The Hebbronville News (Hebbronville, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 9, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 1, 1928 Page: 1 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Borderlands Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
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Cattle, Cotton,
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■ MM M ' - '-*».«•» .'
HEBBRONVILLE NEWS
Volume V, Number 9.
HEBBRONVILLE, (JIM HOOO COUNTY, TEXAS.
_I
Wednesday, February 1, 1928.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
Hebbronville
Six miles south of Hebbron-
ville , on an elevation overlook-
ing a beautiful stretch of coun-
try on all sides, there is a won-
derful artesian well from which
has been created a large swim-
ming pool or lake and this has
been turned into pleasure resort
for the people of Hebbronville
during the Spring and Summer
seasons. The well is on a 4,500-
aere tract of land owned by
Mrs. Lorine Jones Spoonts and
given to her by her father, Col.
W. W. Jones. Three years ago
Mrs. Spoonts thought very
seriously of establishing a health
and pleasure resort at the well,
but the idea was given up be-
cause of the fact that she and
her sister, Mrs. Kathleen JonM
Blanchette, now Mrs. Clarence*
Hocker, . bought the handsome
Nueces Hotel at Corpus Chr s!i
about that time and this has
occupied most of Mrs. Spoonts”
attention, and will, until the
$350,000 addition to the hotel,
now being built, is completed.
‘‘When this addition is finish-
ed,” said Mrs. Spoonts to a
News representative a few days
ago, “then I am going to think
about that resort at the well. I
have by no means abandoned
the idea for the water from the
well, with its splendid medicin-
al qualities, is too valuable to be
nsed for bathing purposes only.”
The water from the well is al-
most too hot to drink when it
fiist comes up, and an analysis
has showed that the water pos-
sesses some extraordinary medic-
inal qualities. Near the well is
a beautiful site for a hotel, and
it would take but a compara-
tively short time to make the
hotel grounds a place of beauty,
for the climate and soil are
ideal for oranges, grapefruit,
figs, grepes, etc., and more ideal
still for roses and a’l manner!
of flowers. A hundred palm trees
have been planted around the
artificial lake formed from the
artesian well and it will not be
a great while now when th
MR. HEARST AND THOSE “FORGED* 1
LETTERS THAT WERE BONA FIDE
A Man, a Town and
History
Something toils: u* that Broth-
er Hearst is plumb tired of Mex-
ican manuscript literature—Dal-
las Morning News.
There is nothing Mr. Hears!
has done to be ‘‘tired of,” il
publishing those Mexican lettc:s
is what the Dallas paper h,ia
reference to. The trouble is the
Senate Committee had a white-
washing party instead of an in-
vestigation. As the letters Mr.
Hearst published were original
documents, there was no way
the information published by the
Hearst papers whieh told of the
intrigues of Culle* with Russia
and Japan, and of his efforts to
give those countries control of
a canal acroaa Nicaragua f The
information published by the
Hearst papers had been in pos-
sission of the State Department
for many month# and was par-
tially told in a communication
submitted by Mr. Coolidge to
Congress quite i while ago. In
that communication he also told
in which he could establish the,of how Calles was backing a re-
fact that they were original ex-
cept by the letters themselves;
while the Western Union Tele-
graph Company had destroyed
all record of the telegrams, if
it had any, in conformity with
its usual custom of cleaning up
and burning all such records
after they are held a certain
length of time.
On the other hand, the Senate
Investigation Committe? did not
disprove the originality of the
letters, according to the belief
of many intelligent Mexican
people and some Americans who
are well-posted. The Committee
called in a lot of handwriting
experts who compared the Calles
signatures in the letters with
what was alleged to be the
“real” Calles signature, sub-
mitted by the Committee, and
‘■he , experts pronounced the
letter signatures forgeries. Now
how did the Committee know
that the Calles signature submit-
ted to the experts was ‘‘real?”
Did any Member of the Com-
mittee or any of its agents see
Calles write the ‘‘real” signa-
ture?
