A TERRIBLE DEED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16567, 3 June 1914, Page 14

A TERRIBLE DEED.

THE CUMBRE TUNNEL TRAGEDY. (By CAPTAIN JOHN T. NEVILLE in the San Francisco "Chronicle.") Never did the grim liand of Death so .suddenly wipe out of existence fiftyfive lives, a passenger train and.a mil-lion-dollar tunnel as it did on February o, when the south-bound passenger train on the Mexico North-Western Railway dashed into the great Cumbre tunnel a few miles south of Pearson, Chihuahua. Of the fifty-five passengers not one lived to see again the light of day nor to. relate the tale of the awful catastrophe. Train, track, tunnel and human life were crushed in one awful, brief moment. Tho tragedy of the ■ Cumbre tunnel is unequalled in railway annals. Of tho many tragedies which have occurred near tho international, border since Mexico went to war with herself none of them has so shocked tho United States, and especially the southwestern portion, as has that of the Cumbre tunnel. Men have been killed, women outraged, property stolen and arson perpetrated, but never, before had there been such an awful and heartrending occurrence, where every human being lost his life and where there was no survivor to chronicle the exact details of what had taken place. There is hardly a man, woman or child along the Rio Grande, near El Paso, who has not at some time seen Maximo Castillo, the bandit on whose head has fallen the awful sin of snuffing out those human lives. Time_was. prior to his capture, February 17, on American soil, and his subsequent incarceration in a cell in the El Paso gaol, when Maximo Castillo was honoured by Americans in El Paso and by Mexicans in general. WAS MADERO'S BODYGUARD.

Castillo first came into the limelight when, during the Madero revolution in 1910-11, he acted in the capacity of bodyguard to Francisco I. Madero. Tall, slender, dark and wrinkled, Castillo, who was then about sixty-live years old, was the picture of tho sort of bandits to bo seen on tho stage. His eyes were small and deep set, but there was something about them which caused one to take a second look. Ilk-y always twinkled like two black stars,, and. their twii-.kling was of a kindly nature.

His slender and wrinkled face was.almost completely covered with a long and flowing snow-white beard. His attire was more than picturesque. On his head rested a large and heavily ornamented sombrero, whose peak rose like a native mountain. His jacket was of velvet ornamented with braid. His charro trousers at the knees gave place to tan leggings, and on his heels were the great silver spurs of tho oldtime hacendado. In his belt were thrust two heavy pistols, and about his waist rested a bolt filled with shiny brass cartridges. Castillo look'ed more like a genuine book or stage bandit than anyone" I have ever seen. Perhaps he is the reincarnation of one of his PREDATORY ANCESTORS WHO FOUGHT UNDER CORTEZ.

When the Madero revolution was ended Castillo was sent to Chihuahua. It was the beginning of tho end for Castillo. A few months without his chieftain and his aged mind began to Wander. A few more months and his brain was swept with a storm which left no traces of his former noble character. Castillo imagined that he had been ill-treated by Madero, and ho took to the hills with his- few followers. Never did ho rest so long as Madero was President. Wherever Castillo went .there,,were arson, murder, rapine and theft. When Madero died a martyr to Mexico, Castillo never deviated from his former path of wickedness and insanity. He still imagined himself a foe of mankind, and he continued to scourge the country wherever his path led. When the quick and vigorous cam-, paign of General Francisco Villa wiped,the State of Chihuahua clean of Federal soldiers, it left Castillo: Castillo the implacable, Castillo the mobile, the insane bandit of the north. At first there were overtures to the bandit chieftain, but these gave way to chases; skirmishes, midnight raids and surprises on the part of either side.

On February 3, at the little town of El Vallc, in the peaceful valley of San Buehoventura, Castillo led his band of 150 men. When night spread her wings, the bandit troops were engaged in a drunken carousal. Following the carousal was a protracted rest, suddenly interrupted by the volley firing of Villa's men, who had been on the trail of Castillo through the long, weary months. ■ In a moment Castillo was on his horse; his men answered his call, and soon they were enabled to return THE DEADLY FIRE OF HIS ENEMIES. It was too late. More than fifty were dead a-nd wounded. Castillo ordered a 'retreat, and at a later gathering at the rendezvous there were not half of tho band left. . Back in El Valle, Villa's men cap-, tured twenty-two of the bandits. Ten minutes later every man of the twentytwo had been ushered into eternity by the "adobe route," which means that twenty-two backs were placed against an adobe wall and' twenty-two lives were snuffed oiit at the crack of as many rifles. ■■•, When Castillo heard of the fate of his followers, Tie is said to have become more violently insane, than- ever. The battle, or rather the massacre at El Valle, is to my mind entirely responsible for the catastrophs'a few days later at Cumbro.

