Tales from the Morgue

1967: El Pasoan Proposes Six Day Week

01/18/1967

Our present calendar is cockeyed, in the opinion of Christian Jan Schlusing, an architect.

With that thought in mind he has come up with a "world calendar" which he says need never be changed and will be perpetually accurate.

Mr. Schlusing said he will offer his calendar lo the United Nations with the hope it will be adopted by every country, thus contributing to uniform measurement of time and to world understanding and peace.

THE SCHLUSING calender consists of two six-month periods with what he calls a "solar week" sandwiched between.

The six-month periods hove 180 days each, a total of 360 days. The solar week has five days, making a 365-day year, with an added day, Saturday, to be used when and if needed as Leap Year day.

Actually , Mr. Schlusing avers , the Leap Year day would not be needed, once time is measured scientifically."

He contends his calendar then would be self-adjusting" to any fractional time changes needed to keep track of the earth's annual journey around the sun.

IN CONTRAST to the existing calendar, the Schlusing world calendar has 30-day months and six-day weeks, there being no months with 31 days and no weeks with seven days. Days of the week would fall on the same days of the month the year round, Sunday, for example, would always be on the first, seventh, thirteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-fifth of the month.

Friday would never fall on the thirteenth, sparing people a lot of anxiety about bad luck.

To achieve a six-day week inventor Schlusing does away with all Wednesdays. This raised a question: How would churches observe Ash Wednesday?

"Just call it Ash Tuesday," said Mr. Schlusing. "All previous calendars have been inaccurate anyway.

"There exist enormous discrepancies in accounting for the passage of time. So much so that varying arbitrary dates have been employed for personal, political and ecclesiastical reasons.

"GEORGE WASHINGTON'S birthday (which he doesn't change) is Feb. 22, according to the Gregorian calendar we now use. But he was born when the Julian calendar, which was different, was used, "Between the 'years' A.D. 400 and A. D, 1400 there apparently was no calibrated time, no significant evidence

of a beginning or end. For all we know, we may now be living in the 10th Century!"

Easter, which moves about on the present calendar, would always fall on Sunday. April 13, by Mr. Schlusing's calendar. Christmas would always come on Sunday, as would New Year's Day.

FOR HIS SIX-DAY week, he envisions four working days of nine hours each, or a 36-hour week, with Sundays and Saturdays off. There would be no holidays in the four-day work week, but everybody except essential workers could take off during solar week, he explained.

Among the many advantages Mr. Schlusing attributes to his calendar are: It would simplify auditing, provide five working weeks every month and five pay days, permit weekly publications to have 60 issues a year instead of 52, and be so uncomplicated that a child could learn it in the primary grades.

Mr. Schlusing said he has been working on his calendar for two years, but got interested in the idea as a boy, when he saw his father invent what he called a "century calendar." It had a sliding device to determine on what day any date fell.

"MY CALENDAR is so simple it would be ridiculous not to adopt it," he said. "The only people it would hurt would be the calendar manufacturers. Mine would never have to be changed."

Mr. Schlusing plans for his world calendar to become effective when there is another Jan. I that falls on a Sunday, as it did this year. That won't happen again until 1978, he says and in the next 11 years the world will have time to see the advantages of his calendar and adopt it.

1939: Leap Year Records Show E. P. Bachelors Face ‘Open Season’

12/28/1939

County Clerk Lowry Is Looking for Business Boom Monday As Girls Get Chance To Pop the Question

The season on bachelors begins Monday as leap year starts County Clerk Lowry is looking for a lot of marriage license business.

The bachelors who figure they will be safe during 1940 had better look at the records In Mr. Lowry's office for the last 12 years.

The marriage license records show that El Paso's maidens have been using their right to pop the question during the last three leap years 1928, 1932 and 1936.

Twelve years ago, the marriage license clerks, the ministers and civil authorities really had a banner year. There were 1792 marriage licenses issued.

In 1929, the year after leap year, marriages dropped off by an even 400 when the question was left entirely to the men. That year there were 1392 weddings.

In 1931, the year before the 1932 leap year, marriage in El Paso reached ebb tide with only 679 licenses issued. But the women used heir fourth year rights in 1932, and there were 1122 men who went to the altar to say "I do."

The following year, marriages dropped off to 720.

The increase in marriages for the 1936 leap year was not so great, but the women got in their work, Mr. Lowry's records show. There were 1088 weddings that year, 80 more than the previous year, and 4 more than the 12 months after leap year.

The women have a good chance for Mr. Lowry to make a marriage license record during 1940. This year there have been 975 licenses issued. Mr. Lowry figures that 1940 should be 100 to 200 above this year's mark.

The average number of marriages in El Paso for the last three leap years has been 1334 compared with an average of 1012 for the non-leap years.

1976: Myar's Opera House was one of El Paso's most glamorous

07/05/1976

One of El Paso's most glamorous buildings before the turn of the century was the Myar's Opera House.

Built in 1887, it stood on the west side of El Paso street below Overland, south of the St. Charles Hotel.

Its builder, a prosperous cotton farmer and banker, did not even live in El Paso. Henry W. Myar's home was at Camden, Ark. He had moved there from Germany as a child.

Myar's sister-in-law married an El Pasoan, Herman Kayser, whose enthusiasm for the fast growing town probably inspired Myar to try his cultural venture in far west Texas.

The building was designed by El Paso architects, King and Duhamel, and Stewart and Carpenter. It measured 104 by 134 feet and was Renaissance in style. The auditorium seated 1,200, and there were also four stores on street level and 21 offices in the building.

The octagonal ceiling rose to a dome, painted blue, with eight large panel paintings by a Chicago artist set into the ceiling. Heavy embossed wallpaper covered portions of the walls, with the interior painted mainly white and pink. Six boxes in the theater had heavy, elegant curtains.

Ben Small, a local artist, made other touches including paintings and frescoes, gilded iron work and other ornamental items.

In the large polished brass chandelier there were 60 pendant lights. A professional stage machinist C.S. King, came from Chicago to build and paint the scenery, riggings and traps for the stage. He had worked in more than 200 theaters across the nation and termed the Myar Opera House the finest he had seen in Texas.

Total cost of the theater was estimated at $65,000.

The doors were opened at 7 p.m. Dec. 15, 1887. Within an hour the house was filled to see a performance of "Monte Cristo." The overture was provided by the 16th Infantry Band. James O'Neill was the star of the drama.

The second presentation was l.W. Baird's Mammoth Minstrels. In 1888, the major attraction was Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" starring Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett. Extra chairs had to be brought in to accommodate the crowd which did not balk at paying higher prices than usual in order to meet the price of the famous actors.

An a1l Spanish performance was given soon afterward by an acting troupe from Mexico, the Rosado Company.

Variety ranging from high drama to musical shows continued to be offered at the Myar Opera House until the fateful fire in 1905 that destroyed it. Us builder, Henry Myar, had taken special precautions against fire and had seen to it that four fireplugs were located near the new building, but all his precautions were no match for the flames.

1963: Downtown Buildings Razed for Freeway

01/05/1963

Some buildings have been cleared, others are in process of being razed and scores of others are marked for early demolition in the program that will expend more than 55 million this year on right-of-way for the Downtown Freeway

Six residential buildings have been razed on East Missouri avenue, one on North El Paso street, and one on North Santa Fe street, and a dozen others are either being demolished or are marked for clearance immediately.

All properties adjacent to East Missouri avenue are scheduled for immediate purchase and clearance this year, all the way from Campbell street to Piedras street.

Highway officials hope that all properties for the Freeway can be acquired by negotiations. But those along Missouri avenue, as well as elsewhere, that can not be acquired with reasonable speed by negotiation will be taken by condemnation proceedings so that there will be no delay in construction of the Freeway.

All operations incident to the Downtown Freeway project are under direction of District Engineer E. W. Mars of the State Highway Department, with Assistant District Engineer Max Moore in active charge, and with Herbert L. Niemeier in direct charge of right-of-way purchase

“We have purchased and hold deeds to 50 properties acquired for the Freeway, or, as we’ll call it, the Urban Expressway,” Mr. Niemeier said.

“That is about one-sixth of the total number of separate properties involved. The total number is about 320 properties.”

Mr. Niemeier said the State Highway Department paid more than $1.25 million for the 50 properties acquired. He said the properties scheduled for purchase this year will cost more than $5 million, based on preliminary estimates of their value.

“We have had wonderful co-operation by the property owners in closing out the transactions so far,” Mr. Niemeier said. “We have every reason to expect full co-operation in future negotiations for properties. All of our appraisers are El Pasoans. They know property values. Each property is appraised by two appraisers working separately. The State intends to be fair with each property owner.”

Property purchases are now moving at a rapid clip. Some of the best known properties in the City have been acquired.

Among those recently acquired are the Georgette Apartments at 711 North Stanton street, a three-story structure extending a half block back to the alley; the Carpenter Paper Co. property at 2000 East Missouri avenue, and the Crawford Sash and Door Co. property at 1630 East Missouri.

Hotel To Go

Purchase of the Oasis Hotel property, a three-story building at 711 North Oregon street, was announced 10 days ago.

Occupants of all buildings purchased are given reasonable time to vacate. The Oasis Hotel is to be vacated by March. But the management of the Georgette Apartments indicated to State highway officials that the building will be vacated by Feb. 1.

In addition to the 50 properties already purchased, appraisals have been made on about 50 other properties. And 20 property owners on Missouri avenue between Campbell and Piedras streets have signed agreements to sell at specific prices, but the transactions are not closed.

The houses that have been razed were sold on bids to buyers who specialize in house wrecking, and sale of whatever materials can be salvaged.

Bricks Cleaned

Two residential buildings, each a two-story apartment building on the northwest corner of Missouri avenue and Ochoa street, were sold to J. F. Campbell of 3014 Wyoming avenue; also one building on the southwest corner of the same street intersection. The one on the southwest corner already is razed and the bricks are being cleaned. One on the northwest corner is razed and the other is in process of being razed.

Mr. Campbell, long experienced in the house wrecking business, said the State Highway Department has called for bids on several additional buildings. He said competition in the building wrecking trade is keen, and that the State “comes out very well in disposing of the buildings that must be cleared for the Freeway.”

He said there is a strong demand for old bricks that are in good condition and that have been well cleaned of old mortar. "Some of the most expensive new dwellings in El Paso are built of old brick — and the older the more desirable they are," he said.

Got Property

The State has acquired the property on the southwest corner of Missouri avenue and Virginia street, and the old residence that was there since El Paso was young has been razed. That property is across Missouri avenue from the two-story building long occupied by the Velvet Ice Cream Co. — a building doomed for early razing.

An apartment house at 714 North El Paso street, two and a half stories high, has been bought by the Highway Department, and the “ancient” structure has been razed. That property is directly west, through the block, from the Oasis Hotel. The apartment building at 718 North El Paso street, just north of the one razed, will not be disturbed. It is north of the Freeway right-of-way line. Workmen are engaged in razing the three-story, brick apartment building at 700 North El Paso street, and the two-story house at 704 North El Paso, these properties being among those purchased for the right-of-way.

One house has been demolished on Santa Fe street in the 700 block, and others have been purchased by the State.

Describes Plans

Close examination of the engineering plans for the Downtown freeway shows that the project will change the appearance of the area it traverses much more than is commonly grasped.

The Freeway plans call not only for the main thoroughfare, but for a series of ramps and overpasses or underpasses in the near downtown area. The Freeway will begin to swing north from Missouri avenue just west of St. Vrain street, and will be depressed like an open tunnel before it reaches Campbell street.

The depressed portion will continue well west of Santa Fe street, in fact to about Prospect avenue.

Ramp Planned

There will be a ramp turnout from the main Freeway just west of St. Vrain street and extending along the main Freeway some distance, then passing over the Freeway, and coming down to surface level on Missouri avenue and extending on west for spacious flow of traffic into the downtown area. There will be other ramps, and special features.

The Freeway right-of-way will not take any property, other than a small area, south of Wyoming avenue and west of Campbell street. The Freeway route through the central section of the City, between Campbell and Santa Fe streets, will absorb Wyoming avenue and extend north toward Yandell drive. The right-of-way at one point east of Stanton will extend to Yandell drive.

