Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1916 — HEAT CONFRONTS MEN IN MEXICO [ARTICLE]

HEAT CONFRONTS MEN IN MEXICO

High Temperature, With Other Climatic Changes, Must Be Faced by U. S. Troopers.

Campaigning on the Mexican border will be no pleasant picnic for the unacclimated American soldiers from the northern states. Notwithstanding the many discomforts that will be encountered by raw and unseasoned military men, they will find portions of the frontier full of strange and fascinating interest. This is particularly true of the part of the border which extends from the mouth of the Rio Grande along the course of that stream for six hundred miles. There is a marked difference in the summer climate of the various points along the border, due to the varying altitude, the nearness of the ocean and other reasons. Brownsville, situated far down toward the tropics and within 25 miles of the mouth of the Rio Grande, would be a veritable inferno during the hot summer months. Just the reverse of this is true. The climate there in summer is delightful. The towns and military stations of Harlingen, Mercedes, where the Rensselaer troops will be stationed, an ! Rio Grande city are all in the zone that is tempered by the constantly blowing gulf winds. The breeze that usually blows from the mountains of the state of Coahuila arid Tamaulipas has a cooling effect upon the qlimate of the border from Laredo to the edge of the Big Bend country, taking in the towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio. If there is any one thing that the soldiers from the other states should fervently hope for above all other things, it is that he shall not be sent to the Big Bend country. From now on until November an almost steady temperature of 110 to 120 degrees in the shade can be counted, upon. There is not a tree or shrub to break the terrific rays of the sun. Patrol duty is impossible during the middle of the day. The men and officers who are now down there in that indescribable region of torture seek the shade of the low roofed shelters of the camps during the sun hours and gasp and swelter until the mantle of night is thrown over the seething landscape and the chill of the adjacent mountains bring relief. The Big Bend has a river front of more than 200 miles that must be guarded. It seems to be the breeding place of bandits and outlaws of many kinds and degrees. In apportioning the troops that comprised the Texas National Guard to their stations upon the Mexican border after they had been swprn in to federal service, only the most hardened and climatically immuned were sent into the Big Bend region. If by any chance the Indiana guard or the guard of any other of the northern states shauld be sent to this country, they would probably suffer a great deal from the climatic change. It will be bad enough for them no matter what part of the frontier they may be sent to. The worst part of Mexico is that which borders. on the United States. It is bleak and arid. It has been stated by many medical men that it would be well if the men who are sent to the border or in Mexico should provide themselves with remedy or antidote for rattlesnake bites. These venomous re’ptiles are thick in the chaparral. The departure of the Second Regiment of infantry, commanded by Col. Thomas B. Coulter, left only a single regiment, the First, on the mobilization grounds at Fort Harrison. A card from Lieutenant Healey, received this morning, was postmaiked Mount Pleasant, Texas. - He stated that M Company had about 500 miles further to go.