On Watch: Exposing Mainstream Media Lies About the Illegal Alien Invasion

The Border: Deployment, Posse Comitatus, Villa & Carranza, Columbus, and other such forgotten realities (with addenda 24 November 2018)

To the reader:   This entry into the blog is very detailed and includes information that, while true, is not commonly known.  We have followed one line to build an understanding of Mexico and Texas during the time just before and during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 - 1917.   There is, of course, a vast amount of equally important, directly, and indirectly relevant material that accompanies this period that must be included to further the understanding of those times.   We shall publish on the 25th of November, 2018 a further advanced primer concerning those times.   

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     This submission is made in order to address the matter of the "caravanas" of "migrants" who are trudging up to the Mexico / United States frontier…just searching for a better life (?).  This article will tend to be among the longest and most detailed we have submitted to the OROG community and other visitors…now found in over forty foreign countries.

     The level of understanding by the American Obsolete Press edges up to the point of pointlessness.  Their best work has been in the area of providing purposeful misinformation and pro-marxist, anti-American propaganda.  Their allies in the various Spanish language networks, both Mexican and Americn like UniVision and such, have been complicit by outright lying about the nature of the "Caravana" and the composition of the participants.

     For instance…and it is a valid example of the entirety of the reporting, a Univision reporter explained to a FOXNews anchor that the "migrantes" were "all women pushing baby strollers,  just looking for a better life…".   This was in spite of the fact that any dolt with a negative IQ could tell that the broad mass…very broad mass…from beginning to end, has been composed of males, aged 15 - 35, unaccompanied by anything that looked like a "family" with baby strollers or the like.

     Mexican and American authorities have concurred that they have identified some 750 individuals, up from Honduras, who have criminal precedents and, in many cases, wants and warrants in the United States and/or Mexico.   The number of young females have been interviewed who very frankly state that their quest is to arrive into the United States before "my time" so as to deliver the baby in the United States.   It is known that the baby becomes the magic key to AFDC, Section 8, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. etc. etc.

     We have stated this many, many times and perhaps to some who do not believe or do not wish to believe that this is a reality.  Believe it.

      The tales of South of the Border and such are, perhaps, an almost incomprehensible jumble of wars, intrigues, corruption, violence, and disorder.  And, do you all know what?  Much of it is very true.   However;   Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras…combined…have a total Gross National Product of a little less than 200,000,000,000 (two hundred billion) dollars.   The population of the three nations is right at 33,000,000 (thirty-three million) souls.
      Mexico has a little more than ten times the Gross National Product and a little less than four times the population of the three Central American nations being herein considered.   One can consider readily what the level of social comfortability might be when comparing the one nation to the other three.  Also, even with the obvious problems Mexico has had with "Cartel Violence", the other three countries make Mexico look like a Convent during quiet hours…although Guatemala is considerably less violent and anarchistic than Honduras and El Salvador.

     So, here we go.  We shall have to walk back to the past…nearly to the year 1900…and write a little bit about knowledge, conception, misconception, and ignorance about the Mexican - American - Texas Frontier during recent and not-so-recent times. 

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BORDER TROUBLES - 1900 through 1920

Don Porfirio Diaz Mori
This, I believe, was the last official
photograph of Porfirio.  He was,
obviously, nearing the end  of
his service to Mexico in May
of 1911.

     Ask any reasonably informed South Texan or Texan about border problems between Texas and Mexico and, lamentably during these times, one will receive a response that ranges from "What means border?" to, "Yeah, my grandad told my father about Pancho Villa riding in and shooting everything up and stealing all the cows."

    It seems reasonable, but…it never really happened that way.

    Towards the end of the rule of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz Mori, who served from 1884 - 1911, the left-wing movements around the world gradually seeped into the Mexican political and social construct.   We might mention that the estimable Don Porfirio also served an earlier term from 1876 through 1880.  He placed a puppet, Manuel Gonzalez (a good president in any regard), to serve for one term, up until Don Porfirio's re-election, essentially by national acclamation in 1884.  This means, of course that Don Porfirio's presidential service to Mexico totalled 30 years.

     As the days grew short for Don Porfirio's service, activists such as Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magon and his two brothers,  Enrique and Jesus were committed anarchist / socialist / marxists.  They were active especially in the mining districts of northern Chihuahua State in the north of Mexico and even in places like the fabled Real de Catorce, from whence 15% of all the silver that went to Spain during the colonial period was extracted and refined.
     These three men, along with various intellectuals and small newspaper / bulletin publishers numbering into the hundreds joined to damn Don Porfirio to blazes and to support an upper-class hacienda owner (as a family member) from Paras de la Fuente…an oasis of grapes, cotton, and fine vegetables within a rocky desert.  The name? Don Francisco Madero, a scion of one of the top ten most wealthy, influential, and capitalist families in Mexico…and perhaps in the top 100 families in all the Americas in terms of wealth, influence, and agricultural / industrial proficiency.
      Don Francisco, well-travelled and learned in France, England, and the United States (Berkeley  of all things), quite brilliant and industrious, had also converted to a religious philosophy known as spiritism.  He communicated with everyone from Benito Juarez Garcia (the first and only Indian President of Mexico, dead before Francisco's birth) to his four year old deceased brother who guided him daily during times of indecision.   Madero became more involved in State-wide as well as local politics, learning by failures and successes.
     Finally, making connections with leftist intellectual powerhouses in Mexico such as Luis Cabrera Lobato,  and especially Aquilas Serdan and Jose' Vasconcelos there came that moment in time when Francisco received his "inner calling" to run for election to the Presidency of Mexico. When 1910 arrived, Francisco would make certain his name would be on the ballot for Presidente.

       As one might imagine, President Diaz decided that 'just one more term' would be enough.  In late 1908 an article was published by a noted reporter by the name of Creelman, a Brit, that indicated Diaz was speaking of retirement and such, "...if it appears as though the Mexicans are prepared to govern themselves…".   The publication of this very lengthy interview, along with the rise of two large factions of a Mexican leftist imperative began a political domino effect that would have repercussions that affect affairs even unto this date.
   Intellectual leftists who opposed even the merest existence of the Mexican "hacienda aristocracy"also levelled their ire against the Roman Church as well as the stable Mexico City  Central Government.   The leftists also detested the State governments and their "Rurales", famous and ruthless rural police…well trained, paid, and frequently brutal.  They were noted for being tough but dependable and responsible in a strange way.    All those forces and dynamics came together in a kind of Death Match of the Serpents in 1910.