Photo gallery: Interstate 10 construction 1959-1968

1923: Gen. Villa Slain; Shot 16 Times

07/21/1923

DESERTERS FROM BODYGUARD AMBUSH PARTY IN AUTOMOBILE; MIGUEL TRILLO AMONG KILLED

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Revolutionary Leader, Private Secretary and Members of Guard on Way to Canutillo Ranch When Attacked by Assassins, Who Escape on Horseback

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PARRAL CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO, July 20 – Gen. Francisco Villa, his private secretary, Col. Miguel Trillo, Rosalio Morales one Villa guard and a bystander whose name was not ascertained, were assassinated at Parral this morning.

Villa and his party were leaving Parral for the Villa ranch at Canutillo, Durango, when they were attacked in the outskirts of the town, between the Guanajuato bridge and the home of J.C. Long, general manager of the Parral and Durango railroad.

Villa was at the steering wheel of his automobile. He was shot 16 times, being wounded four times in the head and 12 times in the body. Trillo was wounded six times.

Horses Hidden near Bridge.

The assassinations numbered seven men and are said to have been deserters from Villa’s personal body guard. They were concealed in a house awaiting the Villa car. Their horses were hidden in the river bed, near the bridge, where the ambuscade occurred. The attacking party was armed with .30-.30 rifles.

Surprised by the quickness of the attack, General Villa and this party were unable to defend themselves. The assailants, following the attack which lasted but a few minutes, ran to their mounts and escaped. The attack occurred shortly before 8 o’clock.

Report Three Slayers Captured.

Gen. Eugenio Martinez, commander of the northern military zone assumed personal command of a column of troops sent to Parral yesterday as soon as word was received of General Villa’s assassination and advice received last night in Juarez were to the effect that three of the slayers had been captured.

It was announced that the bodies of Villa and Trillo would be taken to Chihuahua City for burial.

President Obregon was in communication with General Martinez yesterday and last night and urged the general to make every endeavor to bring the assassins to justice.

Alfonso Gomez M. federal stamp tax collector in Juarez and a former officer in the Villa army; Col. Dario W. Silva, former military secretary to Villa, and Carlos Cervantes G, former private secretary to Villa, expressed the belief that the assassins will be captured or killed.

Political reasons were advanced in Juarez as the cause of the attack.

Federal troops were sent from Chihuahua City to the Villa ranch at Canutillo in anticipation of possible discorders at the ranch.

An unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of Villa in February 1922, as the part of a revolutionary plot that failed with the first expedition sent into Chihuahua from El Paso.

Three men wee sent to Canutillo to enlist Villa’s aid. If he refused they were instructed to shoot him. But the plans went astray. Villa ordered them seized and executed.

Villa a Stumbling Block.

Enemies of the Obregon government and other political exiles readily agreed that Villa would be a stumbling block in the path of any revolutionary movement that might be launched in the southern republic.

Villa was discussed at a revolutionary junta held at Gomez Palacio, Durango, several weeks ago, according to reports received here. Whether his death was an indirect result of the meeting was one of the questions authorities were probing last night.

Francisco Villa, guerrilla chieftain and bandit leader in Mexico for more than 10 years, declared that he had ended his career of outlawry in August, 1920 when, at the head of 900 followers, the remnant of what had once been his army of 25,000 men, he entered San Pedro, Coahulla, and, amid the cheers of the populace, announced the intention of himself and men of accepting amnesty and settling down as farmers.

A few weeks earlier, Villa had surrendered to federal forces at Sabinal. He then declared his adherence to provisional President De la Huerta and Gen. Alvaro Obregon, later elected president to succeeded Carranza. Before capitulating, Villa demanded and was granted by the Mexican government, one year’s pay and a small farm for each of his men, a grant equal to $2,000,000 gold.

Raid on Columbus.

One of the most notable escapades of Villa was his raid on Columbus, N.M., on March 9, 1916, in which he and his followers killed 17 Americans. It resulted in a punitive American military expedition under General Pershing crossing the border and maintaining a “dead or alive” pursuit of Villa which lasted more than nine moths and cost the United Stated government, according to a war department estimate, nearly $100,000.000.

In a battle at Parral, American troops wee ambuscaded and a number of them killed. On March 31, however, the bandit’s followers were defeated at Guerrero. The American were successful in a number of other skirmishes and penetrated so far south into Mexico as to meet the constitutional troops of Carranza, who ostensibly, were also in pursuit of the renegade Mexican leader.

Villa, wounded, but always eluding his pursuers, lived in a Chihuahua mountain cave for five weeks. It was located in the center of a perpendicular cliff, which rose 150 feet from a brook on the level plain below and from this point Villa said he often watched the American troops. Many times he was reported dead. Upon the American army’s withdrawal from Mexico, Villa renewed his depredations. On April 1, 1914, he was indicted for first degree murder at Deming, N.M. on account of the Columbus raid.

Protects His Patriotism.

“They call me a bandit and the worst man in Mexico,” declared Villa when he was welcomed to San Pedro, Coahulla, “but I would preserve our nationality. I surrendered because further fighting in Mexico meant intervention by the United States. It is time for peace. In a manifesto he praised the “good faith, honor and patriotism” of Provisional President De la Huerta and declared it was his purpose to show the Mexican nation that he and his men could “build as well as destroy.”

The former bandit went with his family from San Pedro to Las Nievas, Durango, to “settle down” on his farm there, and shortly after wrote to De la Huerta for school books and supplies. Villa was said to have been deeply affected by the death of a daughter in San Antonio, Texas, a month after his surrender. Sixteen of his men who were among a number captured by Pershing and convicted of various offenses, were pardoned by the governor of New Mexico in November, 1920.

The first real tragedy in Villa’s life occurred when General Felipe Angeles was executed as a revolutionist by Carranza troops in 1919. Villa admired Angeles not only as a patriot and soldier, but regarded him almost as a father. He wept bitterly when he received word that Angeles had been shot. He threatened reprisals and later sided in the overthrow of the Carranza regime.

Villa’s real name was Doreteo Orango. He was born in 1863 of peon parentage in the little mining town of Las Nievas. As a youth he followed the trade of a butcher until the death of his father and then he and his mother and sister went to western Chihuahua. There he became a cowboy.

