December 17th
Villa has finished the confiscation of the huge Terrazas estates in Chihuahua. We hear that the wife of the American consul, Mrs. Letcher, is among the refugees at El Paso. The Terrazas estates include palatial residences in the city of Chihuahua, banks, mines, lands, cattle, etc. Luis Terrazas is now a refugee in the United States. His sister, known as the “Angel of Chihuahua,” by reason of her endless charities, married Mr. Creel, former Ambassador to Washington. It is Mr. Terrazas’s eldest son who is held against a 500,000 pesos’ ransom, having been taken forcibly from the British Vice-Consulate.
Yesterday the run on the Banco Nacional and the Banco de Londres y Mexico for the exchange of certain bank-notes, no longer good, was enormous. Many shops are hanging out signs that notes of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Querétaro, Guanajuato, etc., will not be accepted from customers. The richer refugees coming in from Chihuahua had hundreds of thousands of such. Oh, for a few wicked cientificos!
A lot of trouble about the Constitutionalist fiat money is beginning in the north. Merchants who fight shy of it are put into jail, regardless of nationality. Its appearance, to a careful, thrifty man, must be appalling. Bills have only one signature, and any one holding them forges the missing signatures, or the nearest and most interested jefe politico affixes the stamp of his jefatura. The drawback is that it is difficult to get merchandise or food in exchange. When is money not money? That way lies economic ruin.
Huerta talks a good deal about Napoleon these days—“gran hombre, gran hombre!” (“a great man! a great man!”). In a recent speech he said: “We have a right to our independence, and we will keep it. If any attack is made against the country, all will witness something great and extraordinary.” Villa, Carranza, Huerta (Zapata, too, the chance offered), delight in ignoring the United States. On that point, all are united. The recovery of Torreon has had immense, though, of course, only temporary, economic importance. The huge cotton crop which Villa picked when he took the town, pressing into service every man, woman, and child, and thinking to sell it to the United States, has been shipped by the Federals to various cotton-mills, and means work for thousands.
There are sometimes really bright things in the Mexican Herald. To-day, about the United States protection of citizens, it says: “Mr. Bryan’s idea of protection seems to be built on the cafetería plan—come and get it. We don’t carry it to you.”
Cambiaggio, the new Italian minister, will be detained indefinitely in Havana, Italian affairs in the mean while being in the hands of the British. I wonder how long the foreign Powers will be willing to wait and watch. What they say about our policy when N. and I are not present is probably not according to the protocol!