The Dickinson press., 1898-10-22

NNysES0P
tured two Of the Aston Batteryss guns
but a gallant attack of twenty-five Of the
Astors armed with only six-shooters,
changed the thing about and in;6ye min
utes they had their recaptured guns
again turned on the flying Spaniards.
The Thirteenth Minnesota were behind
the Aston and we were 0 yards. behind
them. Although the Thirteenth made a
gallant fight you could hear the officers
of the Astors calling "bring on Dakota"
on Dakota" If you viii only
bring them on we will be confident that
we have some men bchindu us that will not
run and the general came to us and said
forward double time" but the Spaaniards
by this time had got plenty and ran as
fast as they could, leaving their KNAPP.
sacks.
You Ear bet that it was great luck
for America that W e followed the Span
iards S that they had to surrender or
die before they could possibly reach the
walls Of the city, # they once got into
the city itlKpuld have cost US hundreds
Of livcstogehthn iSpaniards out, but we
were lucky and followed close on their
neels and made them surrender before
they could get into the city. l wish you
could jjustsssees the guns inside If this city.
There are Hundreds Of them. Dewey.is
a foxey old boy l tell you. The way
they wfts mounted they could not be
turnedsaround far enough to have any
effect on our ships. Dewey knew exactly
how they were stationed and made his
plans accordingly. In fact We. just
caught the Spaniards where they were
the weakest and completely cut them off
before they even. tnmbled to what we
we're doing. The battle lasted one hour
and - minutes, during which time our
troops travelled over four ;miles through
swampsyw where YOU would sink clear to
your waist in some places. After the
battle Dewey said sBeysi We didn't have
much Of a Fourth but we had a hell of a
good thirteenth" ThesasslMMinnesota did
most Of the infantry. ftshting. Only "a
few of the North Oak, boys got ashot at
all. Alive had to do was to to keep
the Minnesota boys in sight. When they
first began to fire and the bullets began
to strike all around US one of the boys
sat upbehind the trenches and said, "Say,
boys, that one that just, went over was
singing, lust Before the Battle Mother"
to this another Remarked. Different here
that shell that just went. over was singing
Home Sweet Home" Some Of the boys
were kicking in Frisco about lying on
the wet grass but any old place, even a
hog pen was good enough in the battle
as long as it offered shelter from Span
ish bullets. At one time during the
fight the insurgents got il front Of our
regulars and lhe regulars shot right into
them and killed of about twenty of them
After the battle Agspiinpaldo, their leader,
wanted Dewey to apologize to him for i,
and Dewey said. 81 send you a piece Of
rope and plenty Of men topull the end
of it.
PRIVATE KINNE OF CO. b.
In the same issue Of the Forum Pri
vate Kline of Co. Bias a breezy Letter
and among other things he says:
If l had nothing to draw me to Ameri
ca would join the regulars and sta,
righthere. There is going to be a grea
Opportunity here in the next few years
You might imagine how behind tn.
times they are here. Of course they hav.
electric lights and horse cars, but will
the resources this country has it ought t,
be, and will be, if the Americans hav,
it, the principal commercial center of tn,
Pacific and with those pretty little island
of Hawaii between here and America i
heightens their worth to America. AL
the Spaniards could. do was to tax tn,
natives down to starvation. They take,
them for everything. If one wanted i
sell a fig or buy one he had to get a Ii
cense and pay we'll for it too. If h
wanted to cross a bridge he paid one cen
and that was; what started a war in 81
A native had been educated in Englan,
and became rich. The Spaniards wen
to his house, at night, took him out an
shot him. just because he wa independ
ent, rich and educated. saw his hous,
1t is about four blocks from, us.
guess the rainy season is over her
n %s h' Ths r nss any has ssi 5e en- , siss.a, d ss
We nave no eause g complain ~ q tn
x.1all ,as. s mns. = lsl: