The San Francisco call., 1898-12-18

good. Aguinaldo makes more speeches, the Filipino Congress passes rapidly through crisis and several its; the flnplno troops stay where they are until the last moment, when they get out as rapidly as they can and every thing once more returns to its normal condition. This is about all there real ly is to one of those insurgent scares that are being continually flashed over the cable.
 We had one only few days ago, and had it resulted In anything the Cailfor- mia regiment would have gone into bat tie under a new colonel. Colonel Smith has been appointed to the temporary command of the First Brigade, pend ing the arrival of General King, who is supposed to be on his way here now aboard the good ship Arizona. Lieu tenant Colonel Duboce has taken com mAnd of the regiment, Brevet Lieu tenant Colonel BoXton has the First { Battalion, Major Slime is still with the Second, while Captain O'Neill takes temporary command of the Third. The regiment has undergone battalion re- organization, which changes the com panies all around so that hardly com pany now remains as part of the bat talion in which it left home. l do not know the reason for these changes, but l expect it was done to put an end to battalion and company jealousy, which for time was rife throughout the en- tire regiment.
 Sickness still prevails, and from what l can learn nearly thousand men are seriously Ill in hospital, while twice that number are walking around totally unfit for active service. The California boys have been very lucky as regards disease. While many of them-very many indeed-have been i'll, the mortality among the lads from San Francisco has been approximately small. This is due partially to their own good sense, partially to the in great measure to the excellent care taken of them by their col onel and members of the medical staff. About twenty patients now lie Tn the smallpox tents, or, rather, about twenty did lie there last night How many remain this morning I am unable to say. From what is told me am in- clined to think that these tents must be anything but pleasant places for the sufferers they are supposed to shelter. They stand in an open square in central part of the new city. No shade protects them from the fierce heat of the midday sun, nor is there any flooring to keep out the water when it rains. The consequence Is that on et plSdSdIll Qdy IQe neat IS well nlSn unbearable and the atmosphere stifling while on a stormy day the water runs in and overflows the ground, turning the dirt of their floors into a slushy bed of mud two inches deep in which the cots of the patients stand. However l suppose such conditions cannot be immediately remedied, or they would not exist.
 Great dissatisfaction is expressed all through the regiment with the manner in which the Red Cross people are con- ducting their establishment down here. They certainly do some good-they could hardly do otherwise considering the splendid manner in which the people at home have out fitted them and the generous way in which they are backed. But the good they are accomplishing Is nothing in comparison with what such an organization could accomplish were the direction of it's affairs placed in competent hands, and the manage ment of it's funds entrusted to a man whose brains were his recommendation and who travelled on his executive abll- ity and not on his glib tongue.
 The waste and extravaganza that re- suits from Schlott's incompetency would in itself be sufficient to support a hospital four times the size of the place he now runs and would almost supply the entire regiment with the delicacies consumed by the compara- lively small number of sick. The best men that the society sent out, such, for instance, as Wage, Lewis and Hark (now assisting pr. O'Brien at the smallpox hospitaD, have become so dis gusted with Schlott and his methods