     To show the nature of the risk being taken by Porfirio Diaz in stretching his "service" to Mexico for another four years, we include a brief paragraph concerning an historic, difficult, and complex Meeting of the Presidents.  To wit:

       In a show of U.S. support, Díaz and William Howard Taft planned a summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua for 16 October 1909, a historic first meeting between a Mexican president and an  president of the United States of America.   It would also be the first time a U.S. president would cross the border into Mexico.

      At the meeting, Diaz told John Hays Hammond, "Since I am responsible for bringing several billion dollars in foreign investments into my country, I think I should continue in my position until a competent successor is found." The summit was a great success for Díaz, but it could have been a major tragedy. On the day of the summit, Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, and Private C.R. Moore, a Texas Ranger, discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol along the procession route and they disarmed the assassin within only a few feet of Díaz and Taft.

     The combined crowds, along with 4,000 American and Mexican soldiers, almost 300 reporters, scores and scores of police of various types, totalled over 100,000 souls before the events were done.

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The statue commemorates the Spanish
king, Carlos IV found on the elegant

Paseo de la Reforma Boulevard

that runs through the middle of
Mexico City.
  The revellers are celebrating the
 arrival of the new President,
 Francisco Madero
1911

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     As Mexico went into election mode, it was apparent that this could not be another sham election wherein the electorate would vote 1,134,000 to 429, nationwide, and Porfirio Diaz Mori would be declared the winner.   While the results were not as bad as above stated, there was still a wide gap between credibility and possibility.  Various interpretations, at there closest, show Diaz defeating the "ghost talker" Madero by a 9 to 1 margin.   Too many people knew too much, however, and disorders of  the first order began almost overnight.  In remarkably short order the "Presidente Permanente"became the "Adios, Sr. ex-Presidente Diaz", and he was deported to Spain.

Two images of Cavalry deployed at Fort Brown (top)
outside of Brownsville, Texas and (lower) a unit stationed
in Rio Grande City, Texas at Fort Ringgold.  At that time
there were several score thousand personnel deployed on
the Border.  

     Everything seemed great, wonderful, and hopeful.  It lasted almost 12 months.  Large factions with very divergent positions, wants, and requirements trundled into various offices of the new government that were staffed either with firebrand socialists or Harvard, Yale, and Mexico City educated snoots or engineers and agriculturalist big-wigs.   An agreement here in this office would be overturned in that office…and neither Madero not his very capable Vice-President Jose Maria Pino Suarez could keep putting the pieces back together again before another bunch of angry petitioners would arrive to demand This and That…RIGHT NOW!!!

     There was no general platform.  There had been no construction of a small set of major objectives.  During these stressful times, Francisco Madero would telephone his father.   Upon arrival in the Presidential Palace (Chapultepec), Francisco had ordered and obtained a direct telephone connection from the Palace to his father's home in Parras de la Fuente…far, far, far away in northern Mexico's Coahuila State.  He would take counsel from his ever domineering father…the older man who came from a mindset that was from two centuries past could not provide for a son who needed much more than consolation via long-distance telephone.

    He needed the advice and direction from his Vice-President Pino Suarez, who had served as Governor of the Yucatan and had been highly admired by all sectors in that wildly divergent State. Before long, it would make no difference.  The populace was quickly turning on Madero.  The very bloody and capable General Orozco and other military units were marching on the way to Mexico City.  A month or two turned into a few days which turned into a matter of hours and then it turned into the incarceration of both Madero and Pino Suarez. 

     Quickly, from February 9th through February 19th of the year 1913, bad things happened.  There was even a bit of collusion on the part of the United States State Department, although the Ambassador to Mexico denied it, as well as the venerable Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.

This photograph shows President Fransisco Madero (short
with cane) and Vice-President Pino-Suarez (to Madero's
right, also with cane) with various authorities in the 
Presidential Palace in downtown-most Mexico City.
The two politicians have been arrested and are awaiting a
transfer to a holding jail, from whence they were to be
taken to the train station on the 19th of February
and transferred to Vera Cruz and then banished
from Mexico in perpetuity.   Unfortunately, such
 was not to be the case.  The manat furthest right
 is the Clerk of theCongress and he is holding the
 Congressional Order of Expulsion from Office.
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        On the morning of the 19th of February 1913,  Madero and Pino Suarez were put in an automobile and, with a considerable but discreet guard, were being conducted to the train station, about 25 blocks to the northwest of the Presidential Palace.  Before much distance had been covered a group of men began shooting with pistols at the auto with the two detainees inside.
     There are so many stories about how this unfolded, but suffice it to say that Madero and Pino Suarez were put out and in short order, they both had been shot to death.  Before the episode was over, some ninety people had been killed, along with numerous police and Army mounts.   Many of the dead were innocent civilians, male and female.

      Now we begin to move into the matters that begin to affect not just Mexico, but rather Texas and the general frontier Mexico shares with Texas.   Other issues would come into play all along the international boundary before these matters played out.   The disorders begin more or less around 1908 and gradually build to a peak of activity in 1916.  

     During these times, starting with the Cananea Mine Strike and civil disorder in northern parts

President (Gen.) Victoriano Huerta

of the northern State of Chihuahua, miners at first struck, and then milled around, and finally just left in fairly large numbers.  The strike, a rarity in Mexico, had not been passive.  Many had been hurt and there were a number of dead.   The strikers were demanding 5 pesos per day plus certain emoluments (medical, retirement, vacation time, etc.).   The leaders of this particular strike were the Flores Magon boys we referenced above.  It should be considered that the disorders began in 1908 and steadily became worse as the election of 1910 caused all kinds of upheaval in terms of the socio-political order.   It became steadily worse as various elements vied for the Presidential Throne, either by force or by another (and very improbable) election.

Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magon
Labour leader,  brilliant
thinker, but marxist

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     Unemployed miners drifted into Chihuahua City and Cd. Juarez up on the border.   From other mines, more in the middle of Mexico's highlands, more miners were experiencing arbitrary layoffs and unpleasant working conditions.   Some of these men went up to Monterrey and others thought about crossing over into Texas where they had heard of men being paid two dollars per day, doing irrigation canal building, tending crops of cotton and vegetables and at times the citrus.
    There were people all along the border, on both sides, disposed to take advantage of ethnic and/or racial comfortability that the social environment tolerated.  As one who grew up in this type of social and cultural environment, albeit forty or fifty years later…it was the same in many ways.  One could generalise that about 80 per cent of the Latins could speak English and about 15 per cent of the "Anglos" could speak Spanish…with quality ranging from proficient to eloquent.

 Madero and his wife
 shortly after taking the oath of office
and settling in at a relatively modest
"downtown flat".   Both Madero and
Sara Perez de Madero were very,
very wealthy.  Very kind people
but no children.

