The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1898-08-26
LITTER FROM CAVITE.


long and interesting letter to his
father at Albany. from which we
have been kindly permitted to
make cOpious extracts, as follows:
Have arrived after 36 days on
water. We hospital corps boys had
hard work all the time, which
made the time pass faster to us
than the other boys. We had 49
cases of measles after we left Hon
olnlu; every man is well. Have
had several cares Of epileptlc
fits, caused by the heat. Have
one man with palpitation of the
heart, ca.sed by smoking. He is
Just like a man with delirium
tremens; he has two to five spells
day. They took one mans in
testines out and put them back
again. DR.. Ellis has taken the
stitches out and he is almost well.
There are Is Of us corps boys on
this boat. There was only ona
man of our $500 died, he was OH
the Sidney.
1t was fun to capture the La
drone Islands. The guns just
ratified for about ten minutes, when
up went white flag and out come
the Governor TO see what was the
matter. He was very much sur
prised when We informed him OF
the war, and said if he surrendered
his soldiers would kill him. So
! the boats were sent ashore with
our men, when they all surrand
cred without shot, which madss
our boys mad. | have piece OF
stone that the Charleston broke oil
/ the fort, which | will try to keep.
The fort was built in 1901. The
island was once harbor for pirates.
Guam has a population Of $500.
the natives we're forced to pay a
Tx Of IS on the birth Of a chi!d
$l.5O per year while it lived, an
81 when it died.
The Australia is 300 feet long,
but when we got in the China sea
she tossed like a slSill, broke all
the loose dishes, upset our medl-
cine, and threw some sick men out
Of their hunks. at last we arrived
at Manila harEor, and launch
run up beside us and Admlral
Dewey came aboard. We all took
a good look at that great man.
can hardly realize | am SO far
from home. When we pas ed the
1S0th meridian We lost a day:
had to set our watches back from
Is TO 20 minutes every day.
We were proud of our new
brown drcIl suits. | got a good
it,. The boys captured a little
hog at Guam, which is quite a pet
with us. | learned the signaling,
1t is nice to know. 1t is fun TO
read the news and watca the
search lights work. There are
from five to eight going all the
time. They appear as strong as
the sun three miles away
1t is not as warm at Cavite
as you would imagine, that Is,
we don't feel the heat. The heat
did not affect me on the way over.
| perspirc so freely, and | took
one bath and sometimes three a
day. At noon we look north at
the sun, and at about four to five
P. NJ. every day we have very
hard rain; not like the rain in Ore
gon, but ten times as hard. We
use the showers to good advan
tage. When it commences thun-
dcring we undress, and we don't
only get fine bath, but we hang
out our clothes and get them wash
ed, and catch water enough to
use. We arrived at Cavile and
found every thing nice to do with.
There are lots of fine furniture and
pianos left. The insurgents have
$50 Spanish prisoners in a quarter
of mile Of us. | went out and
saw them today. Had talk with
them through the bars; got some
of their buttons. We brought our
prisoners that we took from the
Ladrones IN today. We were all
clad to get off the boats. 1t was
lie first time we saw each other
since we boarded the vessel one
month ago. The corps boys that
were On the Sidney look as fat as
bears. Frank Wire, | think, is
the fattest. The natives were
pleased to see us, bringing all
kinds Of fruit to sell, but charged
SO much we don't buy much.
We haven't been paid a cent of
money yet. | had 50 so loaned
out and one dollar changed to
Spanish silver today; got 1925 for
for it Ga good lesson in free silver.
Not many Of the boys have any
money. If the boys were paid off
We hospital corps boys would have
more work to do. | have been
we'll all the time, only took one
dose of medicine. and that was
when L was vaccinated.
The boys are all good friends.
Will Merrill and | still bunk to-
gether. We captured vessel load
of beef cattle. Have fresh beef
now. The insurgents keep fight
ing the Spanish all the time.
They killed 100 yesterday. One
of their officers told me yesterday