Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1898-10-25
cREsco BOY AT MANILA.
Edgar Thomson Writes an Interest,"
ing Letter to His Mother.
CAvITE, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,

Sept. IL, 1888.
Mrs. Dora THOMSON, Cresco, La.
My Dear Mother:-Your letters of July
18th, 23d and 10Th were just received,
that is the one written the Goth was re.
ceived yesterday, and the others four
days ago. will try and answer them all
to day. do not believe we will be here
such very great length of time, some of
the officers have made bets that we will
be home to eat Christmas dinner and |
am rather in hopes now that we will
However we are having a rather easy
time of it at present. We get up at half
As minutes morning drill, myself and the
other buglers are excused from this drill,
however, as we have to 90 on guard
mount at eight. This finishes our work
until five O'Clock in the evening when we
have short drill, we are obliged to be
in bed and all lights out at nine o'clock.
The days here are very short, it does not
get daylight in the morning until half
past six, and 1t is dark at six IN the even
ng, SO you see there IS very near as much
night as day. 1t ralned very hard yes
terday and last night, but the sun is out
bright to-day end 1t is very hot, but I do
not seem to mind the heat so very much
We have very cool quarters in an old
stone building, and we are all uniformed
in white duck suits, but is very hard to
keep them clean, they are cool and look
SO nice, all just alike. The first night we
were here the bugle sounded assembly
which caused considerable excitement
4 for few minutes, but it proved to be
| false alarm and we were dismissed and
sent back to bed again. We have had
nothing to alarm us since and are begin
| ming to feel sale wherever we go. There
is great deal of fruit here but none as
nice as we got in San Francisco Or Hon
olulu. The people here are terribly ig-
norant, much worse in my estimation
than the North American Indian, all
they know is to sell fruit and cigars.
| Our money as you know, is worth twice
as much as the Spanish silver, when we
pay ten cents FOR u cocoanut we are really
only paying five; it seems strange to go
into store and buy cocoanut for ten
cents, hand out an American fifty cent
piece and receive ninety cents in change
which is generally in one and two cent
pieces. Their tvs cent pieces are about
the size of our dollars and the one cent
as our half dollar. will bring some of
them home SO you can see what they are
like. have couple of old coins which
/ L ", l.
floor of the old fort-I intend to keep
them as relics. l have great many
such things which will bring home with
me. 1 have great many sea shells, and
some of them are very pretty, also a
piece of the she'll fired by Dewey, which
destroyed the fort and silenced the three
best guns that the Spanish had [ also
have piece of each of the guns and a
great many more things of interest.
The people of Cresco might think that
I am not sincere in this war against
Spain if they knew thatfo the past week
I have actually been keeping Spaniard
from starving to death, he is one of the
many captured by the insurgents. |
would like to help all of them but can
not. This one seemed to be very
bright lad and was much worse than the
rest. When | first saw him he was not
able to get out of bed, but now he is up
and around and he thinks | am all right.
l divide my mess with him and have
bought him milk, bread and fruit many
times.
l was over to Manila week ago last
Sunday, but do not like SO we'll over
there as / do here, it is much warmer
there. 1t is about ten miles from here
over and the fare is only ten cents each
way. l have great deal more of inter-
est to tell you but this letter is fairly
long one aud will close. You do not
want to worry about me for never felt
better in my life than do now, l have
gained seven pounds since left home.
Hoping you are getting along all right
will close. Give my regards to all.
Ever your loving son,
| Co. "A" LIST Montana Vol. EDGAR.