The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 5, 1901, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CALL. The ques utterance o tary G the interview gr of Mexic vernc d me on the subject s dea e hostile Ya- re was some- aker he ground th that cam- was this d general iished Mexican that pressed me far ted rank and dig- solute uniqueness, referred to in a alling for a time e indeterminable. I came to interpret and in the implicit trustful- ness that at once dominated his character and required in others all that it gave. In undertaking to investigate the actual facts connected with the present Yaqui war, ch during the years of its progress so many conflicting reports have been published, it had oc- curred to me that the first authority to consult was the man under whose im- mediate supervision the campaign is be- ing conducted. Hence, instead of making application through the customary nels for permission to enter the h Yaqui country, I proceeded direct to the capital of Sonora and applied in person to General Torres for the desired privi- lege, together with a statement of his own convictions on the »ct of the rebellion. I found the general at his beautiful home in the suburbs of Hermosillo, to which he had just returned after an arduous trip into the heart of the Indian country. Nct- withstending his evident physical exhaus. tion he received me with customary Mexi- hospitality, assuring me that his was at m sal so long as I e to remain assurance which the ly look in k eyes in mo sense concerning wt two chan- can an And cert no prospect could been more delightful than a pro- cted sojourn in the languorous atmos- ' ¢ semi-tropical retreat. How- . was no other way than to put 5 urements, for the brjef terval 1 Hermosillo was en- the interview accord- " continued the gen- following 1 r tement, city or another, identi- sk of civilizing the Ya- of those vears, they were by re- ks on the part of the In- though peated outbre dians,, I never once gave over the hope be t would to see the day wher would constitute a pow- erful ele n the population of So- nora. Throughout this interval the va- rious tra of the Indian character have peen my closest study. I have seen tribe efter tribe in the adjoining United States take to the warpath for identically the same reasons as those that have in- [3 | !_ namely, zation in no two nat e of the Y nd for t either have dems itory ter wherein they migh tendenc b eir with vage United The ut Government very early adopted the theory that there was absolutely no de- pendence to be niaced in Ap: s0 long as the freedom allowed him round-up n e t even this polic < not until a large extermin- d it the of percentage ere tory removed d that ace progress former Apache was establ Had Mexican Government been dis- posed, the outstart, to adopt like measures in its dealings with the Yaquis , have been thor- at the tribe oughly s it -not true that war you pursuing a e with the Yaquis the frank rejoinder. “And it was in justification of this policy that T have cited the precedent estab- lished by the United States Government. The only difference in the two circum- stances lies in the lateness on our part in resorting to such drastic methods with the For years we were impelled, in the face of the most trying discourage- ments, to hope for a better solution of the Yagui problem. Our policy was to accord jians the Indians, from the outstart, every priv- ilege enjoyed by the average citizen of Mexico, in the belief that such a course ate of him a valuable pérmanent settiement of the would in time er factor in th, To this end he was allowed to will throughout the entire north- territory. 1f he chose to work for others, the great hacien d lack of employment, while if mare dently disposed, he was given the of settling on whatever pubiic best his fancy. The result ss that a larger portion of the located themselves In the Rio Yz tric te but exceedingly fe tion in the s n part of the State, lived the manner of the neiviiized Indian as of nn indey preference ds suited tri after depending on very least amount of corn for an existence. At compelled it, some of the tribe would proceed to other parts of the , where they wouid work for a to return 2 to the wilderness retreat, there to live in idlene: so long earnings would permit. Repeated efforts were made by the Mexi- can.Goyernment-to-induce the Indians to cultivate rich lands of which they had possessed themselves, but without avail. And- not only did~they regent every such effort toward their own development, but likewise -opposed the improvement and tion of any part of the country in Their opposition, moreover, was not in the nature of mere protest, but of the massacre and robbery of all who dared violate their barbarous principles. This violent perversity on the part of the Yuquls -is the direct cause of all the bleody warfare, that for years has been waged in the 'rural districts of Sonora. “It bas been stated that the Yaquis are fighting for their lands, which is an error. The Yaquis think nothing of the country for what it will produce. It is the ad- vance of civilization they are fighting. In short while, onl, eir GEN LUIS E=. TOI'TES, SENOrA TORRES AND JOSE DE OLIVARES \\ 0 I \ \ A ;“xl\\\x\\ N AIf of the Mexican Government T have seatedly made special allotments of ag- : Indians, and fur- ricultural land nished them undant corn ard wheat for planting purpos latter, however, they would a!mos ariably trade for mescal, their rite liquor, or else eat outright, with the result that none of the land assigned to them has been, to any cxtent, cuitivated. Such a be when a thing will nevel come to me and say, ‘I have culti but what he will receive require. But such thri entirely foreign to the Yaqui e and the most serious complaint he has that the white settlers are destroying his mesquite tre It is these mesquite trees that constitute, to so great an extent, his wilderness retreat, and they cover the most fertile public lands in the State.” “What specific trouble led to the pres- ent war?” I inquired. “I+ was the building of the great irri- gation canal which has its source in the Rin Yaqui,’ stated the general. ‘At the ever raised close of the last Yaqui war, in 1887, the Indians weic allotted seven pueb- los, representing sul.cthing like 112. 