Evening star., 1899-07-29

its smaller neighboTs came out and tender
ed Its formal written surrender, the fields
ana roads We're sun baked and dry as a
brick The enemy, demoralized by the as
tonlshIng overthrow of all their hopes and
plans, their grievous losses at Santa Ana
and the fierce pursuit of the Idahos and
Caiifornfans of our brgade-had fled far
Up the I.aguna, and not one could be found
within range of our Springfields. Now all
the trenches, rice fields and roads are LIQUID
mud. The rains descend each day in tor
rents-and our dripping battle lines are
covered by strong cutpGSts with far outly-
ing plckets peering through the mist and
downpour at the fitting forms of their
active foemen.
The light blue-check uniforms of the
insurgents seem to have been abandoned.
The famous Red Pants of Aguinaldo's S
crack regiments that were so much in evil
dence early in the war are seldom seen or
heard of. Either in their native brown
or manufactured white the dusky little
warriors hover along the front picking
OH picket whenever they can and giving
pfo1apt notice of anything that looks like
a move on our part.
But they know well enough that no move
of consequence can be made, that the roads
are impassable and the fields are ponds
Sad experience and severe losses in killed
and wounded have taught them the folly
OF attacking the big Americans, even
though the rifle pits and trenches of the
latter are filed, bank high, with dirty wa
ter-that the cook fires and the ril &c ham
boo hunks the soldiers make are perched
or platforms inprOVised from cartridge
ANA cracker boxes, and that officers and
men have to wade about knee-deep when
on guard or sentry duty. Drills. of course,
are suspended, and the American troops
regular and volunteer-are having 4 spell
or enforced and most uncomforting rest
and idleness.
False Reports of Illness.
The few who break down are those in
whose systems rheumatism was latent, for
as rule, the physique of the soldier sent
TO the Philippines is fine as silk. The death
rate has been small. and the percentage of
sick is low, as compared with that of cur
civil war, especially when the Army of the
Potomac was cropping it's way through the
thiCkahominy swamps The stories IF cpl
denies, of crowded hospitals, neglected
patients and dissolute doctors that were so
eagerly circulated by our sensation-loving
press, had no foundation whatever in Ma
Mia or fact, and We're set afioat in every
case by frauds and freaks of both sexes,
who, having secured free transportation to
the Philippines as volunteer nurses, speedi-
ly developed their inCapacity in that line,
and propensity for mischief in others
that led to their being invited to return by
the next steamer.
Then from Hong Kong. Honolulu or San
Francisco their calumnies were launched,
and out from the states came letters by
the thousand from anxious wives, mothers
sweethearts and sisters, not to mention
timorouS fathers and solid citizens. whose
itliS thpttit1lte Win newspaper mlSState-
ments should have taught them better. de-
manding instant account of the physical
condition and immediate needs of some
brawny, hig-YoiCed, sun-tanned and hope
lessly healthy fellow in our ranks, who
guffawed loudly when told the home folks
feared he was dying of neglect in hospital
sounder and healthier legion than the
Sth Corps probably never took the field in
the tropics when called upon late last au-
tumn to man the blockhouses about Ma
Mia against possible Filipino attack
The men were we'll fed. despite the fact
that Australian beef and Luzon chickens
are tough and stringy.
We had efficient medical officers and am
pie hospital accommodations.
Praise for Otis.
Gen. Otis, our corps commander left no
stone unturned to see that the few men he
had We're kept in as efficient a state as
possible.
Ship after ship came laden with food and
clothing, and, though foreign military at
taches looked with politely veiled disap-
probation upon the battered slouch hats
and at the bare brown throats showing
through the gaping flannel shirts, and
noted the utter lack of military ornament
in the garb of officers and men, they could
not but see how free and unhampered were
their movements and how serviceable and
convenient was the rough dress. Even af-
ter the brown khaki uniforms were re-
ceived and issued to the men, and they
had strutted about in them a few days,
pleased as four-year-olds with a new toy,
they speedily drifted back to the use of the
old blue flannel, with its roomy chest and
sleeves. They never felt comfortable on
the march without the long laced leggin.
The 18th regulars, a splendid body of men,
and few of the volunteers, were pictur-
esque in the extreme in a tropical parade
uniform of their own devising-blue fan
mel shirts with the crammed cartridge belt
and knife at the waist. trousers of white
drilling or light blue. tucked into the long
brown leggins, and the whole topped by a
light, high-crowned, broad-brimmed straw
hat, looped up, after the manner of RooSe-
welt, on one side, and encircled by a black
silk ribbon with the designation of the
regiment in gold letters.
Fighting the Heat.
For over three weeks after the battle of
Santa Ana my men marched and fought
and slept in the trenches in their old blue
shirts and trousers. with hardly a change
of any kind, and were hearty and merry as
school boys all the time, but with the 1st
of March the weather grew hot, and by