Many stories are told of his first clash with the laws of Mexico but the one most frequently related is that a captain in one of President Diaz regiments won the heart of his sister and eloped with her without the formality of a marriage. Villa, according to the tale, pursued the party, forced a marriage, forced his newly acquired brother-in-law to sign his own death certificate and dig his own grave, shot him and escaped to the mountains. Whatever the truth of this report, President Diaz placed a price on his head, and Villa gathered about him a band of fellow transgressors and became a terror to the well-to-do of northern Chihuahua, laughing at the attempts of federal troops and rurales to capture him. The spoils his hand acquired from the rich land-owners and mining men were frequently shared with the poor peons and he never lacked friendly warning when the officers of the law spread their traps for him.

Supported Madero Revolt.

At the time of the Madero revolution against Diaz in 1910 Villa joined the ill-fated revolutionary leader and did yeoman services with his hand in the fighting about Juarez. He accompanied Madero to Mexico City but later returned to Chihuahua. When Madero sent General Victoriano Huerta, then his commander-in-chief, in the north to break the Orozco rebellion, Huerta and Villa clashed. Each was intolerant of the other and Huerta finally had Villa arrested at Bachimbu, Chihuahua, and condemned to death by a military court for insubordination. Madero, mindful of his past services, had this sentence commuted to imprisonment in the penitentiary at Mexico City. While confined there Villa taught himself to read and write. He then escaped and sought refuge in El Paso.

When Huerta declared himself dictator after Madero’s death in 1913, and Carranza raised the banner of revolt in Coahulia, Villa again crossed the border to take a hand against his old-time enemy. He started that campaign with two horses, $7 in money and a meager supply of beans, coffee and sugar. In the more than a year he held power of life and death over a victorious army of 25,000 men, the larger part of them well mounted, and fully armed and equipped with artillery and possessed a war chest of several million dollars, filled by the seizure and confiscation of cotton, cattle and rich estates. The larger part of his equipment he captured from the enemy.

His former friends, the peons, flocked to his standard and he dealt blow after blow at the disorganized federal forces.

The Ojunaga Exodus.

Over 4,000 men and eight generals of the federal army took refuge in the United States and were interned after Villa’s victory at Ojinaga. He followed this success by a desperate attack upon Torreon, a federal stronghold which he stormed, after a short siege, in a desperate hand to hand attack.

The federal forces were still more decisively defeated at San Pedro de las Colonias, where they lost thousands in killed, wounded and prisoners. Without allowing them time to recover, he followed to Paredon, cut off the federal troop trains and captured large quantities of supplies. The remaining federal retreated to Saltillo, but could not be made to face Villa’s dreaded attack, and that city was evacuated before his approach.

Break with Carranza

This campaign cleared the federals out of the north of Mexico with the exception of Zacatecas City, and gave Villa virtual control of more than half of Mexico. He returned to Torreon and Chihuahua to rest and recruit in June 1914, and at this time came the first open break between him and Carranzas.

Although Villa had been one of the independent chiefs who met and formulated the plan of Guadalupe which made Carranza first chief of the constitutionalist forces, the two men always had been inimical.

A previous break narrowly was averted while both were in Chihuahua City in May, 1914. Villa had ordered General Manuel Chao, then governor of Chihuahua, placed under arrest and executed at sunrise, it is alleged. In connection with the seizures by Chao of certain property. Carranza learned of the danger to his friend Chao but a few hours before the time of execution. He sent his auto for Villa to come to the palace at 4 o’clock in the morning. The first chief’s chauffeur, Daniel Durzack, a young American from Boston, succeeded in getting Villa into the car alone and took him to the palace without his usual bodyguard – Colonel (then Major) Fierro, called “the butcher.” Whatever pressure was brought to bear by Carranza, Chao’s life was saved and Villa appeared with his arm about Chao at the triumphal entry of the first chief into Torreon.

The affair rankled, however, and in July of the same year the trouble again broke out. General Panfilo Natera, one of Carranza’s men, had been ordered to besiege Zacatecas, which was heavily fortified an strongly defended, but not attack until reinforce by Villa’s men, the plan being to bring so large a force to bear as to force surrender without a fight. It is said Natera, desperately anxious to have the credit of taking the town, misled Carranza as to the number of the garrison and tried to take the town by assault. His charge up La Buffa, the hill which commands the city, cost him nearly half his force in killed and wounded and he was repulsed.

Convention Government Formed.

Carranza then sent word to Villa, who was at Torreon, to send Nafera 5,000 reinforcements. Villa refused, saying Natera had gotten himself into trouble and could get himself out. Carranza then ordered Gen. Felipe Angeles, minister of war in his cabinet, but who was acting as chief of artillery for Villa, to join him at Saltillo. Angeles refused. An immediate clash between the Carranza forces under Gen. Pablo Gonzales and Villa seemed imminent, but a commission of prominent men of both sides met at Torreon and sided by representatives of the Untied States state department, patched up a truce.

When Carranza waited at Tiannapantia to make his triumphal entry into Mexico City, but a few miles away, it was announced that Villa and his troops would take part, but two days before the first chief entered the capital, Villa turned back to Torreon and from that time there was open war between the two men.

Villa in conjunction with Zapata dominated the convention at Agucallentes to determine on a provisional president and the procedure of the temporary government. Eullalo Gutierrez was named provisional president, but Carranza refused to recognize the action of the convention.

Carranza retired to Vera Cruz not Villa and Zapata forces occupied Mexico City only to leave it as provisions grew low. Zapata retired to his string-holds in Morelos and Villa turned back to the north. Gutierrez was cast aside for another figurehead and Villa martialed his forces to meet the Carranza troops under Gen. Alvaro Obregon.

Where Obregon Lost His Arm

Villa up to that time had never lost a battle in which he was in personal command, but Obregon, a less spectacular figure, but whose success in the west had equaled Villa’s in the north, was more than his match. At Celaya, Irapuato and Silao he defeated the former bandit.

In those battles Obregon lost his arm and Villa lost his grip on his men. He retreated northward of his old headquarters at Torreon, but dared not risk a battle even in that stronghold. One disaster followed another and he retreated across the mountain to Harry Sorrora in company with the Yaqui chieftain Urbalejo.

Gathering his forces, he marched north in an effort to seize Agua Prieta, border port through which he helped to get arms and supplies. Jut previously the United Stated had recognized the Carranza government, but Villa did not know this fact until he reached the border and found a strong force of American troops drawn up along the border with orders to prevent an attack from a quarter which would endanger American citizens on their own side of the line.

Villa made his attack but was beaten off by General Calles and the Agua Prieta garrison. Again he turned south only to meet General Dieguez advancing from Hermosillo. Caught between tow fires he turned back to his own country, Chihuahua. There the defections from his ranks continued. General Angeles and Governor Maytorena already had left his standard and nearly all the generals and men of his command followed suit, accepting amnesty of Carranza and surrendering their arms.

Villa sent his wife across the border and with but a few hundred men sought the mountains, again a bandit with a price upon his head. Looting ranchers for horses and provisions, he gathered about him scattered members of his former army.

Hunted closely by the Carranza troops under General Luis Herrera, it was rumored that he was approaching the border in the hope of escaping to the United States and justifying his course with the authorities at Washington.

Then came the most widely daring act of his reckless career, the attack March 9, 1916 on the American town of Columbus, N.M., and its garrison of three troops of American cavalry, resulting in the dispatch of United States soldiers.

Natural Born Fighter

Whatever his crimes, and they were many, none could doubt Villa’s courage. He loved fighting for its own sake, and seemed happiest when under fire. For a time he was almost an idol for his men and ruled them by an odd mixture of love and fear. Most of the songs sung about Mexican campfires had him for their hero and his soldiers were proud to brag that they were of Villa’s “gente,” his feudal subjects.

None who saw him lead his men into battle could doubt he was a leader of men. When he crammed a peon’s straw sombrero on the back of his head, filled the front of his shirt with grenades made of eight-inch pieces of gas pipe and stick of dynamite and yelled “Undule muchachos” (“Hurry, boys!”) they followed him eagerly, perhaps none the less eagerly from the knowledge that a firing squad in the rear had orders to shoot the first man who falters.

Enemy of Strong Drink.

By some he was accounted a military genius, in the days of his successes, but by many credit for the strategy and tactics displayed in his campaigns is given to General Felipe Angeles, a soldier trained at Chapultepee and St. Cyr. However, none questioned his ability to carry out the plans, whoever originated them.

The one vice he could not tolerate was drunkenness. His camps were models of sobriety although at times it required a row of he dead bodies lying before a wall to make them so. It is related by some of his men that they have seen Colonel Fierro, his body guard and one of those closer to him, beg on his knees for his life when he had neglected some order because of insobriety.

Nothing so delighted him as to “throw a scare” into his men. He would call them up for some dereliction of duty, tongue-lash them until they expected nothing less than instant execution, whack them across the back with the flat of his sword and then grin, throw them a handful of pesos, and warn them not to do so again.

1923: Col. Dario Silva, Military Secretary to Villa, Relates Activities of Chief Since 1913

1923: Hectic Life of Slain “Pancho” Filled With Florid Tales of Blood Feuds and Death Squads

1923: Obregon Urges Apprehension Of Pancho Villa’s Slayers

1923: Pancho Villa, Who Lived by the Pistol and Died by it, Passes Into Mexico History

1977: Villa’s Widow – Secrets In Her Eyes

1963: Border Closed After JFK Death

11/23/1963

A U.S. Immigration Service law and a new Mexican order were put into effect within minutes of each other Friday night allowing conditional pedestrian and vehicular traffic along El Paso-Juarez border.

U.S. immigration officials said that the Departure Control Law, authorizing the prevention of any alien or U.S. citizen from leaving the country, became effective shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.

An order dispatched to Mexican border officials by Lic. Luis de Chavarria, assistant secretary of the Ministry of Gobernacion (Interior) rescinded an earlier mandate which was received at 2 p.m. Friday (El Paso time), and which immobilized vehicular and pedestrian traffic through the three international ports of entry.

Chavarria’s latest order authorized Mexican residents with local crossing cards to enter the country. No foreigners were being permitted to enter.

Alberto Fernandez Colima, assistant Juarez immigration chief, said that American citizens who had been trapped in Juarez when the order was issued then were permitted to cross to El Paso after showing proper credentials.

He said the Mexican order also prohibited foreigners in Mexico to leave the country.

Under the U.S. Immigration Departure Control Law, which will remain effective until President Kennedy’s killer is arrested, gives American immigration authorities on the border authorization to prevent any U.S. citizen or aliens from leaving the U.S.

Some vehicles bearing Mexican license plates were allowed to cross from El Paso to Juarez, but only after a thorough investigation and proof of vehicle ownership was shown.

American citizens living in Juarez also were prevented from crossing into Juarez under both the Mexican order and the American law.

American citizens trapped by the earlier order, which was a security measure agreed on by both governments, were able to cross from Juarez shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.

Pedestrian and vehicular traffic on Cordova Island free bridge was suspended completely. However, despite new developments. At the same time, traffic to and from the U.S. on the Columbus, N.M.-Palomas international road flowed freely.

Shortly after 6 p.m. El Paso time, some units of the Juarez Army Garrison were ordered to supplement the Mexican Immigration Service in Juarez, according to Maj. Gen. Tiburcio Garcia Zamora, commander of the garrison.

At one time, over 8,000 people jammed at both the Santa Fe and Stanton street bridges, with long lines of cars bumper to bumper as far as Paisano Drive.

Earlier, the U.S,-Mexico border from Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico to Tijuana, was tightly closed by Mexico following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1914: Everything Now Ready For Establishment Of School Of Mines

04/30/1914

UNIVERSITY BOARD ACCEPTS PROPERTY

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Professor S.H. Worrell, Now a Member of the Faculty at Austin to Have Charge of Local Institution

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By Special Wire to the Times

Austin, Tex., April 29 – At the meeting of the board of regents of the University of Texas, held here this week, the board formally accepted from the city of El Paso the site and buildings for the School of Mines to be established there as a department of the university.

The property consists of 22 acres of land and several buildings, formerly belonging to the El Paso Military Instituted. The school of mines and metallurgy was established by an act of the 32d state legislature, which appropriated $15,000 for its support. The appropriation was conditioned upon the transfer of the property above mentioned, and the act now becomes operative.

Worrell to Be Dean of Local School

S.H. Worrell, at present chemist in the bureau of economic geology and technology, was elected dean of the new school. Professor Worrell received the degree of B.S. from the Texas state university in 1901, and later did post graduate work in the same institution, at the Colorado state school of mines and at the University of California. He was for one year instructor in chemistry at the Colorado school of mines. Professor Worrell has had extensive practical experience both in the country and in Mexico with mines and mining companies.

