Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-03-26

ONE OF THE KANSAS BOYS WRITES
OF ExPERIENCEs IN PHILIPPINES.
The New Barracks Of the ReGil
Are Superior to the Old-Cruel:
of the Natives to Their
Beasts Of Burdea.

WV ~ sSNs - "s ,
Twentieth Kansas. at Manila. has writ
ten an interesting letter to his brothers.
Jay NJ. and Will Lee. Of this city. The
letter is dated January 20 and after al
lusions to matters Of a personal nature IS
as follows:
Truly time does pass, albeit somewhat
slowly at times. l do not know. all things
considered. that seven months ever passed
so easily and light-heartedly with me as
the time l AVE been in the army.
The restless First battalion has moved
again. This measure was necessitated by
the unhealthfulness Of the neighborhood
where We were located. You recollect my
three weeks g to the former barracks Of
the First California. and that In three
days We had to move right back again.
We have had a bad attack of smallpox
in our battalion. In a little over a month
there have@been ten or eleven. 1 don't
know which. deaths from smallpox and
has had three Of these losses. all from
smallpox. and has three cases Of the same
now in the hospital. Do not needlessly
m net y yanc,n minds Se , uneasy ye apsus ax %e ;oa *
very thoroughly. 1 was required to stand
vaccination again. about two weeks ago.
and IL it to took in. nsa Xeny , lishti NV ~ .xs,sm t xas
81 thoroughly purified by the former vac,
cination that there is very little materia!
in me now Tor the disease to lake hold
Hackett. Of Fort Scott. and Badger. and
Basch. Doth Of Kansas City. or vicinity.
Both Of the latter enlisted the same day
when they came into the army.
Our new barracks are those vacated a
short time ago by the Wyoming battalion
of infantry, which moved to Cavite. They
are III almost every respect superior to
| our cid quarters. tho only two defects I
see being the lack OF a good place to eat
had electric light over there. Each COM
pany has u separate room and there is
Il large courtyard in the center. while in
the rear Is another courtyard. where We
eat. and at one side of which are the
kitchens. 1t IS open country all around.
Right near us is a battery of the Sixth
artillery and Il detachment of the signal
corps. / happened to be talking with one
of the artillerymen a few days & and
found he was born only u few miles from
Lane. Very likely father knows his peo-
pie. We are only Il few steps. almost.
from the Luneta. and at the nearest point
on it is what l suppose is the famous
| bandstand where they used to take the
insurgents out and shoot them. with the
accompaniment of music and ladies in hoi-
It's distance right along the shore. These
barracks are right behind the walled city.
whose solid walls can be seen from the
front Of the barracks. We are about two
miles by foot from the old barracks; or
much nearer In u straight line. and on
the other side of the Pasis. We moved
last SNIsSbJN.
When l was on guard last Friday l hap
pened to nave a post on u business street.
OH which there is much travel and trans
portation. and one of my orders was to
watch the buffaloes and when the ropes
which they are guided ny were wrapped
around their horns i'll such a way as to
the ropes. In the first relief of two hours
| suppose l thus stopped and relieved
thirty or forty eases. The natives and
Chinese are very inhumanely careless or
indifferent about this. | usually did the
fixing myself. as l could not rely on their
adjusting the ropes securely. When l had
interpreted and amplified. Let it stay that
way all the time. ''Siempre'. means al
Attire" C"other. meaning "otherwise'S).
'.guardhouse." sienifying: You go to the
suardhousc." l usually asked them If they
'sabe.' or somewhere near 1t. and they
would always said they did. though l do
not know with how much truth.
Colorado barracks to see a friend Of mine
named Johnson. who was one OF Mr.. Bost-
Mick's numerous soldier friends in San
me and he came to look me up several
weeks ago. He is a newspaper man and
the special war correspondent of the
Vital a nice fellow. There is another IeT
man in the ompany that he is and his
friend. who IL the special war correspond
ent of the Denver Republican. As one OF
them said. there is so much news over
here that they can afford to be friends
and not enemies. McCauley. the Repub-
lican man, who is. by the way. one of the
incest fellows l have yet seen in the army.
gave me a very minute and interesting
| account of the fighting last summer. in
which he participated dhoth these CORE,
| spOndents are enlisted mem, and as he had
special facilities for getting actual facts
and a special purpose in going after them.
his story was very reliable. though he gave
! Tho lip,ynst frnlif Tn (N01nr.lAn tOSf sc a
FirsfoN California man would to the
First%nnaiifornia or ii soldier of the Third
artiIlS1ss- to the Third artillery. Cnfortu-
natelytp the battle-ground is now not Access
sibls d sighieseers in the army. such as
l. a'.!o, Is beyond our lines. or l would go
out ;ats.5o9k it over. Company E. these
| mems S6.-'.:Sy. has much better eating
facilities than We. rs they have a table
and benches, and they have white dishes to
eat from. ard the table is set with the
plates around n the food in dishes as in
civilized ways. We here just take our
messpans and tincups and line UP, at the
grub dispensary. get loaded up and go on
large piece from the scraps.
Johnson took me through i very peculiar
church in thar neishborhood. peculiar in
that it is make of sheetiron. The church
that was there before was shaken down
by an earthquake and this one was I'M
ported from Germany.
Manila is rot such 4 very big town. in
spSu. Of its population of SSO.00. The in
hns:tants live pretty close together in
Lrr,ene parts. Whenever you come to the
ige of towY. on most any side you will
See a lot Of native bamboo huts: The
or two to 4 ear. and when the car comes
to one Of the very scarce rises in the
/ will be mitchell on in front and then.
ursei on by whipping and yelling. the
small but willing ponies will make a squirt
and get TO the top. unless the load is too
heavy. in which case it sometimes be-
get cut and help the ponies. Street ca.
cents Mexican-1 cent American-per sec
zion. the road being divided into ..ses-
The streets run in straight lines mostly.
though they do not continue in one di-
| rection very long. many of them.
! This letter II written with a pen bouHh.
here. These Spanish pens are very poor
| They are scratchy when new or after writ
ing one letter.
Hoping to hear from home soon again,
I remain, Your loving brother,
ROBERT NJ. LEE.
King J0hn' Ringa.
The most historic rings in existence are