The record-union., 1898-08-11


means of taking Lares, while Santa
Clara de Laguna, the most inn
portant place taken by the insurgents,
was brought down by its own citizens.
Under the black nights that are SO fire.
quent in the Philippines, attacks by the
| insurgents when in sufficient number,
have all been successful. The patriots
strike the better blow in the dark, but
with a greater knowledge of firearms
there is no doubt they would be
equally clever in regular warfare, and
| this they are now proving if the re-
ports from Manila are true.
The knife which they use tends TO
make them truculent. They combine
savagery and triumph. The heads
of victims adorn the landmarks and
skeletons of victims are found over the
country. During the first battles they
took no prisoners and would have been
unable to provide for them if they had.
They slaughtered most of the prison
| ers and liberated the rest, after having
| Topped off their hands or otherwise
mutiIated them. Many of the friars
who are their principal objects of re-
venge, had their eyes burned and
gouged out But, notwithstanding the
mics, they show no cowardice, and to-
ward Englishmen or Americans who
travel among them they show no hos
tillty, but on the contrary, are hos
pitable, which shows that their intelli-
gence is above that of the Malays and
other races of the East who are un-
able to distinguish friends from enc
mics among the whites
/ 1t iS OVvincr RI ho hot
Tagals fight best in the dark that
they are the stronger party on the
coast line, which offers great advan-
tage to piracy. Along the northeast
! ern bays their system of holding the
| shore Is too ingenious to be prevented
| by their enemies. As natural result
/ OF their strength as pirates very few
vessels call in at ports north of Man
| liza on the west coast or on the east.
| Ihat the Luzon pirate will stick a
! victim as quick as he would a pig is
| too true. Many man, black or
white, has stepped into a pirates boat
| for short sail and been stabbed,
robbed and flung into the sea. All the
boats in the north and east are al
present manned by pirates except,
perhaps, the Government boats. There
is no trust to be placed in the big Mon
golian countenanced boatman by
| stranger. Once upon a time a Span
ish official could depend on a safe sail
in natives craft, but now a Spanish
official is the choicest prey that could
fall into a pirates hands, excepting, Of
| course, a priest. The Spanish will
never be able to resume complete con-
troll of the coast line of LuZon. There
are 100000 Luzon pirates, most of
whom are insurgents.
The number of insurgents actively
engaged in the Luzon mountains last
December / would estimate at 10000,
and the population involved in aiding
them and in sympathy with them at
100000 Among these mountain rebels
| do not think 5000 firearms of all de-
scriptions could be found. They are as
well provided with serviceable knives
for hand-to- hand conflicts as the Span
ish The pirates are all armed with
cutlasses.
DREADFUL PRISON STORIES.
Among the incidents that occurred IL
the Philippines during the revolt, that
which more than any other interested
the civilized world, was the irnprison-
ment Of 130 insurgents in the old in
quisitorial prison of aMnila. This pris-
on was one of the first erected in Man
liza by Spain and was not in use for
some time before the outbreak. Span
ish officials declare the prison would
never have been used If the other pris-
ons were not overcrowded but there
are other prisons there in as bad, if not
| worse, condition than the one most
notorious In the Central Prison Of
Manila rebels suffering from typhoid
fevers We're piled in with others who
| ;c L,a
prison Of Manila that could tell tale
that would sicken the world During
the reeking and cholera-laden summer
Of 1897 hundreds Of wretches met their
doom in the infected and filthy galler-
les and cells without other attention
from their guardians than indignity
could give.
More than fifty men have been kept
in the examination chamber Of the
prison for weeks, generally forty-two
days, without being allowed to wash
or take an airing, while the floor grew
Shiny with filth. Dysentery and cholera
ravaged the prison. Drainage that only
added to the unsanitariness of the
prison was all the attempt made at
sanitation. The refuse of the prison
never got outside its shadow But this
was a condition Manila was long used
to. and SO no notice was taken, al
though at present this prison is still
In such a state that the old prison s
a palace compared with it. When reb
els leave the chief prison of Manila
they tell no tales. They never escape.
From the old prison it was possible
to release oneself and flee the island to
startle the world with tale, but from
the Central Prison there Is no egress
except with a Sergeant. hundred men
died in the old prison on the dolorous oc-
casion Of which the newspapers of the
world spoke, but during the past year
10000 corpses were carried out of the
Central Prison, and the facts never got
beyond Manila. 1t should be remem-
bered that all prisoners are treated as
pirates.
4 RAVAGES OF DISEASE.
4 Natural catastrophes have occurred
oftener since the installation of the
revolt than before. Never has typhus
ragged so fiercely. The Spanish soldiers
insurgents. Typhoid, which is seldom
distinguished as far as the treatment
of patients is concerned, has held sway
with it's more malignant relative. Its
home is in the Spanish barracks. Chol-
era has struck the native and Chinese
population in most of the seaport towns
of Luzon. The Spanish suffered little
from it. Mindanao and neighboring
islands have had visit from yellow