Villa Again Heard From

1916

EL PASO, Texas. — "I'll shout 'Grito' in Chihuahua City on the eve of Mexican independence day, Sept. 16," is the threat Pancho Villa is making to natives along the line of his northward march, according to a Mexican rancher arriving in Juarez.

The rancher declared that Villa had 1,500 men with him, all fully armed. From the seat of a wagon, Villa addressed the populace of Satevo, Chihuahua, when his forces captured the town about two weeks ago according to an American arriving here.

"You see before you 'Pancho' Villa, Villa the bandit. But you see also that I am paying my soldiers in silver and I promise you it will not be long until I have a large army," Villa is quoted as saying.

"The 'gringoes' are harder fighters than the Carranzistas, but I bear them no animosity. All I am interested in is punishing traitors and putting an end to Carranza."

Texas rangers exchanged shots with Mexicans across the Rio Grande near Fabens, twenty-five miles south of here, wounding one, it was reported. The rangers had captured a horsethief, who later escaped and fled across the river.

—The Saturday Blade, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.