The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-08-11


or two other towns, and the next we
took some more and wound up at
Puele The line of march, battle or
any other old line we ma le, was always
n trail of cocoanuts; we lived on cocoa
nuts principally, when chickens got
scarce. The night we were in some
place have now forgotten the name
of it | was on guard, about 3 clock in
the moaning there was shouting on
the lake and finally our casco with
grub came along. AS soon rs the
Quartcrmaster-scrge came in sight
| said, "For Gods sake Rambo give
me something to eat" And his CHEEKY
voice responded through the darkness,
"All right Tom, haven't thing |
can get at but this open can of hard
tack, but you can have all of it that
you can eat" | got three and they
tasted good.
like General Lawton. TO me he
seems to be Il man who is soldier and
not pirate. The towns we took were
absolutely deserted. One old woman
and man and a prisoner in Jail were
the only human beings, except
few Cinnamon. in the half dozen or
more places we entered. Their aggre-
gate population could not have been
less than a hundred thousand and
probably is much more. Our little
force of 1900 men could carry every
thing before it but we could leave no
garrsons, and consequently the only
thing demonstrated was our ability to
fight. Although really we cannot say
that we have had any fight yet in the
modern sense. Artillery, rapid-fre
and machine guns on one side and rifles
and blunderbusses on the other. We
found large numbers OF wooden guns.
They say that one or two men with
sure enough guns and lot with wood
en- ones used to capture small parties
oi Spaniards 1t would be hard to dis
tinguish the wooden one from the gen
uine at Il short distance No burning
of buildings was done and Lawton tried
to stop any looting-t is hard to pre-
vent enlisted men from trying their
hand.
When we entered Santa Cruz there
was still little desultory firing going
on. We were halted at the bridge,
tearing down Il stone barricade in order
to give passage to the gnns. A native
started across the river, which was Il
began shooting at him, but their
craftsmanship was poor and Lawton
stopped them. lie said, THAT fellow
hasn't any gun, and he has had scare
enough to last him" lie went down
the street at the head of our company
when we charged into the town, but,
before starting, cautioned the men to
use caution and not to shoot non-com-
batants, women and children. He Or
dercd halfa dozen of us into the church,
and some one started the cry that the
artillery was going to shell the church.
I4awton wanted 10 know why church
should be slelled when there was no
one in it. A question that could only
have been answered by an A. p. A. or
an eX.. Jail bird seeking an opportunity to
plumber | had seen and heard so much
ofsuch things that ! was depressed with
shame just before starting on the cX-
petition, and it was very refreshing to
hear such words coming from a general
officer, though | don't think they were
quite pleasing to some of his subordi-
mates who would prefer to purchase 4
reputation for heroism at cheap cost.
| wrote the foregoing last night.
Now, ut o'clock, the fight is begun
of which you may hear this date. |
don't know just what our part will be
yet. | did not tell you that too much
cocoanut sent me to the hospital after
the Santa Cruz trip. The hospital
service is excellent now, and | ascribe
it largely to the fact that there are
women nurses in them. The men do
not entirely fall away from all sense of
of deccncy-nurscs | mean when they
are around, and they wouldn't permit
the pilfering Of sick mems delicacies.
Also many who got into the hospital
service in the first place because they
wanted snap, or had cold feet, have
been fired out.
| have the best of health now and
feel better than | have at any time
since being on the island.
There is great uproar among the
volunteers over their being kept here.
The war is not popular among them.
| am between the devil of duty and
the deep sea Of Humanity, and don't
know where | am at But IS | am
here | would like to see the thing out,
and at the same time learn Tagaloy,
which is an easy language, SO you need
not be surprised if stay Oh Tor six
months Longer.
They are shooting al,ng tha front,
and the report is that the natives are
falling back to Paranaqne. They will
either surrender or be killed to man.