El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-22
POStOffice In the Philippines
OF Chaos In the Far East
Spanish Employees StruckAn Early Trouble Was That
Every Soldier n the Field Home Relics.


OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
MANILA, T. l., July 10.-1 took v1r-
tual possession of the postoffice at Ma
Mia on the 18th of August, by securing
q detail of two soldiers to guard the
Office and prevent the removal OF prop
erty, but 1 was not in position to at
once assume entire charge. supplies
had to be brought from Cavite and al :
ditional details of soldiers secured. As
the quartermaster's department had Its
hands full in transferring army sup
plies, a personal trip to Cavite was nee
essary, and then the safe, with stamps.
had to be left In Cavite. 1t was the
afternoon of the 18th of August before
/ felt myself in condition to undertake
the control of the office, with four SOL
diers as assistants. A notice was posted
up retaining fifteen of the Spanish en-
pioyes and disseminating the services of
the other 100. On the morning OF the
18th the fifteen who had been retained
reported for duty, and as 1 left them to
see about some matters outside. On my
return not q man was visible, and,
learning that they had been seen 60
ing ups tairs, followed and found the
hall filed withsformer employees. In
quiry developed the fact that a labor
meeting had been held and that the 100
men who had been discharged had
brought moral persuasion to bear upon
the fifteen who had been retained and
had. convinced them thatit would not be
right to work for the United States, as
they ad not been discharged by Spain
and it would go hard with them If
Spain ever regained control. They re-
fused to work unless the whole force
was retained, and 1 decided to 60 it
alone.
One more soldier was added to my
detail, making five in all. For several
days there were no mails received.
but the outgoing mails were piling in
and the whole force found steady en-
ployment on those. The evening of
the twentieth, Saturday, we received
our first mail from Hong Kong, includ-
ing heavy European and Spanish
nail. We worked till after midnight
and succe eded in casing the, mails of
all nasionalities excepting the Span
ish. There we're many thousands OF
these letters from Spain and they were
stacked up two rows deep on our long
table. A notice was posted in the
lobby early Sunday morning to the eff
feet that on account of the refusal OF
Spanish employees to work in the post
Office the Spanish mails had not been
distributed. Delivery was made Sun
day morning 10 the English and Ger
maj merchants and about noon dele
CATION of Spanish officers came with q
request from their commander that
they be allowed to pick out the mails
for their regiments. This request was
granted.
About 2 p. m. came the ex-postmast-
or general with all his force, with Or
ders to report at once and work up the
Spanish mails. admitted enough to
handle the mail an dfrom that time no
trouble was had. Those retained have
worked faithfully and regularly, al
be trouble on account of the refusal of
the natives to work on fast days, which
are very frequent Their faithful
ness may be due, possibly, to the fact
that their salaries were increased and |
paid regularly.
On Friday, the 10Th, Superintendent
Conway landed with his cafe and
stamps and Immediately opened up
business On August 81 Messrs, Ri
Washington and Wetzler, rail-
way postal clerks from California and
slipped into harness. The work was
hard during those first months in Ma
nils, when our facilities for handling
he mail were improper and when
avery soldier in the army seemed fired
With the ambition to prove to the loved
,nes and friends at home that he was
actually in Manila by sending to them
he contents of all the stores and loot
" the town. Everything was sent home
some of the heavier cannons
Ind it is a wonder that the late arrivals
ound any of the town left. Loaded ,
and small shells were pack
ID in boxes and consigned to the mails ,
md many of them slipped through be-
ause the force was not sufficient to en-
Ible us to make thorough investiga-
ion. In fact, we did not attempt to
Examine packages, and only held up
UGH articles as were evidently danger Z
'us. as. for instance, native knives {
With blades fifteen inches long, wrap ,
led in thin paper only.
Under Spanish rule the heaviest .
nail that had ever been brought into ,
danila, according to the reports of
nen who had worked twenty years in
he Office, consisted of 102 sacks of 1
European mail. After the blockade ,
ad been raised we received 1873 sacks {
I European letters in one mail, thus {
xceeding the Spanish record by six I
y-six sacks. The heaviest mail we
SO sacks, and all but a few came from q
be United States. We have had a
1any very heavy mails, and if ship a
rrives with anything under 300 sacks
! is known as small mail. These '
cures are interes ting as throwing 4
ONE light on the difference between '
be Spanish army and our own. They t
ave had as many men here as we had
asst fall and yet we receive at least ten l
ines the number of letters and t
of paper mail that they did. Il
We have, almost from the first, sent a
lore letter mail to the United States t
han we receive. We receive more l
scond-class matter than we send. C
1aniia papers are not yet blanket edi-
ons. Our largest outgoing mail con- t
sted of 21S sacks n
1t is not possible to relate In detail il