000 acres of choice Jand in the val- ley of the Rio Yaqui. A portion of this land, however, lies too high for irrigation from the river direct, and was therefore comparatively unpro- To render this land available for ductive. agricultural Mexican Gov- rnment shortly afterward gave an Amer- company a concession to.run a canal from the Rio Yaqui into the country to the southward, under the condition that it should be so constructed as to furnish water to such portions of the Indian lands as could not otherwise be irrigated. But after the work had progressed to a con- siderable extent the old spirit of rebel- liousness on the part of the Indians against the encroachments of civilization again prevailed, and without the slightest warni they fell to murdering every white settler they could find in the region. This act on the part of the Yaquis was the bitterest disappointment of my life, for it destroyed all my hopes of ever be- ing able to resolve them inté a peaceful, progressive community. It was then that I felt compelled' to recommend to the Mexican Government that the tribe be en- tirely dismembered. To effectually ac- purposes the TRO0PS “GAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE YAQUIS. complish this it was necessary to deport the prisoners, as fast as they were cap- tured, to parts of the republic sufficiently remote to insure their inability to return. 1t has been stated that these captives were sent to Yucatan, which is absurdly erroncous, as that district is likewise In- fested with rebellious Indians. Such Yaqui prisoners as I have thus far had sent out of the country were mostly taken to the State of Jalisco, one of the most beautiful sections of Mexlico, where re- newed endeavors are being made toward their civilization.” “How many Indians do you estimate are now on the warpath?” I asked. “That is difficult to determine,” answer- ed the general. “It is my belief, however, that their number has been reduced to not more than 300, and these in turn are broken up into numerous marauding bands. Besides, their numbers fluctuate, for at times members of the hostile fac- tion will leave the mountains, and, pass- CCORDING to a Chicago physician, 30 per cent of the people who die kill themselves, and of this num- ber few are classed as suicides. “When a doctor cures a patient,” he “the majority of his friends speak of his strong constitution’s pulling him When the patient kills himself, nds of them do, the doctor gets A through as thous non-observ- n holds that re of ways for the fatal ter- ation of diseases. First of these is the refusal of the patient to go to bed, as he may be told to do, and last of them may he food or drink conveyed to the pa- tient under cover, just when he is on the verge of convalescence. Between the two are all sorts of possible tinkerings and tamperings with medicine, hygiene, and dietary of the patient. In the early stages of so many dis- eases about all that a doctor can do is to prescribe some mild laxative and send the patient to bed, with instructions to eat carefully and keep warm until time af- fords a more correct diagnosis. But there is a type of man and woman who insises that he always keeps going till he drops. He doesn’t believe in giving up as long as he can stand and see. This man mey have been suffering alternate chills and fever and he sends for a doctor. “Well,”” - says the doctor, “this may mean only a heavy cold. But it might mean an attack of bronchitis, pleurisy, or pneumonia. Go home and go to bed, take this medicine according to directions, and I will call and see you to-morrow.” Deluded by Convalescence. He may take the meédicine and may go to bed, even. Next morning he may be feeling 'so much better, however, that he will get up and go about his usual work. If the aflment is to prove nothing worse than a heavy cold, it probably lasts for a week or two, unfitting him for work and permanently injuring his lungs. He laughs at the doctdr and prides himself on having successfully fought his illness. But if he had remained in bed for two days he might have been quite well at the end of that period, saving both money and time. Observations of typhoid fever.in one of the Lordon hospitals has shown how the man who will not go to bed may kill him- self. In this institution it has been shown that of those who come’into the hospital and go to bed before the fourth day of the fever only 5 in 100 die; of those who come in between the fourth and the eleventh day of the fever 12 in every 100 die, while of those who come in after the eleventh day 28 in 100 die. The urgent necessity of a patient’s go- ing to bed on order may be seen in the fact that most infectious diseases begin almost identically in the same way. Sometimes a patient is querulous and not willing to give the physician time to make a diagnosis, losing confidence in the man if his first guess shall prove to have been wild. Yet for two days, often, no distinctive sign may be given by an in- fectious disease. One of the most marked of these signs i$ the fever rash. In scarlatina it ap- pears on