     Because of the disorder brought on by the Madero administrative failure and the rising tide of banditry and, in some places anarchy, there were more and more people coming towards Texas to seek refuge and also to seek booty.  There was an abundance of men who were willing to join bandit gangs which at times espoused political and/or philosophical motivations, but who were actually committed to rustling, stealing, shake-downs, and other nefarious activity.
     The border on the Texas side was not an idyllic monument to clean and honest government.   It seems as though the sprouting towns…Donna, Weslaco, Edinburg, McAllen, Ed Couch, Elsa, Mercedes,  and other smaller places did pretty well with their administrations and internal politics. The County government, however, always seemed to be contaminated, especially by favouritism, pilfering of treasury, covering friends through favours by the Sheriff, and a hundred other sins of commission and omission.


The Vera Cruz Incident:
     One of the most troubling and stunning events during this time was caused by a minor incident involving a small bunch of insects being allowed to grow into an 1,800 pound gorilla.   The American Navy would dock in the Panuco River harbourage, adjacent to downtown Tampico.  This was fine and convenient, except that there was a "decent district" with nice saloons and restaurants where many of the upper-drawer people from Tampico and the area would dine, listen to nice live music, perhaps dance a little, and have a monster smorgasbord of a seafood platter and then go home.
    The problem is that American sailors on shore leave, at times, seem to misplace their book of etiquette at times.   There was some kind of discord, and a couple of the sailors…six were in attendance…had a bit of an accident when they threw their beer mugs and rum bottles into the 6 X 20 foot special order mirror that backed up the bar.   Many bottles of mediocre and fine liquor, along with the mirror, were lost.  The police came, the sailors went to the lock-up downtown, save for one who was to go and inform the officer of the guard on the American warship in port that the comisario would  like to speak to an officer concerning some of the sailors of the said ship.
     To make a four day story as brief as possible, the American counsel came, declaring that Washington was very distressed that American sailors were imprisoned for no known reason, and that there would be no blackmail paid for their release.   An American naval officer of said ship then spoke to the counsel to advise him that everyone present that evening, Mexican and foreign, were certain that the six American sailors had acted violently without provocation.  Finally, the President of the United States of America sent a declaring that money had been secured to cover the damages, and that he demanded the return of the sailors, post haste.   Also, the President demanded that General Victoriano Huerta, provisional President of Mexico, would be required to fire a cannon salute to the ship's flag as it left harbour.
     Huerta telegraphed the White House declaring that all matters had been complied with, except that it would require that the American ship fire a military salute to the Mexican flag that flew over the Harbour Master's Headquarters, first.   Everyone in Washington, D. C. was furious.

     Some days later, an American flotilla pulled into Vera Cruz's harbour.  There was one battleship, and two destroyer class ships, and various other ships under American flags.   In fairly short order, the centre of the city of Vera Cruz had been reduced to rubble, with many buildings, even from the colonial era, destroyed and left as heaps of rock, brick, and cement and plaster dust.  The number of dead and wounded…mostly civilians…was significant.  In the many hundreds.
     The American ships then extracted a German cargo ship from the harbour, and off loaded a score thousand of German Mausers and tonnes and tonnes of ammunition and other necessities that were bound to the Armies of General Victoriano Huerta to aid in his fight against Villa and company.
     Please find a copy of the book, "A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico" by Edith O'Shaughnessy.   It recounts the days immediately after the assassination of Madero and Pino Suarez and the Bombardment of Vera Cruz and a million other glimpses into life in Mexico City and Mexico "during Revolution".  It is not the work of a hysterical woman or activist.  She is solid as a block of copper.  (the book is truly worth purchasing)     
     

The Plan de San Diego:
     This is where the Past begins to speed up and becomes Prologue.  With the disorders in Mexico and the fervour some, perhaps many, Mexicans had concerning everything from the loss of Texas and the American Southwest to real and imagined mistreatment by the Gringos, a cauldron was put to boil, and it began to spill over fairly quickly.
     We shan't burden the reader with the names of a hundred principals that might still pertain to families living in or around the Lower Rio Grande Valley.   It must suffice to say that Mexican and Mexican American radicals wrote up a "Plan" that initially called for the assassination of all Anglo American males, aged 16 or more residing in Texas and other "territories annexed by the Imperialist Yanquis".   People to be spared would be women and children, and all Mexican people except those Mexicans who sided with the Anglo element.   Also, Negros and Indians were to be exempt from these reprisals.
     During the early part of 1915 it is estimated that between 90 and 140 people were murdered by activists taking the measures required in the "Plan".  That document was essentially a Declaration of War by people who did not have legal standing or authority from any source.   While the extreme lower Southern tip of Texas bore most of the carnage, there were assassinations up to Del Rio and Eagle Pass, as well as San Antonio, Karnes and Kenedy cities southeast of San Antonio, and in the ranch country north of McAllen / Brownsville and west of Corpus Christi.
     Excesses and over-reaction brought on an ugly period in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley's four counties (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, and Willacy) specifically and southernmost Texas generally.  The State of Texas sent down 90 Texas Rangers, only about a third of them qualified, astute, and intelligent enough to determine who was a "bad" Mexican, a "good" Mexican, an itinerate Mexican, or an American citizen Mexican.   The other two-thirds were essentially white-trash, big-badge and big belt-buckle thugs…known as "Special Rangers".

     Governor Jim Ferguson was a real pill, and came late to the party in terms of the goings-on on the Border.  He also had legal challenges and problems with the State Legislature that would result in his impeachment and removal from office (in perpetuity) in 1916.  During all of this, Texas's two United States Senators and the legislature petitioned the United States Army's infantry and cavalry units to be pressed into service along the border.   They wanted, at a minimum, coverage from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the twin cities of Laredo…about 165 miles of badlands, rattlesnakes, and danger.

Scene from the area around Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla,
truly a wondrous place.  This scene is at or very near
where Carranza either was slain by his own guards,
or where he took his own life after fleeing the train
taking him to Vera Cruz, and then to forced exile in
 Cuba.   His ultimate destination was to be Spain.
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     Couple that with the fact that there was actionable information that the Germans, co-ordinating with President Venustiano Carranza had circulated a note recommending an insurgence by Mexican people against the "occupiers" of previously Mexican territory.  Many analysts to this day believe that there is a certainty that the Germans wanted to establish a full alliance with Carranza's government…encourage him to make bellicose postures against the Americans…and also be supplied with all necessary armament and materiel.   That would tie down a large portion of the American military and weaken any possible joining of the Americans with British forces on the Continent during World War I.