'•" It was just north of the tunnel that Castillo surprised and captured two freight trains. One of these' ho

SENT INTO THE GREAT TUNNEL AND WRECKED. Soon it was a smouldering mass of wreokage. On the other he placed his men after mining the tunnel and dynamiting portions of it to check pursuit by tlu> victorious Villa ..troops,- who were, ero that time, hot on his trail. Castillo then loaded his men on tho re-; maining train and sped south toward the great lumber camp of Madera. I am sure Castillo never dreamed of wrecking the passenger train which was coming south from. Ciudad Juarez, bearing fifty-five human beings. Of theso fifteen wero Americans, six were > railway officials, and one was an official of the Pearson Lumber Company. On tho train was Mrs Lee Carruth, wife ot an engineer at Madera. With her wero the five young Carruth children. When the great Cumbre tunnel is reached" it is only after one of tho, most . picturesque journeys on the Western Continent. On all sides are the Sierra I Madres. Cliffs rise thousands of feet, and standing in relief against the skyline are myriads of giant pine trees, for which the district is famous. EXPLOSION SPREADS CARNAGE. As the train enteTs the bowels of the great mountain the passengers take a : fast look at the landscape; they draw j deep breaths as tho dark walls of the tunnel shut out the sunlight. They I little think that directly in front of them stalky sudden death.

Of a sudden the engineer and fireman smell the smoke of the burning freight train. Tho engineer closes the throttle, applies the brake and makes frantic efforts to bring the train to a stop, the wheels slide, the great monster speeds onward and in another second the train has struck the smouldering wreckage. The engine rears to the top of the tunnel. Tt balances a moment and then

rolls over on its side. As it leaves tho track the cars pile on top until tho wreckage fills tho narrow apperlure. Tho engine boiler explodes and fire is scattered among the heavy timbers with which tho groat tunnel is walled. There is a heavier explosion and the mine laid by Castillo shatters the remaining cars into fragments. All is buried beneath a million tons of earth, which slides from the walls and lop of the tunnel.

Of the entire crew and passengers only one man was able to leave the scene. This was Juan Fernandez, the rear hrakeman, and he perished a short distance away. At the time of tho accident Fernandez was riding in the rear coach and standing near the doorway. The force of the collision sent him HURTLING THROUGH THE DOORWAY, and, realising that death was close at hand, he ran rapidly towards the entrance of the tunnel. As ho makes the first one thousand foot the excitement and violent action take away his breath. Ho stops to recover it and tho smoke and poisonous gases overtake him. He ties his handkerchief about his mouth and gropes his way toward tho tunnel entrance, whicli means fresh air and safety. He stumbles and falls. He is up again, but the smoke is. getting in its deadly work. He falls again, then crawl's on his hands and knees. Just as ho reaches the tunnel entrance death overtakes him. The last survivor of Cumbro tunnel is* dead. When General Francisco Villa heard of the awful catastrophe he was moving on Torrebn. Ho flew into a rage, gave his command over to a subordinate and took a special train back to Ciudad Juarez. 1 CASTILLO IS CAPTURED.

He then ordered the death of every man in the Cumbre district who could not account satisfactorily for his presence there, and was about to issue even more drastic orders to avenge the victims of tho tunnel disaster when Castillo was taken into custody. Castillo, with six of his followers, was captured on American soil, thirtyeight miles 'south of Hachita, N.M., by Lieutenant Rothwell and Troop A of tliei Ninth Cavalry. Tho mad bandit put up no resistance, nor did his men. but a. sharp look-out was kept by the American troops for a largo party of the Mexican's men, who wore believed to bo in the neighbourhood. Later it was decided that the bandit troop must have broken up under the disorganisation incident to the capture of its leader. •There immediately arose, on _ Castillo's arrest, a diplomatic question of what should bo done with him. Tho Cumbre tunnel is in Mexico, and consequently the bandit >is charged with no.crime under the laws of the United States. Washington officials thought ho should be delivered over to the MEXICAN REBELS UNDER VILLA, but were certain when they suggested this that in such an event Castillo would bo summarily executed, as Villa had promised. Castillo, once ho had been placed in the El Paso gaoi. denied with vehemence that he or his band had been responsible for .the holocaust in the tunnel. He said he was the Zapata representative in the north of Mexico and was waging a revolution entirely separate and distinct from that of the recognised belligerents against the rule of the dictator, Huerta. But whether the disaster was premeditated and carefully planned, or whether its author unwittingly plunged so many souls into eternity, the fact remains'that the mad bandit of -Mexico could never give back to his victims their lives, nor to their loved ones solace for their irreparable loss.