Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-01-27
Dan Wallace Back in the City After
Six Months Passed in the Far
Off East.
Tells His Impressions Of Manila and Of
the Doings of the American
Soldiers.
Discharged For Illness and Has an
Eventful and Prosperous Voyage
Back Home.
Some Impressions of Manila.

Some Impressions of Manila.
Yesterday afternoon a TRIBUNE repre-
sentative called on Dan Wallace at his
home in this city. Dan was a member
of the jamestown company of the First
North Dakota in Manila and is an
excellent type of that peculiar type of
American manhood known and eulogiz-
ed in deed and verse as "Young
America"
He tells a very interesting story Of his
experiences in the far-away PHILIPPINES
fighting the battles of his country from
purely patriotic motives, and of camp
and army life generally.
Wallace enlisted at Fargo in Company
H and sailed with his regiment from San
Francisco, June %, in one of the big U.
s. transport ships and laughingly
remarked that he had spent the Fourth
of July OF the Pacific Ocean. Thanks
giving at Manila Christmas at Mayasack,
Japan, and New Years on the Pacific on
the homeward trip. He was glad to get
home he said, and while he had enjoyed
his trip immensely, there were pleasanter
and better ways of spending mans lease
of life, short at the best, than living in
the PHILIPPINES.
Our trip over was comparatively
speaking u%neventful," said Mr.. Wallace,
land nothing of note occurred to break
the monotony of military life aboard
ship. Quite a few were sea sick of course
and all were anxious to get over. OF
course you know we were in the fight
before the city of Manila. We went into
the trenches Aug. II and for "a hours we
stayed there in water and mud up to our
waists most of the time, with nothing to
eat but canned "hoss" and hard tack.
Canned "hoss' is what the boys call the
commissary beef: it wasn't such bad
stuff, though, and most of them appear
ed to relish it immensely.
"When the trouble began I was with
a detachment of H men doing outpost
duty with Lieut.. Proctor. There were
60 of us in the detachment, 20 men from
A, 20 from B and 20 from H. About 3
o'clock the first bullet came on with an
ominous and strangely musical twang. l
felt like running both ways for about
five minutes, but after that was all
right. The boys all behaved well. We
were under fire about an hour, although
not directly on the firing lines. Time
went fast though and it only seemed
about fifteen minutes. None of our fell
lows were hurt. TWAS a great fight and
had a glorious end. More credit is due
the Colorado regiments band than the
rest of the army all put together. They
stayed right up on the firing lines and
played "a Hot Time in the Old Town
Tonight" all through the fracas. They
didn't have to do it, but took this par.
ticular method of showing their patriot
ism and it was a good one, as it helped
the boys to keep steady wonderfully.
after it was all over we went into the
city and were surprised that the Span
iards had given up so easily. It was
one of the best fortified cities in the
world I think. There is a wall around
the city 30 feet high and 20 feet thick;
in front of this is a ditch half full of
water and in this are a number of sharp
murderous looking irons to prevent the
infantry from jumping in and swimming
across.
"Four thousand American soldiers be-
hind those walls could defend the CITY
against the world.
"Manila itself is a queer old place,
with narrow streets and has a general
air of-well, shiftlessness. The climate
there is pleasant, of course; but tho peo-
pie are a queer lot, suave but treacher-
GUS. They are very kind to ones fac,
but will stoop to anything to further an
end or appease a grudge. We had a
pretty good time after we got settled
there. Quite a few were sick, but I think
on the whole the boys Jared much bet
ter than the Cuban army of invasion.
The natives are very superstitious and
I don't consider them good soldiers.
When they go into battle the priests give
them a small piece of paper with a Latin
word written on it, which they hold in
their mouth and which is supposed to
keep them from getting hit. If one of
them happens to get killed or wounded,
VIZ pAACooo Jun WIoC3 ol1dhc CllolE ucdOS
and say that the unfortunate must have
bit the charm or done something else to
break its spell and render it useless.
They are all armed with guns but are re-
markable for their poor workmanship
and I'd rather have one of them shoot at
me any time than tackle me with a
knife.
"They didn't seem to have much idea
of how to live and I think they were
fighting more because they liked it than
from any desire to gain liberty or be free
from oppression. OF course the better
classes understand their real situation
and would like to have a government of
their own. Aguinaldo is a great man
with them and I think he is the cause of
all the present disturbance over there.
1t might interest you to know that the
guns of the Utah artillery are kept con
stantly trained upon his headquarters
and the momenthe makes a wrong move
he will get it where Mary wears tho
J beads Ifthere ever is any trouble over
there, it won't last long. I don't think
those people will ever be able to govern
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