Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1899-02-10

y
The horses they use are all very small
ponies, and the beast Of burden is the,
water buffalo, very ugly long horned
beast. 81 ss
There is quite a number the of old q
Spanish churches, cathederals here.
They are massive stone structures all
moss.grown and cracked, with bushes
and grass growing out of the crevices,
within they are dark andsgloomy, but
magnificent. costly and grand. They
look older then the venerable hills and
mountains of the island. On top are
great towers with bells hung on mas
sive oaken beams.
The natives, those who live in the
city are ugly, sullen looking creatures
very ignorant but fairly clean looking
They are considered rich if they own a
bamboo hut, monkey or a parrot and
cocoanut tree. And are quite rich If
they own little patch of rice and q !
water buffalo. The men wear a light
shirt often profusely decorate in front
and falling loose on the outside Of their
trousers. They generally wear white
trousers made out Of light material, go
bare footed and wear their hair cut
to their head and usually go bare
headed The native ladies wear dark
colored skirt with light waist very
low necked and around their neck and
shoulders a thick veil like collarette;S
they 60 bare headed with hair loose, sf
falling long and bushy down their back ~
and are forever smoking Spanish Gig
arettes. If they wear anything On IS
their feet it is kind of a sandal.
The children wear practically. no 4
clothing whatever. The savages back M
among the hills are dwarfy and ugly, Il
scarcely better educated than the mon
keys, and all the language they have is \.
series Of chirps and whistles, and the \.
expression was made by some Of the
boys that they could sit down and talk 4
to monkey. The natives in the city II
speak mostly Spanish or Spanish and
their own linguo mixed.
1 saw three of them in boat tip
over yesterday morning and they just
got astrids of the upturned boat and
paddle away.
The spanish soldier, or the majority
of them, are nice looking fellows, we'll II
made and clean looking, They draw 20
cents SpaDis or the; equal Of 10 cents u
u. s. money per day, and a End lienten-
ant dosen't draw as much salary as = 81
private in the U. 8 army. Most of
them express the wish, that theywould
be glad to join the q. s. army, for they
seem to think the United States is the
only country in the world. They are
quite friendly with us and assoc;a
and joke with the boys and seem to !
like them quite well. s5.s
The Filipinos or native don't like the a
Spanish soldier little bit, and are
afraid Of the U. S. Soldier. They say
''the Krag Jaurgeson rifle go whack,
whack, no good,' for they think the
steel bullet is too small; but they say
"the Springfield go boom, boom. kill
heap Spaniard." And in speaking of
Dewey they say, ''fizz, fizz bum,' then
fall over as if they were dead, i'm ital-s
ting the effect of a shell. 1t is quite
amusing to see them try to explain
things in their own language. I don't
think it will take long to get the run
of the Spanish language as the soldiers
who are here seem to- speak it freely
enough to make all of their wants
known.
BY the way, how about your Thanks
giving dinner. I had rice, peaches,
syrup and bread, but would have like
to have been at home that day. still |
would rather be here than at hd ,e for
there are many strange sights to see.
You will have eaten Christmas dinner
long enough before you get this letter,
and Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year to you all even il it does
come late. T. Es>
The small pox is quite prevalent here
and is killing quite a number OF the
soldiers but l have been vaccinated
twice since have left Iowa and don't
fear it very much. The boys play a
good deal of foot and base ball and
have good many boxing contests in
spite of the warm weather, for it is
pretty warm in the day time but at
night there is generally cool breeze,
only the mosquitoes are large and
voracious. -A. 10. ID. .ss..sse sesss .,,.S,,.sv,,
hguinaldo is about six miles Sk--
the walled city and we can see him
drilling with a field glass. He says 'he
he is going to drive the Americans out
and eat Christmas dinner in Manila"
but don't think he will. But there is
bound to be trouble before very long
and we will more than likely be fight
ing before this reaches you.
Well, dear folks, exepct you are
weary of reading by this time and be-
gin to think am going to write book
and wonder when the first chapter will
end, but just little patience and |
will close.
l received mail in the evening after
our arrival at noon and was never so
glad to get letter in my life. | re-
ceived five letters. How is mother:
She was not very we'll at the time she
| wrote, I hope she and all are well. i