Cañon City record., 1898-09-01
FROM THE SEAT OF WAR.
0sorEe Fowler. . Wen ksown soI-
dIer Boy from Canon City. At
Manila, Relates ftis
Expericpce.

Following is q letter written by
George Fowler, now quarter master
sergeant in the army at Manila, to his
mother in this city. George has lots
of friends in Canon who will be glad
to hear from him:
On BOARD THE CHINA ENRoUTE FOR
MANILA, July l3, '98.-My Dearest
Mother: It has been some time since
wrote you on my arrival at Honolu-
lu and you are no doubt anxious to
know where and how am. On leay-
ing Honolulu the 25th of June. about
p. m. we sailed out of the harbor
into the deep, blue water, once more
on our journey. The weather was
hot but clear and as sat around the
deck with great drops of perspiration
on my forehead, and in fact all over
me, ] thought how ! would like to
see you and my Colorado friends, in
stead Of on this trip TO the Philip
pines. Well, the mex. day
came and felt some better, and
after seeing that every man bad his
proper amount of breakfast, sat down
with some Of the company boys to
talk of war and what our intentions
are when we get to the Philippines.
Things run along about the same
way every day, so it would be useless
for me to go into the details Of each
day.
Perhaps you would like 10 hear
something about the Hawaiian Islands
directly from some one who has been
there himself. They are very
mountainous, with hills and valleys
quite similar to those of Colorado.
Honolulu lies on the southern shore
of the largest island and IL the largest
city. II is the prettiest city ever
saw and its tropical trees are some
thing wonderful. picked some
bananas and pineapples and saw CO.
coanuts. oranges. grapes and many
other kinds Of fruit growing. | saw
very few flowers, but those did see
were very pretty and Of sweet odor.
The natives Of the islands are very
dark and something like Mcxicans,
bat . great deal better looking and
seem to be more refined. They live
in very small houses and are decided
ly out of date. The girls are
very good looking. all Of them large,
stout and healthy. The water is not
as good as We have at home and the
weather is ten times as hot. We
marched up thro' town and the sweat
came off Of me in an awful stream.
While on the trip from Honolulu to
Manila we came to an island called
Weeks" on the Fourth Of July, and
laid there all day 80 the officers
could investigate it. They took a
boat from this ship and several sailors
rowed them to the shore. They
found it to be nothing but coral
reef. They shot lots of fish and
found a great many shells. While
they were gone the boys saw shark
in the water. we got q shark hook
and after putting about five pounds
of meat on the end. threw it out and
caught the shark. 1t took ten men
TO pull him up to the deck He Topped
around at a high rate and made
every one get out Of the way, but
finally one of the boys got the ak and
settled his hash. ! examined his
teeth ani found he had twelve rows,
one large row in front, both on the
upper and lower jaws, and five rows
back Of these. They were the size
of small arrow heads and were shaped
and looked much the same. He
weighed l24 pounds and was six
and a half feet long. After this fun
was over, We got up tug Of war and
our company 60 won all the honors.
We pulled every company that would
come against US.
Our next fun, or rather luck, was
to hava good dinner, which was
served about 3 o'clock. We had
peach pie, fresh meat, coffee. fresh
bread, potatoes, beans, rice and
canned corn, which made all the boys
happy to get I'll and change of
food.
The next day was sad one. One
of the band boys took sick in Frisco
and was brought aboard the China.
He died on the 9th. He was kept
about five hours and then buried at
sea. We had sad day Of It, as
every one knew him to be a good
fellow and hated to see him die,
MANILA HARaoR, July l6.--We are
now in Manila Harbor, and excitement
il great. Men-of-war are 70 be seen
A.