The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-07
RAINY DAYS IN MANILA
THE TERRIBLE TROPICAL DOWN.
POUR IN THE PHILIPPINES.
How Our Soldiers Make Comfortable
Beds Of Bamboo Strips-The SOL
der as "A House Builder.
,avite ..atter in New York Sun.

| ber there will be nothing left of us with
which TO resume operations but our gun
barrels. and they will be covered with rust
All the rest will be in solution. We're satu-
rated now. 1t beats all creation how il can
rain out here. Rain is all right in its way.
Some of it is a good thing. 1t keeps things
generally reasonably clean and furnishes
drinking water. But one steady. unds-
| turbed. imperturbable. unceasing flow be-
comes tiresome after while. and all the
time 1t is wet You don't mind an occasional
| soaking. 1t gives excuse for taking a drink.
But one has something to do down here be-
! sides change his clothes and drink whisky.
And wet feet bring fever. Windows and
! shutters clamped as close together as Span
| ish rain-driven ingenuity can force them
Keep out some of the rain and all of the
sodden air that courtesy calls fresh because
it moves. The mercury charges to the top
of its glass case in the thermometer and
| disappears from view in the barometer. The
wise men wag their boards and make re-
marks about the typoons. With body and
| soul burning up with fever. and the Gin
chona band playing the Dead March from
Saul in your ears, somehow you sort OF
lose focus. Things get out of perspective.
and there is lack of consistent continuity.
You wabble bit, and the rum you have
drunk to help the ouinine you have eaten
is singularly ineffective for the desired pur-
pose. but powerfully effective in the wrong
way.
KEEPING MEN OUT OF MISCHIEF.
Over in camp they enjoying them
! selves mightiy-if one has no regard for
truth. Uncle Sans nephew in the ranks
| is like the "bloomin' cosmopolouse," for
his work begins at gawd knows when an
his work is never through" And the rain
hasn't anything TO do with it. He turns
out at AS in the morning and drills a few
! hours-poco mas, POGO menos. (more or less)
in the rain. Then he gets his breakfast.
seasoned with rainwater After that he
cleans up his rifle and coats it literally
with oil. against the soaking it will get in
the morning drill. Guard mount interrupts
other things, and it he happens not to be on
| the guard detail, or the police detail, he gets
a few moments in his soggy shelter tent to
consider the state of the weather and TO
speculate on the subject of patriotism con- !
sidered a business.
| After morning drill he gets a chance to
some thOrn-spiked bamboo. This bamboo,
tough, wiry and covered with hriers as il is
Is The only genuine all-around infallible
friends he has. As long as his AK and his
wit hold out the bamboo will do the rest.
! He cuts down long pole, perhaps four
inches in diameter. and trims off all the lit
tie branches and big thorns. Then he cuts
|
| sharpens and in the other he cuts a good
sized notch He drives four of these stakes
a foot or more into the ground. one at each
| corner of his tent The notches in the up
per ends serve as cradles for the long bam-
boos he lays across them as stringers for
the house he means to build. These string
ers are just long as his tent. The sticks
that go with the shelter tent are not long
enough now so he cuts couple of bamboos
to serve as tent poles one at each end At
the back of the tent he swings a bamboo
girder between the two stringers, resting
the ends in I,otches in the Stringers and
flashing them fast with fine strips of the
surface of green bamboo, tougher, stouter
and more piiable than wire. His tent
spreads al the bottom about seven feet, and
he has one chum to help him occupy it.
Two feet and a half inside the front corner
| stake he drives another one on each side.
These are notched on top also, and across
| item he lays two other StrfngerS, resting
the rear ends in notches in the girder at the
beds, each Two and a. half feet wide and as
long as his tent
BED SPRINGS.
| Now he splits some bamboo poles into
thin strips, some just the length of his bed
and others just the width of it. The strips
are perhaps an inch wide, and are trimmed
down to about an eighth of an inch in
thickness. His sharp little is his only
tool He weaves the short strips into the
long ones, criss-cross until he has mat
just the size Of his bedstead. AT two-foot
| intervals along the frame he slips little
bamboo Stats in the bed stringers. Over
these he lays his improvised springs, and
he has a bed that is cool-comparativeiy.
not even an ice machine is really cool down
here-and comfortable Between the two
beds there is a space about two feet wide
| where he can stand upright. At the rear
end of the tent he swings another little
| woven mat about two feet wide between
| the beds, and there he has little table, on
| which he can put the trinkets he wants to
keep out of the wet Above it. on the rear
| tent pole, he straps a small piece of board.
| secured somewhere and sawed into shap9
| for arm-rack. There the two guns reSs
| in the intervals between drills and guard
| duty. Some pegs In the tent poles serve as
| hooks, and the house is fairly complete.
| There is space enough between the beds for
| the men to walk into the cent and for their
feet when they want to sit en- the beds and
| read or work. A frame on the rear pole,
| beside the arm-rack, holds candle.
But the ingenious soldier Is not through
| yet with his devices for comfort His tent
| is only one thickness of canvas. and, al
| though it will shed rain, II Will not stand
| against the customary Pmilppne oeluse:
| He builds a light frame of bamboo over IL
| and covers the frame with thatch OF ba-
| mana leaves. Or, perhaps. he uses the ever
| faithful bamboo. In front of the tent ne
| makes a similar awning. If the sun should
| shine by any chance. II would serve as a
| shade but its chief work is in turning rain.
| Altogether the soldier has built himself a
| serviceable house. 1t keeps him fairly dry
when he can stay in it. and his bed is off
| the ground. The tent makes the roof, and
| the thatch protects that. 1t is almost as
| a
| Housebuilding such this is not done.
| of course, in one morning s respite from
| routine work or in an afternoon either. 1t
| fills up the small chinks between army duty
for couple of days. and until 1t is mn
| ished the soldier lies on the ground and
| stands 1t as best he can. So far he has
| stood it we'll. There has been almost no
! sickness in camp. In barracks IN CaVite
there was a great deal. principally due TO
the fact that the men were so near the ma
| tive village. They ate all sorts of fruit
with as much avdty IL they never ex-
! pected TO see fruit of any kind again. And
they drank whatever they could find In the
way of liquor, eXperimentally and the re-
suits very often were disastrous. At first
there was a good bit of sickness that was
very much like dysentery. General Ander-
son says that there was no dysentery. The
medical men shake their heads and say they
do not think there was any dysentery. And
there you are. Certainly there is none now,
and there have been no deaths from II, IN
spite of the reports in Hong-kong ana
Shanghai papers.
The soldiers housebuding gets well
come break at noon with chow, and AFTER
that there is time for more OF it. Then att
ernoon drill comes and more work on the
and more rain and then back TO the tents
again and oil up the rifles and crawl away
from the edge of the tent, where the water
| soaks through.
Hospital Practice.
New York Press.
An army doctor-I don't know why they
should no called surgeons every daV In the