BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

282 BARBAROUS MEXICO
against many of the refugees, that of setting on foot a
military expedition against a foreign power. On March
22, 1876, Diaz crossed the Rio Grande at Brownsville,
Texas, with forty armed followers for the purpose of
waging war upon President Lerdo de Tejada. He was
driven back and, though all America knew of his exploit,
no effort was made to imprison him.
But now the policy has been changed to accommodate
President Diaz. Action has been taken against political
refugees of just one other country, Russia, and it is
safe to assume that those cases were undertaken merely
that the authorities might defend themselves against
the charge of using the machinery of government with
partiality against Mexicans.
Magon and a small group of followers, including his
brother Enrique afl(l the Sarabias, crossed the Rio
Grande in January, 1904, and soon afterwards established
their paper "Regeneracion" in San Antonio. The paper
had been going but a few weeks when a Mexican, a
supposed hireling of the Mexican government, called at
the office and tried to reach the Liberal leader with a
dirk-knife. Enrique Magon grappled with the fellow,
and in another moment four city detectives rushed in
and placed Enrique under arrest. The next day he was
fined $30 in the police court, while the supposed thug
was not even arrested.
The exiles looked upon this incident as a part of a
conspiracy to get them into trouble. They moved to St.
Louis, where they re-established their paper. They had
hardly got into their new quarters when they began to
be annoyed by the Furlong Detective Agency. They
claim that the Furlong Detective Agency put an "operative"
into the office of "Regeneracion" in the role of an
advertising solicitor, put "operatives" into the St. Louis