Reel Life (Mar-Sep 1915)

REEL LIFE Seventeen | "The Outlaw's Revenge in the Dawn of a New Republic' A Four Part Mutual Mctsterpicture Graphically Depicting the Life of General Pancho Villa Cast ++++++++++++++++++ 4+ IT was not choice that had made Pancho Villa, feared by half the Federal officers in Northern Mexico and hated by the other half, . . the hunted outlaw that he was, with the price upon his head. In those days of Diaz' dying rule, men's lives were measured by the whim of those who held the doubtful authority of the central government. Little did Mexico City know, much less care, how law or justice was administered beyond its borders. The peon had no , rights, which wealth was bound to respect. His life, his property, even his women-folk, belonged to those who could take them, and take them the constituted authorities, or those who could purchase them, frequently did. Pancho Villa, first and last, was a peon. By virtue of his native shrewdness and a certain keen wit, unusual in one of his class, he had held the farm inherited from his fathers, safe from the grasping avarice of those who then controlled Mexico's destinies. With his two sisters, one, the elder, lame from birth, the other, a beautiful girl of fourteen, he lived a simple, pastoral existence, with nothing to cloud its happiness. Then between two days all this was changed. Compelled to go on a trip to a distant town, Pancho returned to find his younger sister dead, his lame sister weeping frantically beside her body, calling upon the gods to visit their punishment upon the heads of the girl's murderers. Incoherently she told her brother of the visit of two Federal officers to their cottage, of their brutal advances and of the little sister's death defending her honor. And Pancho, dumb with horror and anger at his own impotence, swore a solemn oath upon the cross above the child's grave, never to rest until her murderers had paid the penalty for their crime, nor until the government that fostered them had vanished from the earth. Thereafter, he became both hunter and hunted, for the guilty officers, knowing well their danger, branded him as an outlaw in order to save themselves from his avenging hand. Through their connivance he was arrested, but effected a thrilling escape from his jailers by the aid of an old family servant. In the pursuit his companion was killed, but Pancho, taking refuge behind a ruined mission wall, The Outlaw R. A. Walsh „. c. . f Irene Hunt Hls Slsters X Teddy Sampson His Faithful Servant Eagle Eye First Federal Officer Walter Long Second Federal Officer W. E. Lawrence ? An American Girl Mae Marsh *• Her Sweetheart Robert Harron I Her Father F. A. Turner £ The Soothsayer Spottiswoode Aitken J Produced by W. Christy Cabanne and Reliance Players, under the Supervision of D. W. Griffith r J Pancho's Pursuers Rode Past, Never Suspecting His Hiding Place succeeded in eluding his former captors. Later, when his deeds had gained him a fearsome notoriety, he found refuge from the rurales close pursuit beneath the seat of an American immigrant's wagon, the warm heart and kindly sympathy of the young pioneer girl, her rugged father, and her sweetheart, who had ventured far from their native land, protecting the hunted man in his hour of need. Nor was Pancho ungrateful. When . the rurales had gone, he crept forth from his hiding place and said goodbye. But first he placed in the girl's hand the crucifix, that he wore beneath his frayed shirt. "If you ever need help," he said fervently, "send this — to Pancho Villa — outlaw. He will come quickly." There came a day when they had reason to remember his words. The rising tide of revolution at last had taken a definite shape. Americans were forced to flee from the marauding bands of Federals and Constitutionalists alike. Before Torreon city General Pancho Villa — no longer a leader of a band of desperate outlaws, but commander-in-c h i e f of the Constitutionalist Army of the North — had pounded away for days at the Federal forces entrenched there. In a last desperate charge Torreon fell and the young officer responsible for the death of Pancho 's little sister died by the chief's own hand. Meanwhile the girl of the wagon and her family were in desperate straits. With other Americans, made fugitives by the menacing wave of the revolution, they were attacked by the Federals under command of the other officer, whom Villa had sworn to bring to justice. In the hour of her need the outlaw's words were recalled to her. Her message was sent to him and Villa, at the head of half a thousand hard-riding cavalrymen, the pick of his command, dashed back over the road the messenger had come, arriving just in time to save the American party from annihilation. But he did not hear their cheers, nor their thanks, nor the wild yells of his men pursuing the beaten enemy, for under his hand has come the other officer, upon whom he had vowed to wreak his righteous vengeance. But his work was not complete. In the hour of his personal triumph, the outlaw had become the liberator.