I Some years ago, there was a
volution headed by Sacasa, who
was endeavoring to overthrow a
constitutional Nicaraguan gov-
ernment that aftd been recog-
nized by the Administration at
Washington. But the Admin-
istration evidently did not want
this part of the xiearst exposures
investigated, at lcafit not until
the Conference :t Havana is at
an end, and so the Senate Inves-
tigating comm;‘*ee cut. short its
investigation by pronouncing as
forgeries the letters naming
certain Senators, and the blame
was placed oi. Mr. Hearst.
But Mr. Hearst will yet ba
vindicated, for ‘‘truth crushed
to earth will riec again” and un-
doubtedly in this instance the
truth has been suppressed and
for reasons be^t known to the
Committee and the Administra-
tion.
In substantiation of the state-
ments made by various patriotic
Mexicans that the documents
published by the Hearst papers
were genuine and not forged, The
News publisher the following
signod article vnitten by Senor
Arturo Santib*~es, who was in
Laredo not a gr at while ago and
law-suit in Chicago in whieh is now in San Antonio, at leriht
place is adorned with a pretty
palm grove. There are ideal
places for a golf course and
tennis court, and it would not
take long to establish there a
beautiful resort where real coun-
try life could be enjoved in the
fullest and yet with all the com-
forts and conveniences that are
found in the cities. There could
be horseback riding, for some
pleasure and health-seekers still
enjoy that pastime, and it would
be but an easy matter for Mrs.
Spoonts to run the resort in
connection with her big hotel at
Corpus Christi. Everything the
resort required could be grown
on the Spoonts farm, and that
would make the place ideally a
real country resort, such as peo-
ple of the cities love and long
for. In the near-by country is
the best deer-hunting to be
found in the State, and this is
an attraction that would ap-
peal to many. It would take but
little time and expense to build
a paved highway from the resort
to Hebbronville, and there it
would connect with the Lare-
do-Corpus Christi Highway and
also with the Texas-Mexican
Railroad. The News has reason
to believe that Mrs. Spoonts will
begin work on the resort before
the end of the present year.
THOSE OBABOER POSES.
The Houston Press prints
3 ‘‘characteristic poses” of Mr.
Creager. One of them showa the
I Republican leader as he used to
appear when he was sitting be-
hind three jacks and f: goring
on just how far be could make
them go. Another pose shows
him as he should appear after
having had breakfast with Pres-
ident Coolidge, while the third
gives him the look he would no
doubt wear when coming from
President Callee with a bridge
concession in his inside nocket.
And he will still have another
‘‘characteristic pose” when he
carries Texas for Mr. Hoover in
the eletkm next Fall.
three hand-writing experts were
called in to identify the authen-
ticity of a signature. A gentle-
man interested in the suit, in
order to, prove the reliability
of the experts, had in the pres-
ence of creditable witness s
written two letters and signe I
them without attempting to
disguise either signature, and
the letters were submitted to
the hand-writing experts who
were told to determine the
“forged” signature. This they
did and submitted their report,
duly signed by all three and
sumbitting proof of the “forged”
signature. Their report was not
submitted to the court, for when
they were told that they had
been made the victims of a jk'
they declined to have anything
further to do with the case. They
were no doubt honest in their
bolief, and all of which goes to
show that hand-writing experts
are no more infallible than arc
the alienists who are called in
on insanity cases.
Now the Hearst papers did not
say that any of the Senators
mentioned in the published let-
ters received a cent of the mon-
ey that had been paid by the
Calles Government according to
the letters; but Mr. Hearst in a
signed editorial, said he did not
believe that any of the Senators
even knew that a third party had
used their names in getting
money from Calles ostensibly to
be paid to them.
