The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-05-11
ANTIQUE FIREARMS.
A Canton Boy Relates a Sad
Story of Neglect.
WHY OUR SOLDIERS DIE.
Inferior Weapons Used Against Foe That
Is Armed with the Latest Improved
Rifles Son of james Sterling
Writes From Manila.

Attorney James Sterling, of this city, has
son in the First Colorado regiment, doing duty
in the Philippines. He has been in number
of battles, AID while he is brave as a soldier
should be, he realizes the mistake that is being
made by the administration In attempting
to make good citizens Of the Gilipinos. A
letter has reached his parents, who have been
very anxious about him and who have closely
watched the newspaper reports ofthe dead and
wounded, praying that they would not find
his name there. What the young soldier says
Of the poor and inferior arms furnished the
United States is pertinent, and may account
for the great loss the troops have suffered.
They have the same antiquated rifles that the
Eighth Ohio used and which caused them to
miss the Porto Rican campaign and be dumped
back in camp in the midst of fever and death.
The letter from Private Sterling reads as fol
lows:
Manila, P. L. March 90, 100.
Dear Mother
Your letter of Feb. was received the other
day. November "a was probably my latest up
to week ago, when l dropped a few lines
notifying you Of my welfare up to date. /
ruary. On the night of Feb. our company
was on outpost, forming guard against the
insurgents, who had block houses from coast
on the north of the city, to the coast on the
south, sixteen in all, surrounding the entire
city Of Manila. Our station was in front of
bio khouse 5, hostilities beginning at one
block house No. Z, in front of Nebraska's lines.
The fight started about $40 p. M, by Ne
braska guard killing two insurgents, who in
sisted in posting one of their soldiers on the
American line About ten minutes passed before
the niggers rushed at us by the thousand, but
halted when our lead met them. They held
their ground, however, until daylight when
each regiment in front of the block.
houses they were fighting made desperate
charge, driving them out of their positions
with great loss, Our regiment buried only
"a Filipinos but I think they killed many
more that were carried away by their com.
rades Nothing of great note happened till
March 16, when Col. Mccoy, with two and
one.l alf companies of our regiment, among
which was company X, undertook to take a
little town named Marquanas, eight miles dis
tant from Manila We advanced ON the town
unmolested until 500 yards from the insur-
gents, when they fired accurately enough to
wound three men and kill another. The man
killed belonged to our company, his name
being f. r. Pynchon, a clerk from Denver.
He had no folks, but was engaged to a Denver
lady.
Ireceiveda letter from Fred Stokey the other
day and he talks as though the natives here
are figh ing with bows and arrcws. l wish to
God they were, but, the sad fact is, that the
natives have all Mauser repeateTs and Reming
tons. The Mauser is equal to any gun made;
far superior to our Springfield rifle, which
shoots a lead ball. The Springfield is a single
shot and it is impossible to hit anyone further
than 500 yards distant, while the natives have
one of the attest improved guns, shooting six
times without reloading. Our fight the other
day was a fair sample of how Uncle Sam treats
us. old. National Guard Guns against modern
guns. All civilized nations recognize the
.Mauser as one of the most accurate guns made.
1t shoots true and will kill at three miles.
After each fl@ht my left shoulder is black and
blue, caused by the recoil of our
"Old Long Toms" The regulars have
krag-J -JOrgensens one Of the best guns
made, equal if not better than the Mauser, but
the regulars are doing very little fighting here.
1t is the volunteer soldier who is doing the
fighting, the regular doing police duty in the
city. II is enough to make one despondent to
think Of having these brutes killing our men
and us unable to harm them.
In the fight of the 18th, the niggers stood
out of our range and made monkeys of u.s. ow-
ing to the fact that our guns were useless at 50
great range. l am not proud of fighting
these people, as thev are ignorant as bTutes,
they should pay the penalty for 50 many
Americans murdered. We have always
treated them kindly, fed them when they were
hungry, fought bled and died for them, but
now that they have murdered our comrades let
us wipe them off the face of the earth. Our
| company has been in every fight up to date
and has had one killed and one wounded. He
| was the only one living in our company that
was in the Spanish war and wounded there,
| and so was the one wounded. We have thus
| far been fortunate as to disease, one man, Cor
| pOral Dick Bryant, of our company. having
died of black smallpox. The worst is yet to
come. l will not be lucky enough to get my
discharge before the fighting begins, which
will last months. 1t may mean death and il
may not. At any rate it will mean victory in
the end. The last reports state that we will
probably be armed with Krag-Jorgensen rifles
in few days. l will close wishing the wal
| over, and my feet once again under mothers
table. bid you all adieu, hoping not forever
but war is uncertain and we must fight.
Fred StOkey sent me a box Of candy and
have not been able to answer and tell him
received it, and thanking him for it. Please
send him word | have been to town
only once since February 4th and since
that time no privat' is allowed TO leave camp
My company is at the waterwOrks, some eigh
or ten miles from Manila. We have eigh
Filipino prisoners here, and the engineer anC
fireman are also natives They are kept a
work by an armed guard They seem to worl
with the greatest reluctance. Address all mai
as usual, and remember that If i am killed il
battle you will receive oablegram from tn,
company commander. We are now in tn,
field without our officers. captain and frs
lieutenant are sick and the third lieutenant /
detailed with artillery. We have lieutenan
from another company in charge of us. d
not expect mail soon, as 1t is uncertain when