mother pulled it down. He. gave her a black look and then gave vent to his feelings by a foul oath. "I'll kill him anyway!" he yelled, and suiting the action to his words, he raised the butt end of his gun to strike. Mother threw her arm up and caught the blow, which almost broke her arm. Gutierez was swearing and arguing with his men. "It won't do us any good, if we kill him," he told them. "Wait a few minutes and perhaps we can get something out of this. At least, let us wait until we get him out of here and away from this woman." The ruffians pushed mother aside and wrenched Taylor's gun from his hands, then dragged him out of the house into the cold, without hat, coat or anything on his feet. Mother told them they would never get her away from him as long as she could walk. Although she was suffering from heart failure and had to be helped, she followed. Once a ruffian pushed her down with his gun, but she got up again and followed. They took Mr. Taylor about three blocks from our home and stopped in front of a Mexican dwelling to decide what to do.

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By this time several white men had come to see if they could help. Mr. Bentley was trying to intercede for Mr. Taylor. It was agreed that three Mexicans and three white men should hold a council to decide matters. They withdrew to one side and talked in earnest tones for some minutes. They could not come to a definite agreement, so they said that they would leave it to the boy to decide. We entered the house where the boy was rolling on the floor crying in pain. Our hearts sank. What sentence would he pass? We prayed for Taylor's life, but dared not hope for it. It was with fast beating hearts that we listened to the words: "What say you, boy, shall he live or shall he die?" Guiterez asked. "O let the old baldhead live, but give me relief!" Thanks to God, He heard us. A trained nurse was brought to dress the boy's hand. "The boy says you live, Mr. Taylor," Gutierez was speaking, "but I say, if you live, you must pay us five hundred dollars and leave Mexico." This he did, but only while Manuel Gutierez and his Red Flag band roved the land. Eighteen months later he heard the silent call of Mexico's sunny skies and answered it! Col. Juarez

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