Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-29

War news from Manila announcing the re-
turn of General Lawton's command from san
lsidro, the extreme northern point Of the
advance, conveys the additional informa-
ton that reinforcements will be necessary
to enable the army to hold the captured
towns. At present only towns on the two
main lines of communication--the railroad
and the Rio Grande riyer-are garrsoned.
All others, the dispatch adds are reoccupied
by the insurgents as soon as abandoned by
the American army,
This information does not doyetail with
the reports OF correspondents at the front
confirmed by letters from officers and sol
diers. In the early stages of the outbreak
every town near Manila was fired by the
rctreating insurgents, and what was left
was given the torch by our soldiers. The
towns of Malabon, Caloocan and Maypaja,
all within seven miles of Manila, are in
ruins. "Caloocan was supposed to contain
1000 Inhabitants" writes Captain Elliott OF
the Kanses volunteers. THE Twentieth
Kansas swept through, and now Caloocan
contains not one living native OF the build
ings, the battered walls Of the great church
and the dismal prison alone remain. The
village of Maypaja, where our first fight
occurred on the night of the ith had 5000
people in it at that day-now not one stone
iNAhHiuS upOh tOp VI dHObhtls
Similar scenes of desolation wrought by
war are common. The towns around La
guna de Bay, invaded by General Lawton,
did not suffer from fire. Malolas, capital OF
Agunaldo's government, escaped destruction
by fire because the American advance was
too sudden for the insurgent firebugs North
OF that point, however, the path of the ad-
vancing army is marked by fire and smoke
and the torch was not used by the insurgents
alone. correspondent of the Boston
Transcript. in letter dated Marilao, April
a. gives a picture of the horrors and desc
lation of war in that section. He shows
that every town and village was given the
torch by the American army, and gives
military reasons in justification of the ac
tion. The statements of the writer convey
the impression that there are precious few
towns left to garrison The correspondent
tells the story as follows:
Just watch our smoke is what the Min
nesota and Oregon regiments have adopted
for motto since their experience of the
last few days. Their trail was eight miles
long and the smoke of burning buildings
and rice heaps rose into the heavens the
entire distance and obscured the face of the
landscape for many hours. They started at
daylight in the morning, driving the rebels
before them and setting the torch to every
thing burnable in their course until noon,
when they returned to their starting point
at Bocave on the railroad. This was in re-
taliation for night attack made upon them
by the soldiers of Aguinado and the armed
citizens residing in the raided district. 1t
was sample of the warfare that has been
made necessary at times in certain dis
tricts, where the entire male population be-
longs to the "citizen soldiery' of the revo-
luton. In the daytime they are "muchos
amigos" with the Americans and speak dis
respectfully of Aguinaldo, but at night they
recover their secreted guns, girt their lons
with homemade belt of Mauser or Rem
ington ammunition, and prowl about the
American camps to shoot into them, rot
sentinels and cut off patrols or join with
the regular soldiers in more serious at
tacks, such as the one that gave the niti-
ative to the eight-mie trail Of smoke.