University has Plenty of Funds

The university has sufficient funds on hand to meet all running expenses until March 15, 1915, according to the treasurer’s report to the regents. The board will have opportunity to present the needs of the institution to the legislature before any financial handicap seriously cripples the institution.

New Dean of Men

The board elected Dr. H.R. Benedict, of the college of arts, dean of men. He will fill a position with about the same authority over the men students of the university that Mrs. Helen Marr Kirby now has in regard to the women of the school. Dr. Benedict will remain dean of the college of arts with two assistants.

While the board has not announced its attitude in the matter, it is very probable the University of Texas will adopt a new policy regarding salaries for efficient men. The board indicated at its lat meeting that the university was handicapped because competent men usually resign to accept positions with school that are able to pay better salaries.

Dr. Frederick Duncalf was elected a member of the faculty. Dr. Duncalf resigned last year to accept a position as associated professor of history in the University of Illinois.

He was re-elected professor of medieval history in the University of Texas. He is one of the leading authorities in the country on medieval history.

The following members were present: Clarence Ousley, Fort Worth, chairman; F.W. Cook, San Antonio; W.H. Stark, Orange; George W. Littlefield, Austin; Dr. A.W. Fly, Galveston; J.W. Graham, Austin; S.E. Mezes, president of the university; E.J. Mathews, secretary of the board.

Absent: W.H. Burges, El Paso; Alex Sanger, Dallas; Will C. Hogg, Houston.

The board has arranged for the completion of the nurses home at Galveston and voted to name it “The Rebecca Sealy Nurses’ Home” in honor of the mother of John Sealy and Mrs. R. Waverley Smith, all of whom have long been friends of the medical department.

New Position Created

To relive Dr. Benedict of some of his duties as dean of the college of arts, thereby allowing him some time for his new duties, the position of assistant dean of the college of arts was created and E.J. Mathews appointed to it in addition to the positions of registrar and secretary of the board of regents, which he now holds. This action provided the college of arts with two assistant deans, Dr. H.T. Partin having been appointed to such a position a year ago. Dr. H.W. Chase was appointed professor of clinical psychology in the department of education. Dr. Chase is at present teaching in the University of North Carolina. Dr. B.L. Arms, of the University of Oregon, was appointed professor of preventive medicine to succeed Dr. J.W. Simonds, the present incumbent at the medical department.

George A. Butts was appointed associate professor of law for next year to succeed Ralph C. Bennett, instructor in law, whose resignation was accepted. The board created the department of mechanical engineering and authorized the granting of the degrees of mechanical engineer and bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Forrest E. Cardullo, of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, will be professor of mechanical engineering, filling a position created a year ago. Hal C. Weaver was transferred from the school of electrical engineering to the new school.

Professor N.H. Brown, of the school of electrical engineering, tendered his resignation to the board and it was accepted.

Donations to University

Regent George W. Littlefield presented to the university the sum of $25,000 invested in vendors’ lien notes to be known as the “Littlefield history fund.”

Mrs. Betty Ballinger, of Galveston, donated to the university for use by the law library the sum of $1000 to be known as the “Ballinger and Jack fund.” This money is invested in Galveston wharf bonds and yields $60 per year. The income will be used in subscribing to law publications, in the purchase of rare books, or as a subsidy for a “Law Review” as may be decided upon by the faculty of the law department and the president of the university.

To Build More Shacks

The law department has in contemplation the publication of a magazine which this donation may make possible. The board accepted from major Littlefield and the artist Pompeo Coppini a valuable collection of plaster paris statuary. Anticipating an increase in the student body next year, the regents felt compelled, although greatly regretting the necessity, to order the erection on the campus of three more shacks, one to be used as a temporary laboratory for zoology and geology, one for manual training and the third as a woman’s gymnasium.

1988: Irritated ump boots ‘The Mouth’ for a song

05/25/1988

Rick Cantu
El Paso Times -

Paul Strelzin’s musical tastes got him kicked out of Tuesday night’s El Paso Diablos baseball game at Dudley Field. In one of the most bizarre moments in recent memory at the old baseball park, the Diablos’ public address announcer was thrown out of the game by umpire Brian Owen after playing Linda Ronstadt’s “When Will I Be Loved?” The opening line of the song – “I’ve been cheated” – infuriated Owen.

Strelzin, known around town as “The Mouth,” began to play the tune after Diablo runner Joe Mitchell was called out on a close play at home during the fifth inning of the Jackson Mets’ 12-3 victory. Strelzin stopped when Owen signaled him to cut the song short.

When Strelzin played the song again – between innings – he was tossed. Owen’s decision confused Strelzin and Diablos General Manager Rick Parr. It also angered many of the 2,252 fans at the stadium. One customer was removed from the stadium by police after throwing ice at first base umpire Dale Luker.

“I think the man (Owen) owes me an apology,” Strelzin said. “I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.” Strelzin said he played the song to help get the fans involved in the game. At the time, Jackson was winning 8-1 and the crowd had been relatively silent.

Strelzin and Parr said the song, which ahs been played at Diablos’ games since 1974, is not intended to poke fun at umpires. “The intent is to make the game fun for the fans, not to pinpoint anything the umpires do,” Parr said.

The game was held up for about five minutes after Owen ejected Strelzin. Owen discussed the matter with Parr on the field while some fans shouted obscenities at the umpiring crew. Strelzin, who has been the team’s announcer for 10 of the past 14 seasons, said he doesn’t understand Owen’s decision. “I’ve played that song more than 200 times and no one has ever objected to it.”

Owen, who has umpired several games at Dudley Field, said he had not heard the song at the stadium before. He said he ejected Strelzin because he believed the lyrics “incited the crowd.” Owen said, “The song is telling the fans to get on the umpires. It can get to the point were it’s dangerous for umpires.”

Owen disagreed with Parr’s claim that the song is intended to give the fans a few laughs: “It’s an attempt to have the crowd react to our calls.” After Strelzin was ejected, Parr phoned Texas League Commissioner Carl Sawatski. Parr and Sawatski probably will discuss the matter with the umpires before tonight’s game at Dudley Field.

Parr said Sawatski attended several Diablo games – including a few last week – and has never objected to the song. Strelzin, who is also principal at H.E. Charles Junior High, said he doesn’t know if he’ll play the song tonight if another close call goes against El Paso.

Owen meanwhile said he “more than likely” will eject Strelzin again if he plays it. Game time is 7 p.m.

Paul Strelzin photo gallery

Globetrotter spent his last days in El Paso

06/21/2010

By Milan Simonich
El Paso Times

Hidden El Paso is an occasional series on overlooked characters or places that are part of the city's history.

EL PASO -- The first legendary Globetrotter held court in El Paso during the last two years of his life.

Reece "Goose" Tatum, showman, businessman, man of the people, starred with the Harlem Globetrotters for 12 seasons in the 1940s and '50s. After breaking from the Trotters and starting his own team, he died in El Paso on Jan. 18, 1967. He was 45.

Tatum, who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

An attending physician said Tatum's death was of "natural causes." Slender news accounts of the time stated that Tatum had been hospitalized for "a considerable time" with an illness that was never specified.

Born in Arkansas in 1921, Tatum grew up in a segregated America. This meant that his talent in baseball and basketball was not nearly so important as the color of his skin.

Most professional sports owners of that era wanted all-white teams. So starting in 1940, at age 19, Tatum played on teams such as the Birmingham Black Barons, the Cincinnati Clowns and the Detroit Stars of baseball's Negro Leagues.

He stood 6 feet 6 inches and weighed under 200 pounds, but still made a formidable first baseman. Tatum also possessed a comedic flair and a willingness to interact with black audiences whose members were unwelcome in so many other parts of American society.

His style captivated Abe Saperstein, owner of the Globetrotters, who signed him to the all-black basketball team in 1941.

Tatum played a season before his career was interrupted by war. Drafted by the Army Air Forces, he served as a physical education instructor.

Once back with the Trotters, his deadly hook shot and exaggerated comedic routines made him one of the better-known black athletes in America.

By the late 1940s, a handful of black players such as Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and Monte Irvin had been hired in baseball's Major Leagues. Chuck Cooper, of Duquesne University, became the first black player drafted by an NBA team when the Boston Celtics selected him in 1950.

But Tatum, two years younger than Robinson, would spend the rest of his athletic career on black teams that entertained primarily white audiences.

Tatum bolted the Trotters in 1954 and later started his own touring team, the Harlem Road Kings. History, though, regards him as a Globetrotter.

He is one of five players whose jerseys were retired by the Trotters. Tatum wore No. 50. The others so honored by the Globetrotters were Wilt Chamberlain, Curly Neal, Marques Haynes and Meadowlark Lemon.

Tatum had seen the world before settling in El Paso in the mid-1960s. By then, he was running his Road Kings, a lesser-known version of the Trotters. He had planned to join his team in Dallas on the day he died.

1974: Few El Pasoans Ever Heard of Royce Martin

08/22/1974

WILLIAM C. McGAW

Researching the early life of Royce G. Martin is like trailing a very old and shifty ghost in a sandstorm.

Few in El Paso today say they ever heard of him.

Records of his early activities around here arc so obscure as to be mysterious. During a career spanning more than a half century his name is mentioned only twice in the old El Paso Herald, and once in The Times, according to the El Paso Public Library newspaper index, but he was the subject of countless stories in Time. Fortune, Newsweek, Forbes, Barren's and The New York Times, which often devoted nearly whole pages to interviews with him.

THIS RECONDITE man may have seemed of small consequence to the El Paso establishment, but in 1952, the last year for which complete figures are available, Royce Martin's various business enterprises netted him $9.8 million. That's not a bad year's income for an orphaned farm boy, born at Clint, Texas. June 7,1884.

When I asked Joe Prensky about-him. Joe said, "Sure, I knew him. He used to be a runner for gambling games around here."

Chris Fox recollected Royce owned property here, but "I'd have to check with our trust department for any details."

THIS ABSTRUSENESS is strange indeed when the subject was probably the first from El Paso to make it in Who's Who in America, who was a Papal Knight, a world leader in industry and finance and whose death in 1954 was of such significance that Francis Cardinal Spellman flew from New York to Lexington, Ky., to celebrate solemn high requiem mass in Christ the King Church.

Furthermore , Martin retained such a low profile in El Paso that 1 haven't yet found anybody who knew his name was "Royce." They all thought it was Roy.

I haven't found a single printed source here telling of his having been fiscal agent for the Army of the North in the Madero Revolution, nor his friendship with Raul Madero, Pancho Villa and his brothers, Hipolito and Antonio, as well as some other Americans in Chihuahua like Dave Wallace, later head of Chrysler Division of Chrysler Motor Co., and Harry Gillis, later vice president of Republic Steel.

IT IS UNLIKELY I ever would have become interested in this unusual and talented man if I hadn't encountered his name in interviews with oldtime Villistas, people I interviewed for biographies material on Pancho Villa, a book l am still researching.

Royce ran the financial end of the revolution in the north and in so doing made a lot of people in El Paso rich. He placed a. single order with Haymon (formerly Hyman) Krupp for 40,000 khaki uniforms including boots, hats, leggings and coats; furthermore it was Martin's job to raise the money to pay for these items, one source of which was overseeing that the gambling concessionaires paid their full share to the Chihuahua State Government, with no "skimming."

This job was fraught with peril, causing the loss of the tip of his right index finger, according to Time magazine in a story about his encountering a mean individual who did not care to ante up.

THE RECALCITRANT pulled a 45-Colt to demonstrate his displeasure and Roy attempted to disarm him, accidentally poking his index finger in the barrel. He got the gun, but lost the tip of his finger.

Time magazine called Roy "hickory tough," for, although not a large man, he consistently proved a nemesis for those who would do him harm —in revolutions or in business.

"Fiscal agent" is how Martin described his job with Villa and other revoluntionary leaders, but the term is vague. An interviewer for the New York Times story (published April 5, 1953) asked him "if he was picked by Villa because of his training or talent as an auditor or accountant."

"ROYCE LOOKED at the questioner," said the Times, "as if he had called him a rattlesnake.

" 'I've been a mechanic all my life,' he declared. 'I was a mechanic when I served Villa. He didn't know whether cartridges should cost S7 or $700.1 did, and I was able to see that funds were not dissipated. But I was never a bookkeeper.' "

How did Martin become a mechanical genius in that part of the southwest in those days, where the hinge on a gate was the most complicated mechanical contrivance to be found?

