El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-07
EXAGGERATED
REPORTS
Of The Trip Of The Soldiers
Of The Army Now In
The Philippines.
A RETURNED REGULAR
Says That a Soldiers Life Is The
One For Him and Will Re-enIist.

|
to exist among the soldiers now in the
Philippines has been greatly exaggerat-
ed" said Corporal VIM. Laughlin, late
of Co. 81 of the 18 infantry of the
army, now stopping at the Lindell
hotel in this city. Il have been in the
regular army for about six years and
am charmed with the life of SOL
dier.
THE boys received good treatment
in the Philippines and the food was
good, and at no time during our stay
there did l see any canned roast beef.
| "FOr four years l was stationed at
Fort Bliss and when the war broke out
the 18th was sent to New Orleans. A
few days after our arrival there my
term of enlistment expired, but l re-
enlisted the next day and went to San
Francisco with my company. We left
San Francisco on the transport Indiana
and arrived at Cavite August first and
went into Manila in the I3tn. [ saw
! very little of the battle and only heard
thirteen shots fired. After the battle
we were sent back to Cavite and on
| the 9th of Decemb Der landed st IloilO,
and lay forty-seven days in the bay.
son the morning of the 11th of Feb
| ruary. while we lay In the bay, an in
surgent officer came out and demanded
that we should pay duty on the coal on
board of our transpOrt is. General Mil
Ter told him he would give him all the
duty he wanted in q very few minutes.
"The insurgent officer returned 10
the shore and shortly afterward the
fort fired on the Petrol which lay
moored close to the Indiana. The Pc
trel returned the fire and then the
Boston opened on the fort with her
smooth bore guns and soon the entire
fOrtifcatiOns were in ruins.
Alter the firing ceased the troops
1op a6 11,,% ~
fire to the town and were sheeing 10 all
directions. Next morning we went IL
to Jaro and captured the towc. We en-
gagged in several skirmishes after ths at,
but my company remained at JarO un-
til l was discharged, on the oath day
OF August, under article 40 passed by
congress, in which it was lated that
any man who enlisted in the Spanish
American war could have his discharge
any time he desired, and feeliI that
was going to be sick. l thought [ would
like to come home: but 1 will surely
re-enlist again at the expiration of
ninety days, the time allowed us to re-
lain out of the service.
''The.couutry around Jsro is.beautiful,
but quite low and very hot. The mOe-
quitOes are about the worst thing q
man has to contend with and the water
ls poor. Ii dysentery once takes hold
OF fellow IL is hard ma ter to shake
it off.
"Although we had lots ofcanned stuff,
yet we got lots of fresh native baef.
Vegetables are scarce and kthe only
thing you can get is native product
called kong-kong. which resem bles
weed and when it is cooked with bacon
1t tastes like cabbage.
zone day when it seemed to me to be
hottest. Lieut.. Baldwin, who was Of
ficer of the day, discovered natives
floating down the river on a large
bamboo pole, flying a white flag. They
came under our guns and we captured
tnem and brought them ashore. When
left they we're working for the can
teen. The boys gave them blue pants
and Shirts to wear. One of the fellows
after receiving the clothes deserted,
but the other two you can't get them
to go away.
"The 18th had the best officers of auy
regiment in the army and l shall be
glad to get back with my old COM
mand.
There is very little dissatisfaction
among the regulars: the complaint
seems ito be only among the volun-
teerS' -