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DIPLOMAT'S WIFE IN MEXICO
huila, Queretaro,
Guanajuato, etc., will not be accepted from customers. The richer refugees coming in from Chihuahua had hundreds of thousands of such. Oh, for a few wicked cientificos! A lot of trouble about the Constitutionalist fiat money is beginning in the north. Merchants who fight shy of it are put into jail, regardless of nationality. Its appearance, to a careful, thrifty man, must be appalling. Bills have only one signature, and any one holding them forges the missing signatures, or the nearest and most interested jefe politico affixes the stamp of his jefatura. The drawback is that it is difficult to get merchandise or food When is money not money? That way in exchange. economic ruin. lies Huerta talks a good deal about Napoleon these days "gran hombre, gran hombre!" ("a great man! a great man!"). In a recent speech he said: "We have a right to our independence, and we will keep it. If any attack is made against the country, all will witness something Villa, Carranza, Huerta great and extraordinary." (Zapata, too, the chance offered), delight in ignoring the United States. On that point, all are united. The recovery of Torreon has had immense, though, of course, only temporary, economic importance. The huge cotton crop which Villa picked when he took the town, pressing into service every man, woman, and child, and thinking to sell it to the United States, has been shipped by the Federals to various cotton-mills, and means work for thousands. There are sometimes really bright things in the Mexican Herald. To-day, about the United States protection "Mr. Bryan's idea of protection of citizens, it says: seems to be built on the cafeteria plan come and get it. We don't carry it to you." Cambiaggio, the new Italian minister, will be de97
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