HE LEARNED it in Chicago. Orphaned at 9, Roy was sent to his grandmother Boyd's in Chicago to attend St. Patrick's and later St. Aloysius academies. His mother was Ann Boyd before marrying George W. Martin, Clint farmer and rancher.

While at St. Aloysius Martin worked during the summer, first as a bank runner, which he didn't like, and later as an apprentice in the toolshop of Felt and Tarrant Co., marine motor manufacturers.

After leaving school he was apprenticed to the Western Electric Co. of Chicago, and in 1905 he returned to the El Paso area, where he raced horses at Juarez and worked as a foreman for the Mexican National Railroad.

THROUGH this latter job he became acquainted with Raul Madero, brother of the Mexican Revolutionary leader and President Francisco Madero, Chihuahua Governor Abraham Gonzalez, Revolutionary General Paneho Villa and his brothers, Hipolito and Antonio, as well as two Americans in Chihuahua mining, Dave Wallace, later president of the Chrysler Division of the Chrysler Motor Co., and Harry Gillis, destined to become president of Republic Steel.

The latter two employed Villa $5,000 a year to protect their inbound supply trains and outbound bullion trains from their mines at Rio Tinto.

WHEN THE revolution got too hot for Villa to protect the mines, specifically when de la Huerta was coming up from the south to meet Villa head-on in a battle fought near Ahumada, Pancho warned that Americans found by de la Huerta were likely to lose both life and property, so Wallace and Gillis left the mines for good. They drove to El Paso in an open Mercedes, and since there were no roads, the men deflated their tires and wrapped the wheels with canvas for traction. They joined Martin in Juarez for a few days, then proceeded back East, where they became leaders in U.S. industry and life-long friends of Royce.

DONA LUZ CORRAL de Villa, widow of Pancho, remembers Roy well, she told me the other day in Chihuahua. "Roy and Raul Madero were friends first, then through Raul, Pancho and Roy developed a friendship," she said. "Roy was also a friend of Abraham Gonzalez (newspaper editor and later governor of Chihuahua) and I think worked closer with Hipolito Villa than anybody. They ran Juarez."

When Hipolito Villa brought some $30,000 worth of jewels to a Villa headquarters house at 329 Leon street (near today's Convention Center) the Federal Government confiscated them on a charge they was stolen property.

ROYCE MARTIN supplied the surety for Hipolito's bond of $5,000 and after the latter was acquitted of this charge a few days later, Martin went with him to Havana, Cuba, where Dona Luz Corral de Villa had arrived some weeks earlier.

This, no doubt, gave rise to the statement in Time that Royce accompanied Mrs. Villa to Havana, when it was Hipolito he actually took there. Mrs. Villa had already arrived in Cuba on the steamer Atenas, embarking from New Orleans.

Roy began one of the first automobile finance companies in Texas, the Texas Automobile Mortgage Co., Inc., in 1914, which was the first year he took up residence in the Linden Hotel, 504 North Oregon.

THIS PROPERTY had been the site of the home of Colonel Theodore L. Eggers, who joined Michael McLean, former deputy of Bat Masterson and a partner of Col. E. R. Bradley in the Bacchus, in the purchase of the Wigwam Saloon in 1891.

They sold the Wigwam to W. A. Morehouse in 1893, and Col. Eggers opened his own place, called "The Eggers Saloon," at the rear of No. 6, Pioneer Plaza. Eggers sold this property in 1910 and built the Linden Hotel where his residence had been.

Col. Eggers had two beautiful daughters, Delia and Doris, and Royce married the latter. Their two daughters were born at the Linden, also called Doris and Delia, and both are still living today, the former in Toledo, Ohio, and the latter in Cincinnati.

ROYCE owned the Tivoli Gardens and La Fiesta, the finest Juarez casinos, and a place called The Annex on San Antonio street. In 1921 he bought the Elite Confectionery Co., Inc., building and all, at Mesa and Texas, where he began the manufacture of chocolate covered ice cream baseballs. Stupid? It sure was. Nobody wanted chocolate covered baseballs. So he changed them into Eskimo Pies and sold that idea for a fortune.

By now he had built a large home at 1707 Mesa (where Levinson's Realty is now) and living with his wife and daughters was the widow of Col. Eggers, who had died in 1917.

Royce bought substantial amounts of El Paso real estate, and still owned much of it at the time of his death, according to his daughter, Doris, with whom I spoke briefly over the phone recently.

HE ALSO owned a 70,000- acre ranch, according to the Time and Fortune stories, but his daughter said he had sold that early. She said it lay just east of El Paso, "all along the Rio Grande."

By 1912 El Paso was growing rather small for a man with the energies and talents of Royce Martin, so he went to Brooklyn and bought the Safe-T-Stat Corp., a manufacturer of visual thermometers for automobile radiator caps, then purchased all of the capital stock of the Nagel Electric Co. of Toledo, and absorbed the National Gauge and Equipment Corp. of LaCrosse, Wis., which he combined with the Moto-Meter Co., of Long Island City, N.Y., paying some $5 million dollars for their combined assets, for which he paid cash with his signature, according to Fortune.

This corporation became known as Moto-Meter Gauge and Equipment Corp., with Martin its president.

ROYCE became president of Auto-Lite in 1934 when Moto-Meter and Auto-Lite merged, then he succeeded to chairman of the board in 1944, after the death of C. O. Miniger, founder of Auto-Lite.

Under Martin's leadership, Auto-Lite's annual sales grew from about $34 million in 1934 to $300 million in 1953. He not only strengthened the firm's position in the original equipment field to include almost every automobile manufacturer, but also expanded Auto-Lite's position in replacement sales until Auto-Lite became the world's largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical parts.

He also was instrumental in channeling Auto-Lite's production facilities into other non-automotive fields. At his death, Auto-Lite operated 30 plants in the U.S. and Canada.

ROYCE CONTINUED his great love for horses and was associated with racing throughout his life. He owned Woodvale Farm, near Lexington, where he and his wife bred, raised and trained race horses. Three of his horses, Our Boots, Halt and Goyamo, ran in Kentucky Derbies. His wife died at Lexington in 1950.

Royce was on his breeding farm when he suffered a heart attack on April 30, 1954, and was removed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he appeared to be responding to treatment.

The next day, however, was Derby Day, and he insisted on watching his horse Goyamo run "for the roses" on TV. He died only minutes after Goyamo finished fourth.