Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-07-05

N@SfS/ssSSN
ON THE FIRING LINE.
fight March 26. In the foreground of
the picture you see this field, with the
shallow firing trenches running across
it like fresh earth thrown up by plow
share. Near these blood stained trenches
lie yet unburied the bodies of two
American soldiers whom death has mus
tered out in country far from home.
This nasty job would have been over
months ago if the natives were civilized
men, as so many good old ladies in the
United States senate and elsewhere
have been fond of telling the Ameri-
can public. But they will not come ont
and fight Their way is to crawl on the
ground like Shiny serpents, through the
bamboo and banana thicket, till they
can pick off American soldiers. If they
are caught, they swear they are "ami-
gos''-friends. After having made this
declaration, so soon as the soldier s
back is turned they will ont with a
bolo and knife him from behind and
then run like deer back to their jungle.
On one of our outposts not long since
South Dakota lad was on duty at even
ing in the cleaning. He discovered two
natives siding toward him. They had
no guns. He challenged them, who
goes there?'' "Amigos, they answer
ed: He let them by. By an odd chance
he had no cartridge in his rife at that
moment As the two fellows were pass
ing theT jumped behind him, and. in q
lightning fash of intuition. be detected
their intention TO knife him. As they
whipped out their knives he snatched
a cartridge, dropped it into his gun
and fired. Fate guided the ball, and
one fellow dropped dead. The other ran
for his life. The Dakotan dropped an
other cartridge into his rife and fred
again, taking aim as we'll as he could
in the fast vanishing evening light of
the tropics. He could not tell then what
execution he had done, but next day
the dead body of the other "amigo"
who had come so near numbering him
was found lying in the road where the
Dakotan bad dropped him
That was merely the Tagalo idea of
honorable warfare. Last summer, when
our first troops landed here and were
such great friends with the rebels, an
insurrecto officer proposed to captain
in the American army that they should
make an expedition together for the
purpose of capturing arms from the
Spanish soldiers
"You and 7, said this sweet Tagalo
officer, twill slip up easy behind
Spanish soldier on outpost duty. seize
him and cut his throat and then take
his gun. =" By this gentle mode of war
fare hundreds of guns and cartridge
belts have been added to the rebels
available stock.
On recent Sunday was out on our
extreme outposts southwark. On Sun
day the soldier is apt to be either wash
ing or fighting. Here en- the south, al
though there had been considerable
firing early in the morning, the boys
were peacefully renovating their week
ly linen. At the same time on the line
tc the north, around Malolos, one of
the bloodiest fights since February was
taking place. fight singularly fatal
to our officers. There the brave, lament
ed Colonel Stotzenberg of the First Ne
braska was killed.
On the south Of where we were the
insurgent lines were less than a thou
sand yards away, though we could not
Fee them through the bamboo and ba-
mana bush. Major McCammon of the
Fourteenth regulars conducted us along
the line of the trenches. A little beyond
these, dotted here and there along the
line, were the soldiers on picket duty
They had generally secured mat OF
some kind from a ruined native hut
and made Of it a screen to protect them
from the fierce sun rays. This mating
was likewise adroitly nestled in among
swaying, rustling banana banners, that
it might not be an attraction too visi-
BILE, drawing toward it brown mans
rifle or knife, as the case might be. /
stood awhile at the intrenchments, ad-
miring about equally the beauties of
nature and the fine physique of the SOL
diers, when the voice of Major Mccain
mon spoke softly. bpt persuasively:
"Better not linger here very long;
might draw shower CT insurgent bull
let's any minute, you knowl"
! did not linger.
One thing am glad to report to the
people at home-you will not see in a
months travel in the civilian world {;
body of men who look in better health
and spirits than our soldiers ont on the
lines. They are now mostly cad in the
Drown cotton fabric called "kbaki,
which the British army has found so
excellent for wear and coolness in India
and Egypt These khaki suits are be-
coming, and no men can fill them tn
better advantage than our own.