Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Report from Luella Twining on Arrival of Mexican Patriots in Tucson

Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, ed, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 24, 1909
Tucson, Arizona – Mexican Patriots “Chained Together Like Wild Beasts”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

CHAINED TOGETHER LIKE WILD BEASTS
—–
Magon, Villarreal and Rivera are Delivered in Tucson Jail
Under Heavily Armed Escort
-Appeal to Reason Trampled Upon By Guard.
—–
Latest Developments in the Mexican-Washington Conspiracy
-The Inauguration of Taft Was Signalized by an Event
Not Chronicled in the Daily Papers.
—–

BY LUELLA TWINING
Special Correspondence Appeal to Reason
—–

Tucson, Ariz., March 4.

I have just come from the train that brought Magon, Villarreal and Rivera from the Los Angeles jail, in shackles, to be locked up in the jail at Tucson. At three o’clock in the morning a large party was there to greet them and let them know they are remembered.

It was difficult for them to alight, chained together as they were. Mrs. Sarabia ran up to speak to them and give them some sweet peas, but a deputy threw them down with, “You can’t give them any flowers.” Flowers are not for patriots-only chains and jails. I offered Mr. Magon a copy of the Liberty Edition of the Appeal, which had just come, but a deputy took it and would not allow him to have it.

The men were quickly rushed off with a deputy in front, two immediately behind them and two more farther in the rear. The two immediately behind them, guarded Mrs. Sarabia and myself. A man derisively called out to the guards, “Are you afraid of the women?” and a deputy searched Mr. Babcock and Dr. Fuller to see if they were armed. We followed them into the jail. Frequently the rear guard would push us back, saying, “Get back there, will you?” They seemed to grudge these poor fellows, who had been in jail for nearly two years, the consolation of even a friendly word or smile. One of the deputies said to me, “Will you get back?” I said, “I will,” but I thought the day will come when there will be so many of us that you cannot tell us to step back.

The men were marched into the jail and we watched them disappear into the deep corridor. The jail is a terrible place, so Manuel Sarabia can testify. “They will have blanket apiece,” said Mrs. Sarabia.

The crimson wool is for the oppressors, “but if blood be the price of your cursed wealth, good God we have paid it in full.”

In New York I saw the starving babes; in Tucson I saw three patriots in chains for attempting to better the conditions of society.

Attorney Worsley went over to see the men this morning in the jail. They were in good spirits because of the revolutionary movement that is being organized in this country by the Refugee League and the Western Federation of Miners, and they have been much gratified at the splendid work that the Appeal is doing for them. They, were delighted with the Liberty Edition, which Mr. Worsley showed them this morning. All three men are courtly in manner, handsome and refined in appearance. They are certainly men of the loftiest aspirations. To see them is to have confidence in them and admire them.

I hope to be able to visit them later in the week, in the jail.

The trial will probably come up in April at Tombstone.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]