The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-30

- 4'lPpAlSS as volunteer nurses, SPEED
ny developed their incapacity in thar lire
and propensity for mischief in mo- 49, ,.'re
mat led to their being invited to return bv
the next steamer.
Then from Hong Kong. Honolulu or San
francisco their calumnies were launched
ana out from the states came letters nv
'Ae thousand from anxious wives. mofh-
10 sWeethearts and sisters-not to men
NOn humorous fathers and solid citizens
whose long experience with newspaper
mlsstatements should have taught them
better, demanding instant account of the
physical condition and immediate needs of
some brawny, big-voiced. sun-tanned and
hopeIessly healthy fellow in our ranks who
suHawed loudly when told the home folks
feared ne was dying of neglect in hospital.
A sounder and healthier legion than
me Eighth Corps probably never took the
ned in the tropics when called upon late
last autumn to man the blockhouses about
Manila against possible Filipino attack.
Inc men were well fed despite the fact
mat Australian beef and Luzon chickens
are tough and stringy.
we had efficient medical officers and
ample hospital accommodations.
Praise for Otis.
Gen. Otis, our corps commander. left
no stone unturned to see that the few
men he had were kept in as efficient A
state as possible
ohlp after ship came laden with food
ana clothing, and, though foreign mill
tary attaches looked with politely yelled
dlsapprobation upon the battered SLOUGH
mats and at the bare brown threats show
ing through the gaping flannel shirts and
hoted the utter lack of military ornament
IN the garb of officers and men. they could
not out see how free and unhampered
were their movements and how service
able and convenient was the rough dress.
Even after the brown khaki uniforms
were received and issued to the men. and
they mad struttted about in them a few
DAYS pleased as 4-year-olds with a new
Toy, they speedily drifted back to the use
OF the ola blue flannel, with its roomy
chest and sleeves. They never felt com
portable on the march without the long.
laced leggin. The Fourteenth Regulars
splendid body of men-and a few of the
volunteers were picturesque in the ex-
IRENE in tropical parade uniform of
thelr own devising. Blue flannel 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
hlgh-crowned, d-brimmed straw hat.
topped up, after the manner of Roosevelt.
on one side, and encircled by a black silk
hhoon with the designation of the regi-
ment 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 change
OF any kind, and were hearty and merry
as school boys all the time, but with the
ISL OF March the weather grew hot and by
April it was far worse than anything l
ever experienced in Arizona. and then old
Sol began to get in direfuI though not
deadly, work. Heat prostrations were
many, but l heard of no fatalities. We
used 10 strip the leaves of the banana tree
and put them in our campaign hats with
a fall down the back of The head and
neck. They served us well, but all the
same the exposure was great. April is
the hottest month of the year in and about
Manila, and where we were serving. up
the Pasig, and where Lawton and Mac
Arthur were hammering a Aguinaldo's
Held works on the lines of the Bagbag.
the Quingua and the Rio Graude de Pam
pangas, the sun beat down uniempered
by the breezes from the bay, as in Manila,
and there was no lodging it, Foreign res
idents, you know, and even the natives
shut up shop every day and retire in
doors and stay there until the sun is well
down in the west, but no such shelter
could our fellows seek. The sun by dav.
The dews by night and the exhalations of
the rice fields at all times had they to
stand as best they could and stand ii
they did CALAMITY and uncompiainIngly.
what is more, I believe they would gladly
stand it all again if by so doing they
could stand Off the drenching rains that
cool the air for an hour or so each day
now, and then turn all nature into a steam
bath until sunset and all the fields to
food. Without a dry stitch on them, per-
haps, the stawart fellows stretch them
selves on their rude hunks at night aud
sleep as only tired soldiers can; vet thou
sands of them seem to mind 1t as little as
a mild shower. They are nearly all vigor-
Gus young fellows who were sound" to
start with.
Small Percentage OF Sick Men.
Of course we hear of hundreds of Of
fcers and men physically broken down
anu returned 10 the states, but the per-
centage is slight as compared with the
civil war, and very many men
are simply tormented to sleep,essness by
an annoying skin disease-an itch-that is
obstinately prevalent around Manila, yet
yleauS 10 treatment dlltF Il rev Gays CT
sea, and is gone entirely by the time the
patient sees the Golden Gate. Once last
winter there was cause for anxiety. The
smallpox is said to be endemic in Manila
and the native takes it lightly and soon
RECEIVERS, but it is oddly fatal when it
strikes the Anglo-Saxon, and there were
grave faces everywhere when we heard
of its appearance in the ranks of Fun
ston's gallant regiment the Twentieth
Kansas. Yet so promptly was the matter
met, so complete was the isolation en-
forced and so strict the quarantine es-
tablished that the malady never spread
beyond thu battalion in which it first ap-
peared, and in less than a month il was
stamped out entirely.
Now as to the Filipinos I know nothing
of the people except the insurgent tribe
the Tagals-and a most active and enter
prislng foe they make. Their leaders are
skilled, and, as a rule, highly educated
men, They themselves have all attended
school as children, and the priests, the
Filipino officials and Filipino authors de-
clare that nine-tenths Of them can read
and write They are superstitious. They
are suspicious of everything Spanish or