    The "Plan de San Diego (Texas)" was, in fact, the document / movement that caused the folks in Washington, D.C. to mobilise many thousands of infantry and cavalry, both Regular Army and National Guard units, to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the San Ygnacio area between Fort Ringgold in Rio Grande City and Laredo, and other places on the border, in Texas.   An example of exercises and parades can be seen photographs we have provided up a few paragraphs.
     Before that deployment was  done, there would be around 100,000 personnel and they would have had numerous minor but significant engagements, with casualties on both sides.  Although many already know this fact, my own father served in the 1st Army, 12th Regiment (mounted) for apparently about four years, leaving the service in 1933.  He spoke little about his service but did indicate that it became a bit rough at times because of the anarchists, Russian and German spies, and Italian and other European anarchists and saboteurs.  He thought it was fascinating that they could receive information from informants in Mexico and get the word down to an "end of the world"place like Rio Grande City in such a manner as to frequently make a detention.
     In those years, the mescaleros (liquor transporters) were also arrieros (donkey and mule load bearers), and they would go from the border to San Antonio…some 200 miles by trail to deliver liquor to speak-easies in San Antonio.   Sometimes the liquor was not up to snuff and a lot of folks came down with damage to their systems…some even died.
     But the Cavalry maintained and mounted and large mission up to and including 1935, built around the 12th Regiment and other elements.

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The famous Zimmermann note.   Please
take note that it was routed through
Galveston, Texas

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   The famous "Zimmermann Note" is actually pictured to the right.   It detailed propositions to the Mexican high command and, if need be, to the Mexican Nation in toto.  It is said that Pancho Villa was given this note by one of his spy / informants when it came out in 1917.  Villa had already noticed a considerable increase in the number of Japanese folks in the central and western parts of Mexico.  Germans had always been around, especially during the time of Porfirio Diaz, who had specialised in bringing Euro-technology and money into Mexico, especially for the exploitation of the oil riches in the east and south of the Republic.  The Japanese began a brewery that morphed into what would later become "Corona" after several reincarnations. 
     In spite of the melodrama of "Black Jack" Pershing's chase after Villa in Chihuahua, Villa was essentially an Amerophile and had been heard several times explaining that he simply wanted his homeland to be more like Texas.  How much of that was to please the Gringos, I do not know.  But what is known is that Villa was very comfortable around them and he even considered "Black Jack" Pershing to be his friend.

     Another  point that seems salient when considering affairs of the day and of the place, is that Carranza's army had greater reliance on German arms and munitions, while Villa's armaments were primarily American and British.
     Also, the note was forwarded in 1917, and with the Americans going in to fight, it was improbable that anyone in the Mexican power panoply would have wanted to take the risk of letting the Germans use Mexico as a floor mat and bullet catcher. 

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    What we have tried to do with this missive is to demonstrate the complexities of what led up to putting Military people, en force, on the border…not by a  few hundred or two thousand disarmed National Guard specialists.   Eighty years ago the deployments were in the scores of thousands and  they consisted of Regular Army and very competent National Guard units from Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania.

     As is normal for your humble servant, we shall probably decide to "extend our remarks" concerning these times and other times that might be relevant to the interests of our readers.   Until that moment, perhaps to-morrow or the day after, I shall begin that process.

     In a subsequent post, we shall reach back just a bit, and fold in more supporting information concerning this post, and include a bit about the "magical disappearing Presidents and Heroes" syndrome that lent an air of cultural depression throughout Mexico for two generations. 

As usual we deeply appreciate the interest and time each reader invests with us.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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Roy Clark Yesterday, When I was Young

   It is certain that this fellow was thought of by many as the side-kick to Buck Owens (also a C & W Great) as they gave comfortable dazzle to the fans of Hee - Haw on that phenomenal 24 - year run on the boob too.   He was not.  He was a true Maestro and very serious performer who took his audiences first above himself.

   This is one of his presentations that reveal a truth from the world of baseball.  Many pitchers try to throw too hard, curve too sharply, slow-up too much on a change-up…and they let themselves down.   It does not work.  The ball is hit out of the park, or the batter takes 'Ball Four' and jogs down to first base.

    Roy Clark, in the opinion of one who followed his and others offerings and careers, was a pitcher who pitched "inside of himself" and he did it perfectly.   We would recommend his work…even on Hee-Haw or especially on that programme…to all who enjoy a person who could master his voice, 15 different musical instruments, and any sober (or almost sober) audience of discerning people.

     These people are overlooked sometimes…the ones with massive talent and thousands of performance credits…and  yet continue to smile and please and improve, even unto the end.   Let it be said that El Gringo Viejo did not overlook Roy Clark.

____________________

Que en Paz, Descances

ROY  CLARK

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Secret Life of the Pigeon Weed Vine and a little report about other growies and visiting airborne beasts...

     We just returned from our little place in Nowhere, Mexico and need to make a few observations about this and that.

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 Red Pigeon-Berry Vine

     It is my pleasure and duty to inform one and all that once you have been there you will know where, yes, no where is known.  You will also know where you have been and know where you are going next.  There will be no way that you or your friends will fail to be able to return to No Where, and you will know why there is a where there.

Chili Pequin

   Now, returning to less serious matters and explanations, many folks believe that the Red Pigeon Weed is a weed, worthy only of extermination.   Please believe, however, that the plant is a noble and true vine, and will reward the caretaker with literally millions of little red beads.   Those little red beads will attract thousands of small birds from 30 to 100 species (depending upon ones location).
     Most of the visitors seem to be pigeon-like birds that are mainly gleaned from the ranks of various dove-like species that are more interesting, more attractive, and much less messy.  However, one should not be surprised to see mockingbirds, orioles, and perhaps even hens and roosters trying to pluck the berries.   Birds such as these latter groupings usually like hot, wild chili-peppers such as chili-pequin and chili del monte…really hot stuff.

John Jay Audubon
(1785 - 1851)
Probably killed more animals, birds, and other
 critters than 97% of the rest humanity, but in so
doing, helped create a sense among the literate
that the other species on Earth also had innate
value to the order of things in general.  And, he
he almost always carried a firearm...

     We have those plants in abundance on and around our property, all left to their natural devices.  We also have the miniature white pigeon weed that is very similar in its habits and construct, but one-third the size of its red cousin.
    It is a peculiar plant because it seems to enjoy producing it stream of white beads which frequently pop out with small but intricate flowers.   Oddly, these beads occur almost exclusively on the edges of the leaves, both sides, and towards the ends of the leaves.   These are Autumnal and Springtime vine-like visitors.
 Lamentably, we did not make any photographs of them on this trip, because, quite frankly, I was just too lazy.

Which one is the Sulphur?

   Now I regret it,but Autumns last longer in the tropics, and Spring comes earlier, so by next time, we shall report those plants…if they publish.


     Finally, this has been the most intense period of visitation of Monarch Butterflies, along with the Sulphurs, we have ever had.   Each species, and we counted carefully, tied for first place.  We counted correctly every one of them who landed on our property during the past ten days.   The count?  It was exactly 31 quadrillion billion zillion and twenty-six.
     
     
Really.
More or less.
And that was just the ones we counted during daylight hours.

     But, in truth Mr. AlGore, the Saviour of the Mississippi Polar Bear, your side loses every argument…like three years ago when your side agreed that because of climatechangeglobalwarmingglobalcoolingnuclearwinter, the Monarch was dead-on-arrival…forever.
    We also had probably record numbers of hummingbirds…perhaps 15 sub-species or perhaps a bit more.  All in all, it was a banner late-Summer and Autumn this time.   Everyone…everyone…around our place commented on this phenomena.

Thank you, one and all,  for your attention and time and interest.
El Gringo Viejo

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Three Points of Interest - Each not related to the others, yet each is intertwined. This is your Tennessee Trilogy

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I.     The Tale of Two Cousins caught somewhere between Testament, Manumission, and Emancipation

Greater love hath no man than this,
 that a man lay down his life for
 his friends.
Rest in Peace, Noble Burrel…

      
   This story comes from the words of Reginald (Rex) Andrew Neal, my maternal grandfather.  It was given concurrence by Mamie Chism Neal, Granpa Rex's wife, and my maternal grandmother. We should point out that this story was told neither with frequency nor neglect, but with all certainty and frequently enough to remain fresh.  The story did not change over time, because my mother declared that her parents always told it the same way, no matter the audience.  

      During the ante bellum period of the South, there was an issue with the fact that a lot of people in the South had black African ancestry.  The ante bellum (before the War) period was before April, 1861.  During that time, the South almost in its totality had perhaps the most culturally complicated social and cultural order ever foisted upon a culture.

     The Negro had three general positions.  (1)  Slaves, who were owned by a person, usually a white "Massah (Master)" but in many cases by another Negro or Mulatto who was a Freeman…and then (2) a Manumitted person of Black African ancestry…meaning that the "coloured person" in question had been judged by Freemen, but more especially by their "Massahs" or the heirs of the "Massahs" to be people worthy of independence and to hold the title of Freeman, a position that had to be deliberated, judged, and ordered, gavelled, stamped, and sealed  (3) which meant, in reality that that person could own a firearm, could ostensibly vote if he / she could demonstrate proof of property ownership, and generally occupy an independent, self-supporting life path.  That "she" could vote would come fifty years or so later.

 

This man was in the same reformed
 Cavalry unit as my GGG-Grandfather
 Capt. Asa Grant - 2nd Tennessee Cavalry
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    Normally these actions took place with the theatre being a plantation, a large farm, or a processing business usually associated with cropping, harvesting,  and production of agricultural goods.  However, a Freeman who had a trade or skill in a blue collar sense might well be found within the confines of a town or city, where he / she could practice the trade or skill for profit, be it blacksmithing, lace and curtain-quilting-and-comforter production and repair, livery owner, or even a babysitter or eldercare assistant.

     All of this seems more or less understandable, except for two things.  One is that we are doing these things in the South at or before April, 1861.  And Two,  there would be a War, a war between the several States, that would wind up killing or seriously wounding about 10 per cent of the entire population of the North and the South.  It was…in spite of the effort to put romance and heroism and cause at the forefront…it was,  madness.

     So, at the end of the War Between the States, there was considerable social and cultural collapse, upheaval, and disorder, especially in the South.   When governments plan precisely how to accomplish some goal, there is certainty that everything will not work like a Swiss watch.
     One day, two uncles of my grandfather Reginald (Rex) Andrew Neal who were working on a large tract, trying to prepare said bottom land for a planting.   Suddenly, they had two Black Men come out to the field and engage them.

    After basic salutations, the older Black men informed these uncles that they were Mr. So and So's Negroes, and that they had been manumitted by Mr. So and So, who was an Uncle of the two White boys.  Mr. So and So had died, leaving a manumission order in his final testament.   He died in 1865, early.
    They went on to say that Mr. So and So's daughter had determined that due to the settlement of the War in favour of the Union, the two older Black men had actually been Emancipated.  They were freed by an act of War, and therefore, were on their own.  She had no duty to endow them or care for them.

     The "old Slaves" were converted to "ranch engineers", and paid little, because little was all there was.  But they added more to the pile than they took out, and they more than justified their presence on what would become "Neal Property".  The Neals had a cemetery on the land being worked  that adjoined the property they were working on for the future.   There were probably 40 interments in that facility.  Down a ways there was another private cemetery known as the Limbaugh Cemetery.  In those two cemeteries "Coloured and Indians" could be buried, but another one, also close by there was included another private family cemetery that permitted only white folks.

This Confederate Hero wore these trinkets
and "medals'' that were gifts from soldiers
who had been killed or wounded in action
and who had said, "Give this to Napoleon"
or who had delivered the "trinkets" at the
end of the lamentable War Between the
States 1861 - 1865.   Napoleon had saved
numerous wounded during the several
battles in which he had participated.
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     All of this came rushing back when one of the "ghost hunter" shows happened to engage a house and property with considerable adjacency to all of the afore-described legal and social comings and goings.   It was as if someone was ordering me from "the Beyond" to flesh out this matter.   I determined to make this vignette, of which we made mention on this blog a couple of other times, but not to this degree.

     Tennessee was the last State to declare for the Confederacy.  Franklin County was among the last to vote on the  approval or disapproval of the  Tennessee Articles of Secession.   The County voted substantially against The Secession from the American Union.  However, they attached a stipulation to their vote which declared that the armed, military penetration into any area of  the previously seceded sovereign States by the forces of the Union, would result in an immediate  approval of Secession by Franklin Counties electors.   The previous vote  would be voided and the citizens thereof would support the Southern Cause.

    That last clause, placed by Franklin and a few other Counties mainly in eastern Tennessee, was quickly put into play when Union troops crossed the Potomac River, supposedly on their way to an easy occupation of the Confederate Capital in Richmond, Virginia.   Confederate forces destroyed the offensive and routed the Union Armies, causing a panicked rout by the blue-clad troops.  One can imagine the surprise as numerous civilians and Congressmen and Senators who had ventured out to catch the view of the Yankees destroying what they thought would be an ignorant Hillbilly rabble had to high-tail it back to Washington D.C.
   Some of the Hillbilly Rabble were from Franklin County, Tennessee.

     But, to shorten this missive, it is best to put the cake in the oven and cook it.  All occurred as is was supposed to occur, with the two Neal Brothers working off their obligation as a form of payment for the acreage.   They still had the two Old Black Men, who had been a positive factor for them during that time. They seemed to never age, and perhaps that was what was happening.
   Before it was all over, both of the Old Men had made it into the triple digits ( I believe 103 and 105 years of age)  and into the 20th Century.  The Neal brothers made it all the way into into the Roaring 1920s, had families, and carried on the line.   To the best of my knowledge some kind of Neals still own some or all of that property.

