Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1898-10-18
FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
John Mcdonald gets a letter
from a friend.

c0uatry and Will stay until the show
is Over but will get along without
any more War in His'n--A Graphical
Description of how Americans do the
act when they get doNl to Business.
My Dear Friend John:
MANILA, Philippine Islands, Sept s.
Your good letter of July 18th received
on August 31st and was read with
much interest. You cannot realize how
glad we fellows are to get letter away
here in the Philippines. 1t is very sell
dom we get mail but when we do it all
comes in a bunch. The steamer st.
! Paul brought us the last mail from San
| Francisco.
Well, John, we soon done them up
here. After all arrangements were made
and enough troops were landed Dewey
made them show the white feather in
SO minutes from the time he fired the
| first shot. They fear Dewey as they do
| the Devil. They can all say Dewey
which is about the only American word
| they can use
On August 18th our regiment was do
| ing outpost duty and $4,000 Spaniards
attacked us. They thanked us on both
sides and almost surrounded us, but the
! 14th, 18th and 23d regulars soon came
| to our aid and with their Craig and Jor
genson rifles made short work of them.
! We piled the lead into them as we'll as
we knew how with our Springhelds. We
are only armed with one, the breech-
loader, and the regulars are armed with
/ six shooters. Our regiment was in two
/ battles, one on July 3lst and the other
on August 18th the day the city surren-
dered. Many times / heard the Mauser
/ bullets whistling past my ears making
all kinds of music but | was fortunate
enough not to stop any of them. Our
regiment lost men killed and thirty
wounded since we came TO this part of
the world One of our fellows in Co. |
/ from Greensburg was shot while stand
4 ing beside me. He was mighty nice
| fellow. Just after the Spanish were
driven back on the morning of August
/ 18th our regiment was ordered back to-
camp for breakfast. AS we marched
back aud saw all the other regiments
lined up we knew the day had come at
last for us to take Manila. We ate hard
tack and fitch for our breakfast and had
| to put enough in our haversacks for two
days ratons and had to carry also 200
rounds of ammunition. By O'Clock we
were retracing our steps and coming up
with the other regiments. We took our
place and at 8 :25 Dewey opened fire on
the city The Olympia fired the first
shot and the shell struck the outer forts
magazine blowing it up and killing 90
Spaniards at one whack. In 20 minutes
he reduced that fort and the Spanish
found the place little hell so they
charged out of the fort and into US. Oh, |
what reception they did get The
battery used their gatling guns and they
had the range down to perfection. The |
Spaniards fell in great heaps and then
the battery ceased and we charged on
them with rapid firing guns and fixed |
bayonets. They couldn't get into the
gates of the city quick enough. Mean |
while Dewey was hosting the great [
shells into the city and every time one I
would burst you could see arms and legs
fving in The air. You see Dewey had |
the barracks and heavy guns of the city +
so we'll located by his spies that he
knew every spot and his gunners had /
the range down to perfection. AT 10 80 |
they hoisted the white flag and Manila /
was ours. | saw General August come /
out of the last gate in his fine car
riage drawn by two iron gray h. rses
and offer his sword to General Merritt I
which was refused and then he handed |
over the city. He rode back and order |
ed his troops to march out Of the city I
and stack their arms. 1t was a pretty I
calm looking sight to see the poor look |
ing suckers have to give them up and |
they looked pretty savage at us. One |
OF their colonies said if it hadn't been |
for Dewey you never would have done
it and don't doubt that he was right I
for this city is we'll fortified being the !
fourth strongest fortified city in the
world.
1t was past O'Clock in the evening
when the terms were arranged and our I
army all in the city. Our regiment slept
in Catholic church the first night at
the feet of the Virgin Mary. | was dead
tired when we got into that church and |
was ready to drop any place.
The next morning we all marched to |
the main building of the city fire de- I
partment where we are quartered. |
We are pretty well fixed have cots to t
sleep on and plenty of them.
Manila is fine city and l am sur
prised to find it SO. If you ever saw
pictures OF the streets OF Jerusalem you |
can have some idea of what the streets
of Manila are like.
The Spanish compose the richer class
as they have always made it business
to skin the natives and the Chinese.
There are some from almost every ma
ton in the world here and they all seem
to have a finger in the pie. The Ger
mans are trying hard to get a foot hold
here and want the islands very much.
They should have them after paying us