Before its was known that the
letters were in the possesion
of Mr. Hearst, it was known in
Mexico City that they hsd been
stolen from the Departments in
Mexico City and their myste-
rious disappearance created a
profound sensation in high of-
ficial circles, and every effort,
secretly, was made to discover
the perpetrator or perpetrators
of the theft. The newspapers
were not permitted to publish a
line about the disappearance of
the papers nor was the discus-
sion of their disappearance per-
mitted on the streets or other-
wise. The Senate Investigating
Committee, however, pronunced
the tetters, whieh oontained the
names of the Senators, all for-
geries and there the investiga-
tion teems to have come to an
' l$* * *
l-v< - -A*. '■ ’'iA.
was, up to a fev days ago. The
Nows has beer, in possession of
this article for several weeks,
but for sufficient, reason has
refrained from publishing it
until the present time.
Dr. Sautibanez is a graduate
of Columbia University; author
of perhaps the most accred ted
work on Commercial RelationJ
and Possibilities Between Latin-
American Countries and ths
and the United States, and the
author of the History of the
Tsthmus of Tehuantepec, where
Mr. Santibancz was born. He
was Ambassador to Italy, Min-
ister Plenipontcntiary to Guate-
mala, Governor of the State of
Chiapas, and later Congressman
to the Calles Government in
Mexico City and therefore nat-
urally cognizant of the Tacts re-
garding diplomatic procedures
and relations of Mexico and
agreements, treaties, etc., be-
tween the Calles Government,
Japan. Nicaragua and other
countries. Upon being inter-
rogated as to the authenticity of
the documents published in the
Hearst newspapers and so cate-
gorically denied by Senor Tellez,
the Mexican Ambassador at
Washington City, fienor Santi-
banez submitted the following
statement:
San Antonio, Texas,
November 17,1927.
I am at pre- it a Brigadier
General in the Reserve Force of
the Calles Mexican Government
Army, visiting in the United
States of America at the time
of (the recant Bolshevik-Oom
munistic Calles-Obregon-Morones
assassinations of a great majority
of their political adversaries, all
under the false guise of there
having been a revolutionary
uprising, when no such uprising
actually existed at all.
I consider it worse than
foolish for our Mexican Ambas-
sador to deny the truth and aiv
thenticity of th'* Mexican Calles
Government documents aa pub-
lished in the Hearst papers of
’November 14 and 15, 1927, for
we Mexican* in a portion to
know the faeta. know
well that THE'T!
DOCUMENTS PO
FACT. THEY ARE THE NAK
a portion to
know only too
B PUBLISHED
)RTRAY TH*
ment as against the Government
of the United States of Amer-
ica; and I can but realize, too,
that Ambassador Senor Tel-
lez, knows all of this to be the
truth equally as well as my-
self.
£ make these statements be-
cause 1 love my country, as
every Mexican should, and be-
cause 1 too well realize that for
Meiico to be saved from an im-
pending Russian Commnunistic-
Holahcvik catastrope, or worse,
we Mexieans must come out in
the clear, confess our wrongs,
if . we have committed any
against our Northern Neighbor;
or if such have been committed,
not by the Mexican people, but
by misguided and unintelligent
persons at present in predomin-
ance in the despotic ruling of
our country aa is this case, it ii
but proper at this urgent mo-
ment, that information should
be forthcoming to the world
from every patriotic Mexican
citizen cognzinant of the facts
concerning the amazing intrigues
of the Calles-Obregon-Morones
Government, leagued as we know
they are with communistic Rus-
sia and another foreign power
across the Pacific.
We must tell our Northern
Neighbor what we know con-
cerning' the Nicaragua affair;
concerning the likelihood and
arrangement of Mexico with
Japan for the colonizing of
Lower California and the pro-
bable ceding of land across the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec where is
located the Interoceanio Rail-
way connecting the Pacific with
the Atlantic Ocean, and carrying
with it naval bases for Japan in
exchange for Japan’s support
against the policies of the United
States of America, etc.
