Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-06-02
SOLDIERS LETTERS.

!
of Criminal Aggression.
Private Fred b. Hinchman, Company
A, United States Engineers, writes from
Manila. Feb. %:
"At | 80 O'Clock the general gave me
memorandum with regard to sending
out Tennessee battalion to the line.
He tersely put it that they were looking
for fight. At the Puente Colgante
(suspension BRIDGE | met one of our
company, who told me that the Four
teenth and Washingtons were driving all
before them, and taking no prisoners.
This is now our rule of procedure for
cause. After delivering my message |
had not walked a block when | heard
shots down the street. Hurrying for
ward, | found group of men taking
pot-shots across the river, into bamboo
thicket, at about 1900 yards. | longed
to Join them, but had my reply to take
back, and that, of course, was the first
thing to attend to. | reached the Office
at p. M, just in time to see platoon
of the Washingtons, with about fifty
prisoners. who had been taken before
| they learned how not to take them
4 private in the Utah Battery:
THE cable news has kept the home
folks fully informed as to the progress
OF this 'goo-goo hunt, so it is unneces-
sary TO recount any details of battles.
The cruelties of Spain toward these
people have been fully discussed, but if
the thing were written up by a recent
arrival here, he would make tale Just
as narrowing. But the old boys will
say that no cruelty is too severe for
these brainless monkeys, who can ap-
preciate no sense of honor, kindness or
Justice. With an enemy like
this to fight, it is not surprising that the
boys should soon adopt mo quarter as a
motto, and fill the blacks full of lead
before finding out whether or not they
are friends or enemies
Arthur II. Vickers, sergeant in the
First Nebraska regiment:
II am not afraid, and am always ready
to do my duty. but | would like some
one to tell me what we are fighting for"
Another soldier in the Nebraska
regiment:
1--WE came here to help, not to
slaughter, these natives; to fight the
oppressor Spain, not the oppressed. 1t
strikes me as not very fair to pursue a
policy that leads TO this instruction.
and then keep US volunteers out here to
fight battles we never enlisted for. |
cannot see that we are fighting for any
principle now"
\ corporal in the California regiment:
I'VE sleep all day here, as we do duty
all night, walking the streets. We
make every one get into his house by
p. m, and we only tell man once. If
he refuses, we shoot him. We killed
over three hundred men the first night.
They tried to set the town on fire. If
they lire shot from a house, we burn
the house down, and every house near it,
and shoot the natives: so they are pretty
quiet in town now"
Guy Williams of the Iowa regiment:
The soldiers made short work of the
whole thing They looted every house,
and found almost everything, from a
pair of wooden shoes up to a piano, and
they carried everything of or destroyed
it. Talk of the natives plundering the
towns, | don't think they are in it With
the Fiftieth Iowa"
General Reeve. lately colonel of the
Thirteenth Minnesota regiment:
II deprecate this war, this slaughter
of our own boys and of the Fllipinos,
because it seems to me that we are doing
something that is contrary to our prin-
ciples In the past. Certainly we are
doing something that we should have
shrunk from not so very long ago"
Cowper Never Met Forest Worm.
Essex Record.
1t was Cowper who wrote:
| would not enter on my list of friends
Though graced with polished manners and
fine sense,
Y at wanting -ensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon tt worm.
If COwper could but be in Vermont
this beautiful spring time, and gaze upon
the lofty naples, the apple trees resplend-
ent in their blossoms-and still gazing
see the devillsh worm that devestates, he
would take it all back and apologize,
Another Dewey Reception suggestion.
Chicago Record.
Judging from what the rest of the ma
ton Is willing to do for Dewey, his
native state of Vermont can hardly hope
to keep up with the procession in any