the second day after the fever has set in; erysipelas stows it on the sec- ond or third day; measles on the fourth day; typhus fever on the fourth or fifth day; and enteric fever on the seventh to the twelfth day. Before this rash appears even the most skillful physician may be uncertain. Often Mislead Physicians. Not only are symptoms on the surface often hard to determine, but the patient often misleads a physician, either through ignorance or perverscness. He tells the doctor maybe a dozen inconsequential things and yet dodges two or three lead- ing questions. He may be angry, even, if asked of what trouble his father or his mother died. Yet all these facts are nec- essary to many diagnoses. And if the doctor is forced to guess measles as the patient’s trouble and it turns out to be typhoid fever, he loses confidence anl neglects prescriptions and diet. Worst of all plagues in’a sickroom the doctor fears the unprofessional nurse and relatives of the patient who have ideas of -their own about nursing and about medicines. In the case of a child, for instance, the mother may have *notions.” In cooking few women follow a recipe according to measurements and the same holds true *in the sickroom. So instead of the moth- er's giving a medicine four times a day, she may conclude to =ive it twice a day or six times a day. Instead of giving .it before meals she will give it after eating. But all these details are necessary and important. For instance, if a medicine is prescribed for every three hours, it means that before the preceding dose has ceasei to act, the next shall be taken. It is like putting more coal on a fire ‘before the other fuel has entirely burned up.. If the medicine is for an empty stomach it means that it is of a nature to be abh- sorbed best in that way, and that it may be of little benefit if taken after a mea.. Break the Doctor’s Rules. But notoriously a physician’s directions - f IR S S Do Thirty Per Cent oF the Persons Who Die Kill Themselves? are hard to have filled by any one but a professional nurse. A patient objects most often to the worry -of detail, or to the taste of a drug, and a tender-hearted relative breaks the doctor's rules with small concern. As to wrong-headed patients, Dr. Pen- nington, 103 State street, recalls cases at West Baden Springs where patients were told to be careful how they drank the water. Such men warnéd had been intem- perate. The idea of being careful abou* water, however, has struck them as ab- surd and they have vioiated orders, tak- ing the waters in large quantities. As a result many of them have been thrown into convulsions, and a few have died. In cases of long sickness, where a pa- tient is on the road to recovery at last, he or his friends Kill him in many cases. “Instructions!” repeated another phy- sician. “Why, I once had a patient who lay white and almost insensible from loss of blood. I had to leave him for a few minutes, giving, positive orders that no stimulants of.any kind were to be given to him. In twenty minutes I came back to find the man dead—Xkilled by a drink of brandy. In this case the fainting spell had stopped the bleeding, but the brandy had stimulated the heart until the man died in a great rush of blood from severec arteries.”’—Chicago Suiday Tribune. y . ing themselves off as peaceable Indians, proceed to the haciendas and secure work. Then with the proceeds of their labor they will purchase ammunition and return to the hostile country. Thus it will be seen that the Indian problem here in So- nora is a very intricate one. The very mozo who serves my table to-day may, a week hence, be lying in ambush for me among the hills, while the nurse who at- tends my household is perhaps using her wages to supply the warring Indians with cartridges.” “When the present war is at an end, will the surviving Indians be allowed to reoccupy the valley of the Rio Yaqui?” I inquired. “Not as a tribe,” was the response. “Ex- perience has demonstrated that the rural districts will never be safe so long as the Yaquis are permitted to band themselves together. There are always disturbing elements among them whose influence might at any time precipitate another outbreak. The Yaqui is naturally of an incendiary disposition, and it takes little to arouse his hunger for destructiveness. ‘We have endeavored for years to rectify his tendency to viciousness, but to no avall. When the missionary priests who went among them attempted to preach industry and peace their influence with the Indians was thenceforth irretrievably lost. On the other hand, they would listen with eagerness to the voice of an insurrectory spirit. For this reason it will be my future policy to keep the In- dians apart. Although obliged to resort in a measure to deportation I am not in favor of carrying it to extremes. With all his incorrigibleness, I still have hopes for the Yaqui, and will yet eliminate his vicious tendencies. And of this, I assure you,” concluded the general, with unmis- takeble sincerity in his tones, “notwith- standing the seeming harshness of the measures I have been forced to employ in effectually. crushing his spirit of rebel- liousness, I have a far deeper interest fn the welfare of the Yaqui than any of those who, without the least knowledge of his true character, are seeking to up- hold and encourage him in his crusade against civilization.” The stdtistician of the Dominion of Can- ada represents that there were thirty-four electric raflwavs in the confederated prov- inces at the close of last year, aggregat- ing 630 miles of track. Capital amounting to $21,700,000 has been actually invested in these lines. During tne year they carried 104,033,659 passengers. i