We must also give our North-
ern Neighbor what information
wo possess concerning the late
intiodnction of Russian Com-
munistic instructions and pro-
paganda, translations paid for
by the (Calles-Obregon-Morones
Government and by them intro-
duced personally in Mexico, and
sent by them into the United
States with baggage immune
from search at the Mexican-
American boundry line,, trunk
full after trunk full, the bear-
ers of his Bolshevik propaganda
being high Mexican officials and
nome other than Dr. Puig Cas-
saraunc, Secretary of Public In-
struction ; Adalberto Tejada,
Secretary of State; Luis Morones
Secretary of Industry, Com-
merce, Petroleum and Mines;
Aaron Saenz, now Governor of
Nuevo Leon; his brother, Moses
Saenz, Vice-president of Educa-
tion, and last, but not least, Gen-
eral Obregon himself, famous
ex-President of Mexico. This
Russian propaganda, I have
every reason to believe, was
distributed in the United States
by the Mexican Ambassador at
Washington and by the various
Mexican Consular Agents in that
country.
With all of their professions of
friendship for the United States
Government and the American
people, the Calles-Obregon-Moro-
nes Triumvirate is doing all in
its power, and by every means,
to fasten upon the American
people a Bolshevik-Communistic
Red Government, fashioned af-
ter none other than the Red
Government of Russia. These
Communistic books have been
translated from the Russian into
the Spanish language by the
Calles-Obregon-Morones Govern-
ment of Mexico and distributed
throughout Mexico, and distribut
ed free throughout and the Cen-
tral American Countries.
During the past few months
these books have fomented into
s great flame the radical opin-
ion of the poor, misguided Mex-
ican populace, as well as the
misguided populaee of Central
Ameriea and me other lands.
On the 19th of Ipst month
Hon. John A. Valle, our able
and popular District Attorney
who makes his home in Laredo,
claims a distinction that few
men of hia age can claim. He
waa born in what was once a
prosperous city; a city that was
a great commercial center; a
city of which today there is
scarcely a vestige left, scarcely
a marker to telil that here
Bagdad once stood, and prosper-
ed, and thrived. A few old
people there are who can recall
(ho time when Indianola was
once the most prosperous city
on the Texas coast—a city that
is now no more having been
swept from the earth by a cruel
storm that carried death and
destruction in its wake. But it
was not a storm that blotted out
Bagdad, although the day that
a child was born there, now
known as a John A. Vails, a
terrible storm, afterward referr-
ed to as THE storm, swept the
coast1 of Mexico and shook
Bagdad from turret to founda-
tion stone.” Bagdad was not a
Texas town or city, but was lo-
cated on the Mexican side of
the usually placid Rio Grande
River at ita mouth. The date of
that storm and the date of the
birthday of John A. Vails was
Tuesday, October 29, 1867, and
Mr. Valla will tell you, and hia
most intimate friends will tell
you, that he feels better and h s
spirits are ligther on a bleak,
cloudy day than they are in the
bright and clear days which are
supposed to raise one’s spirits to
the highest point.
But Bagdad was not swept
away by a storm as Indianola
was, but it survived many years
after THE storm and gradually
succumbed to erosions and ap-
proaches of the Rio Grande River
until in the course of time the
once bustling town had com-
pletely disappeared from the
earth, swallowed up, as it were,
by the Gulf of Mexico. During
the War Between the North and
South Bagdad was a point of
great activity, caused by being
made the greatest cotton mart
of the South. The price of cotton
in Texas during that period was
very low, bnt once across the
Rio Grande River and hauled to
Bagdad in oxcarts, it sold at
real war prices, sometimes bring-
ing as much aa a $1.00 a pound,
the countries of the Old World
wanting cotton as well as the
cotton miles of the North. Many
fortunes were made by those
who dealt in cotton at Bagdad
in those days and descendants
of some of those fortune-makers
are still living in Texas and
enjoying those fortunes, which
were so invested that they have
increased with time. In addition
to oxcarts, which were used in
getting cotton to Bagdad, much
of it was also carried down the
river on boats, whieh at the
time plied on the Rio Grande
as far up as Roma. Bagdad had
also another and a more signal
distinction, as it was at Bagdad
that, Admiral Rafael Semmes
landed on hia return to this
country after the losa of his
boat, the Alabama, off the coast
of Cherbourg, France.