     To be sure, I never met more than two or three of my mother's Estill Springs - Winchester people…such as her Aunt Maggie who bridled and yoked her two fine horses to the buggy one dark and early morning…to help her brother and sister-in-law and their children to take the luggage and other belongings on to the train to Memphis, and then down to Texas, in 1922.  My mother would have been 7 at that time, and Uncle Don (whom I never truly met nor knew) would have been 5, and Uncle Rex (my favourite) would come along later, arriving in Texas just before his first birthday.

Veterans up 'til the last,   This photo was taken
 around 1932, so the OROG can  figure how
 old these men were at the time of the taking
 of this picture.

   Almost all of the "Confederate Veterans' Reunions", especially in the"Old South" would have "real live Negroes" who were actually veterans of service in combat or close combat support.  They were uniformly treated as something between dolls, toys, Saints, Heroes, and gentlemen…soldiers, and brethren.   It was always terribly sad, very noble, and joyful in the sense that it could only be understood by the bugle call of "Taps" and the ditty of "Dixie".

     Now, the reader of the first order, and the OROGs, and all others who have been called forward to read these heavy words.   El Gringo Viejo is that cross-bridge for having been born in 1947 and therefore having been instilled with the Truth (as spake my eldest brother -  General Bobbie Lee had agreed afore-hand to allow Ulysses Simpson Grant, the losing General, to put on an act that he was taking Lee's sword as Lee surrendered it.  Many photographs were taken of that event, which was repeated  three or four times for the photographers' sake and for the sake of history.   Many people are still under the delusion that Lee surrendered to Grant, but those of us with inside knowledge know it was visa - versa.  My eldest brother, Milton Birchard Newton, Jr. BA, MA, Ph.D assured me of the accuracy of that supposition.   Until I was about 11 years old.   But remember, I still believe in Santa Clause, (for real). 

     Please understand that these words…some written in profound sadness…some with a sense of jest…and others with the intent that they be seen and considered as "just the facts,  ma'am", are words that still, to this day, bounce around inside El Gringo Viejo's skull.   The OROG can rest certain that all of the statements made without the modification of humour are actual facts and/or facts as best can be determined.   All of the photographs are real, true, and unembellished.

    We finish this section of our account with the lamentable observation that, while there has been some confirmation of these facts by people in the Franklin County, Winchester city, and Estill Springs area…the people with or without blood relationship, have been cold, snooty, and only very grudgingly interested in my questions and concerns.  I place this disclaimer because it will help you all, when you are doing your own genealogies and family tales to just keep pushing.
      I further regret to inform that much of my lead information and other evidence from the "familial past" came from a Yankee who was the niece of my Grandfather Newton's brother Sewell Leonard Newton…who became an accomplished microscope builder,  a renowned regional maker of fine violins, and a rebuilder of various water-powered gristmills in Western Connecticut.
Thus ends an episode…the First Entry in the Trilogy of a Southern Cultural History.

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II.   A Lynching in the Normally Sleepy village of Estill Springs, Tennessee in 1918:

Preface:   Estill Springs is quite near Winchester, Tennessee.  My mother was born in Winchester and lived in that city as well as in Estill Springs for the first nine years of her life, before moving to deep South Texas in the mid-1920s.  She was born on a frosty morn in January of 1915…
    The lead paragraph of this Wiki-sourced material indicates that Tullahoma is the big brother community to Estill Springs, but in those times under consideration, Estill Springs was definitively within the cultural orbit of Winchester.  My mother and her people were decidedly of the certain knowledge that they were of the "Eastern Tennessee" portion of the State.   When one regards the flag of Tennessee, it will be noted that there are three stars on the banner.  That is for the three regions of the State;  Eastern, Central, and Western.   Eastern had the "capitals" of Knoxville and Chattanooga and the backside of the Smokies and Appalachia.  Central had Nashville.  The Western's capital is Memphis and its Mississippi River ghosts and lore.
DCN

_______________________

     Estill Springs is a town in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,055 at the 2010 census.[4] It is usually referred to simply as "Estill" by its inhabitants. Estill Springs is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee, Micropolitan Statistical Area and is located in Middle Tennessee. 

Mineral springs in the area had long been known to the Cherokee people of the region. Before they settled here, varying cultures of indigenous peoples had lived in the area for thousands of years. 

     The European-American town dates from circa 1840, when the Frank Estill family, which owned considerable property in the area, donated a right-of-way for railroad construction. The combination of mineral waters, which were much in vogue as a health remedy at the time, and convenient rail access caused the settlement to develop as a small-scale spa town, which took its name from the springs. Oscar Meyer was appointed the first mayor of Estill.

_________________

(el Gringo Viejo's words follow)

Civil War era

     During the Civil War, the town was generally known as "Allisonia", for another family which had settled in the area. It was the site of a Confederate training camp, Camp Harris, named for Isham G. Harris, the Confederate governor of Tennessee, who was a native of the county. Southern forces retreated through the town during the 1863 Tullahoma Campaign, named for the nearby community which served as Confederate headquarters.

    The truth begins here, the misinformation begins below:   Estill Springs and Winchester, Tennessee actually had noteworthy good relations between the Indians, the Negroes, and the Caucasian group.   A considerable number of the Negro element in the county of Franklin…numbering about 12% of the County's population, were actually quite "comfortable" in their circumstances.  In the lynching matter which follows this entry into the record, the family of the victim of the lynching was known to be quite prosperous.  The McIlherrons were substantially Black African of ancestry, and not at all troubled by it.  The family was respected all about Winchester and Estill Springs.  They had counter credit at any store from Estill Springs to Winchester to Tullahoma and to Chattanooga.   Few Whites could say that.

    The event that occurred during the early days of February of 1918 found the known and recognised bully, criminally convicted, with black people bringing and pressing the charges against the person of Jim McIlherron, once again involved in another legal (and criminal) problem.  He had served time for an unjustifiable physical assault.  After release, he skulked away to  Indianapolis, Indiana of all places, where he worked, made good money, and then was involved in another "little problem".  He fled back to his family's hearth.

    Once things seemed to be stabilised, Jim moved around in Estill Springs pretty much unimpeded.  But one day,  after about two months back in Tennessee, Jim was walking down the main thoroughfare.   Some snotty young white boys began to throw stones at the Negro Jim, that being a favourite thing to do among the white-trash who lived out north of town.  The Negro Jim warned the White boys that he had a way of getting back at them and that they needed to stop.   Finally, after being pelted with real live stones, bouncing off'n his body, he drew his six-shooter pistol…gave them one more warning, and finally fired six shots…the three boys stood up to the crazy Jim, while he delivered six shots from his six-shooter.

    Each boy was hit twice, quite an accomplishment for a shooter of a pistol from 50 foot's distance.   Two of the boys died at the scene.  A third was taken to medical facility where the last boy was  saved from Death's door.   Jim decided to take flight, and apparently went up towards Tullahoma.  The White Folks in the community went to the Franklin County Sheriff and demanded that Jim be sought and carried back to face justice.

     It was commonly assumed that the Sheriff of Franklin County was afraid of Jim, based on previous contacts with him.  Due to this, about 200 people decided to take matters into their own hands, and they boarded the next train to the north and went to the town where Jim had friends…including a White preacher by the name of G.W. Lych (pronounced 'like').   The mob was informed that Jim had been with the Preacher man, so they went to the parsonage and attempted to extract information from the preacher…but that only resulted in the Preacher's death.

      Jim was found, then brutalised by the huge mob…and after shooting Jim in the eye, the leg, and the abdomen, and beating  him unmercifully, they all returned to Estill Springs, where Jim, being still alive, was given another round of merciless beating and hacking…even in the indiscreet zones…and then ending in being burnt to death…except he did not die.  Another man, sick of the treatment, ordered the mob to desist and realising that Jim would not ever recover, poured coal oil all over him and set him to a final almost totally consuming fire.

     Some days later, about 2,000 people, mostly Negro, but many highly placed White politicians, clergy, and regular business and trades folks were among the marchers.  It was very quiet, and over with in 30 minutes…and then things returned to "normal".  The McIlherron family was glad that it was over.  The Mrs. informed her various White friends that Jim had always been like a boy born under the Rule of Saturday, but the ladies also deferred and declared that Jim deserved at least a hearing before the bench with a good attorney.   The provocateurs of the rock throwing event were not what one might consider wholly innocent of the matters that brought the even to pass.

     Concerning  this and other lynchings…before the War Between the States there were somewhat fewer lynchings and most normally concerned themselves with White miscreants.  During the time between 1830 through 1930, I believe that 400 or so people were "lynched" in Tennessee, landing in 2nd place behind Alabama.  Of that number, before the War Between the States, 90% were Caucasians of one kind or another.  Afterwards, during the 1870s through the 1930s…80% were Negroes.
      Indians, for lack of numbers, and because they would normally go to sleep when they were drunk, did not fare so poorly.  There was an abiding sense that the Indians who had managed to avoid being forced to go to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears episode brought on by the cad Andrew Jackson and his New York City banker friends, needed to be protected.  About 20% of the Indians who were forced into going to Oklahoma made their ways back to Tennessee, surreptitiously.   Even to-day, there are large aggregations of Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians who managed to return and "re-establish" in their ancient homeland.

    We leave this last Wiki-bit for the OROG and the visitor to A Gringo in Rural Mexico pretty much intact.  Remember this is where my mother forced the pretty little blond Jewess to come out of her shell and play the hoop and stick, and baseball, and even football.   The "pretty little Jewess" had had a bout with the dreaded poliomyelitis,  leaving her with one weakened leg.   The Shores and the Neals were friends and competitors with emporiums and millinery stores almost on the same block, but on different sides of the street.  Though competitors, they were also good friends.  It was a classic case of bonding across religious lines (Jews and Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian…what a mix!) and many other lines.   But my Godmother Lucille Hendricks and my Grandmother Mamie Chisum Neal  (all Tennessee) would declared, "He who offends against the Jew will lose and lose all.  No nation that offends against the Jew will ever live in peace."

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    The fad for bathing in and drinking spring waters eventually passed in Estill Springs. Local lore has it that the long-awaited construction of U.S. Route 41A through the town in 1940 caused the springs to dry up. The spa era passed by mid-century, and the hotels were razed. The new highway connected the town to sources of employment in neighboring communities, and gave it a strategic position on the main artery between Nashville and Chattanooga. The development of local lakes through dam construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority generated recreational business as well.[5]

    During the time of Prohibition, Estill Springs was home to prominent local mobster and bootlegger Parker Jones. Parker and his gang took advantage of the heavily wooded terrain to distill their bootleg booze. Parker and his men also used Estill as their primary logistics hub to traffic the booze through Middle Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Jones remained in Estill for several years, "owning" mayors, city councilmen, and police officers. The government dispatched dozens of revenue agents to arrest him and his men. However, when they finally arrived at his hideout, they found nothing and Parker was never seen in Estill again.

    This ends the 2nd part of the Tennessee Trilogy.

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The Great Train Wreck of the Summer of 1918:

    This event is fairly well covered by Nashville and Chattanooga reporters, although their work was impeded by the utter destruction and devastating loss of life.   One can imagine if the man who was bereft as he reported the explosion and pyrrhic end of so many people when the Hindenburg crashed and burned twenty or so years later, what it must have been when the "body count" finally seemed to end just shy of 120 passengers and crew of trains that were a peculiar combination of rustic and de luxe.

Dull, but necessary details:

    We leave this essentially widely reported and heavily covered story for the reader.  I have found that it is a respectable accounting of the events on that Mid-Summer's Morn.   Therefore, draw your substantially accurate information from that which is posted below.

Date July 9, 1918
Time7:20am
Location Nashville, Tennessee
Country United States
Operator Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
Type of incident Collision Caused by Human error.
123 dead - 53 injured

The Great Train Wreck of 1918 occurred on July 9, 1918, in Nashville, Tennessee. Two passenger trains, operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway("NC&StL"), collided head-on, costing at least 101 lives and injuring an additional 171. It is considered the worst rail accident in United States history,^[1] though estimates of the death toll of this accident overlap with that of the Malbone Street Wreck in Brooklyn the same year.

The two trains involved were the No. 4, scheduled to depart Nashville for Memphis, Tennessee at 7:00 a.m., and the No. 1 from Memphis, about a half-hour late for a scheduled arrival in Nashville at 7:10 a.m. At about 7:20 a.m., the two trains collided while traversing a section of single track line known as "Dutchman's Curve" west of downtown, in the present-day neighborhood of Belle Meade. The trains were each traveling at an estimated 50 to 60 miles per hour; the impact derailed them both, and destroyed several wooden cars.

An investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) attributed the cause of the accident to several factors, notably serious errors by the crew of train No. 4 and tower operators, all of whom failed to properly account for the presence of the train No. 1 on the line. The ICC also pointed to a lack of a proper system for the accurate determination of train positions and noted that the wooden construction of the cars greatly increased the number of fatalities

Departures

At 7:07 a.m. on the day of the accident, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis ("NC&StL") train No. 4 departed Union Station in Nashville, bound for Memphis. The train, pulled by locomotive No. 282, a G8A class 4-6-0 ten-wheeler built by Baldwin, consisted of two mail and baggage cars and six wooden coaches.

Meanwhile, train No. 1, pulled by locomotive No. 281, also a G8A class 4-6-0 ten-wheeler built by Baldwin, was heading into Nashville from Memphis. Containing one baggage car, six wooden coaches, and two Pullman sleeping cars of steel construction, train No. 1 had departed McKenzie four hours earlier, and passed Bellevue at 7:09 a.m., thirty-five minutes behind schedule.

Approach

Both trains required the use of a single-track section approximately 10 miles (16 km) long in the western portion of Nashville. According to contemporary practices, the inbound train (No. 1) retained the right-of-way. Thus, the railroad dispatch informed the crew of the opposing (No. 4) train that they were to stop in the double-track section if they did not visually identify the passing No. 1 before they reached the interlocking tower known as "Shops Junction", where the single-track section began. The term "Shops" referred to the railroad's massive repair and refueling shops including its largest roundhouse. This was not a passenger stop but rather the junction where the railroad's mainline track to Memphis narrowed down to just one track.

While train No. 4 traversed the double-track section, the conductor delegated the responsibility of identifying No. 1 to the remainder of the crew. While collecting tickets, the conductor mistook the sound of a passing switch engine with empty passenger cars as No. 1. The crew either made the same error or were negligent in properly identifying the train.

As No. 4 approached the interlocking tower at Shops Junction, tower operator J. S. Johnson showed a clear signal from the tower's train order signals, indicating all was clear. As he stopped to record the train in his logs, he noticed that there was no entry showing that the opposing train No. 1 had passed. Johnson reported to the dispatcher who telegraphed back, "He meets No. 1 there, can you stop him?" Johnson sounded the emergency whistle, but there was no one at the rear of No. 4 to hear it. The train passed on the assumption that the clear train order board indicated that the line ahead was clear. Also, the engineman and conductor failed to visually inspect the train register at Shops Junction to ascertain as to whether No. 1 had yet arrived. That was required by operating instructions issued by the railroad's management prior to the wreck.

Collision

Shortly after 7:20 a.m. the two trains collided at Dutchman's Grade near White Bridge Road. It is estimated that the westbound train was traveling at about 50 mph while the Nashville-bound train was running at 60 mph. Many of the wooden cars were crushed or hurled sideways. The sound of the collision could be heard two miles (3 km) away.

This was to have been the last trip before retirement of the engineer of the Nashville-bound train.

Aftermath

The Interstate Commerce Commission listed the dead at 101, though some reports listed the death toll as high as 121.^[2] At least 171 people were injured. Many of the victims were African American laborers from Arkansas and Memphis who were coming to work at the gunpowder plant in Old Hickory outside of Nashville. As many as 50,000 people came to the track that day to help rescue survivors, search for loved ones, or simply witness the tragic scene.

In its official report, the Interstate Commerce Commission was harsh on the railroad. A combination of operating practices, human error and lax enforcement of operating rules led to this worst passenger train wreck in U.S. history. Had the signal tower operator properly left his signal at danger, the conductor monitored his train's progress rather than entrusting it to a subordinate, and had the crew inspected the train register at Shops Junction as required, the accident would not have happened.

This wreck provided the impetus for most railroads to switch to all-steel passenger cars versus wood and steel.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s, songwriters Bobby Braddock and Rafe VanHoy told the story of the trainwreck in the song "The Great Nashville Railroad Disaster (A True Story)". The song was recorded by Country music singer David Allan Coe on his 1980 album I've Got Something to Say.

The locomotives involved in the wreck, #281 and #282, were later rebuilt in 1919 and continued service until their retirement in 1947 and 1948 respectively and sold for scrap.

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     What is missing here is the back-story.   There was a troupe from New York City, returning from somewhere (probably Atlanta) and going somewhere else (possibly Chicago)…and the troupe was actually a downtown New York Theatrical concern that specialised in the classic Broadway plays and Shakespeare.  None were badly injured, although all were emotionally scarred and injured physically to some degree or another.
     There were so many dead…especially up in front.  By the luck of the draw, because this troupe was apparently famous and accomplished, they had the special Pullman sleeper cars in the rear of the convoy.   Their luggage contained  much of the costumerie they used in stage presentations.
     There was no way to go that way or come this way, due to the fact that the wreckage was so bad, and there were so many dead entangled in the mess.  The people of Estill Springs and Winchester helped where they could,  and upon finding out about these effete and delicate actors and actresses, it was determined that they should be put up in homes where they could have privacy and running water, etc.  It was approximately 18 people, playing about thirty roles.
     After gaining comfort, the charge'd'affairs  came forward and spake with the Tennessee people, saying that the troupe was "temporarily financially embarrassed" and is there any way we can repay you…etc. etc?"

     It seemed as though these folks were  going to be in for the duration.  In fairly quick order, a group of men returned to bother the "Theatrical Stars",  and by suggesting that the people of Winchester and Estill Springs would like to see a presentation of Romeo and Juliet or Julius Cesar, as written by Shakespeare.
     So it was done.  The central part of the main downtown park was prepared so as to served as a stage.   Chairs were brought from every church in town.  Then on their third night in this far and distant land, known as "The South", the troupe put forth a great version of Julius Cesar and on the second night a presentation of Romeo y Julieta.   When all was said and done, and accounts squared, etc.   some of the people with the troupe asked, ''Do these people have  a connection with people who teach elocution or history in your schools here?
     The answer was no…We take only our parents show us in terms of talking and speaking.   The people from the troupe were all but incredulous.   The chief of the group declared that they had much experience with Shakespeare and the classic Theatre, but they had never had people laughing at obscure points in the script, etc.  The chief declared that the folks in downtown New York did not have the understanding that these Tennessee people had in terms the ancient English and  the social matters that were presented.
     One of the "elders" of the local folks stated then," Well, you have to understand…what you all were saying is pretty much the way we talk and think.  Maybe we should all go up to New York and London and make us a decent living."   And to this point, all laughed and joined in the shaking of hands and slapping of backs, etc. 

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     The trilogy is complete…although there is so very much more to say.  But, brevity is the soul of wit and to-morrow, we shall be on our way down to our little adobe hut at the base of the mountains in Nowhere, Mexico.  To-day is the anniversary of our 47th year as a married couple.  I have no idea why my Boss hasn't put me on an iceberg to float off into the distant horizon.  But we are both still here.

More later.

El Gringo Viejo

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