It waa at Cherbourg that the
Alabama met the Federal gun-
boat, Keasarge, and the two
engaged in mortal combat. The
powder of the Alabama was
defective, having. been kept on
board too long ,and the shells
that were thrown into the Kear-
aarsre failed to explode, whieh
enabled the Kearaage to rink the
Alabama! without much danger
to itself. Seeing that there wee
no chance to win with defec-
tive powder and the Alabama
being to badly disabled that it
,waa sinking, Admin
and his remaining ei
wit lives by jumping
picked tip by the Grey-
at Bagdad, Admiral Semmes
and the men who were with
him came up the river to Mat-
amoros, where they crossed
over to Brownsville, then under
control of the Confederates, and
from there made their way,
via Cuero, to Shreveport, where
for awhile the Admiral was in
command of a land force,
And it was at Bagdad that
the last man (of whom there is
any record) to see Jean Lafitte
alive made his appearance, hav-
ing been put ashore by Lafitte,
who stopped to get fresh water.
He waa a negro slave and was
given his freedom by Lafitte,
who was then en route to the
South Sea Islands. Fiom Bag*
dad the negro made his way to
Matamoros and his arrival there,
with his statement about Lafitte,
were made matters of record and
placed in the Matamoros ar-
chives. The records were there
es late as 1908 and are still there,
if not destroyed during the last
Mexican revolution. History has
been very unjust to Lafitte.
Instead of being a pirate, he waa
a patriot, and had it not been
for the timely information he
gave to Governor Claiborne of
Louisiana, who in turn sent it by
swift messengers to General
Andrew Jackson at Mobile, the
British would have captured
New Orleans without a battle.
Lafitte’s Baratarians, all old
Napoleonic soldiers, as was La-
fitte himself, did valiant service
at the Battle of New Orleans and
it was the Baratarians, trained
artillerymen, who handled Jack-
son’s artillery jn the artillery
duel on January 1, 1915, and
quieted the English cannon,
which, in the night and under a
heavy fog, had been hauled up
to within 150 yards of Jackson’s
line of intrenehments.
But Governor Claiborne was
unforgiving and would not par-
don Lafitte, who with most of his
men, sailed from Barataria (an
island at the mouth of the Missis-
sippi River) and came to Gal-
veston Island. Here he remained
a year, when he learned that
the United States was outfitting
an expedition against him, and
calling his men around him, he
told them he waa going to the
South Seas and that all who
wished could accompany him.
He left Galveston Island with
five well-manned boats in all,
stopped awhile in Aransas Bay,
and then started south again.
This was in the Fall of 1817, and
when off the Padre Island coast
i storm was encountered and
three of the boats were driven
on the beach and it is the sup-
position that the crews were
afterward killed by the Indians.
Lafitte’s boat and one other
weathered the storm, which
abated just before they reached
the mouth of the Rio Grande
River, and where they stopped
to get fresh* water. As they hoist-
ed canvas and sailed away, they
waved good-by to the negro
and that was the last ever seen
of Jean Lafitte. That night a
terrific storm swept the coast of
Mexico and it is the belief that
Lsfitte and hia men found a
watery grave as they were
never heard of afterward.
In telling of Rafael Seramea
and Jean Lafitte, • there haa
been some deviation from the
real subject, but it has to do
also with old Bagdad, and
Bagdad was the birth place of
Hon. John A. Vails. It will not
b« a difficult matter to figure
out the age of Mr. Vails aa the
date of his birth has been given
in this article; bnt with all of
his thoree-acore years Mr. Vails
Is perhapa the most active dis-
trict attorney in Texaa and haa
$ record of getting more eon-
notions,
State. On one
in the
'NJt
•in ,<
1m
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The Hebbronville News (Hebbronville, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 9, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 1, 1928, newspaper, February 1, 1928; Hebbronville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth979720/m1/1/?q=%22Business%2C+Economics+and+Finance+-+Communications+-+Newspapers%22: accessed July 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .