Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-20
ECHOES OLE nIn WAN.


one Of the many sublime qualities kept
in stock by the American army is its ability
! to adjust itself to new conditions, to meet
emergencies with as much promnttude ms
! though planned far in advance Among the
/ smooth ones cut in Luzon s a major with a
/ mind ever on tho alert for traps designed
/ to injure his fame or humliate his men
| While seated in nina shack pre-
empted for the occasion he revealed to a
Chicago Tribune correspondent the details
! of a narrow escape and at the same time
drew a marvelousy fine distinction be-
tween looting and stealing. "Wc came into
town this morning." he roarod "and tell
those four companies Of depraved outcasts
! that there is to be no lootng. Mind that
| said to them. This is the place in the
third act where you do not loot. Are you
on to my meaning?' Then 1 rid ahead and
come up and report and take up my
quarters in this shack. Then those four COM
panies of chicken thieves como struggling
into town-and l wished to heaven they had
drowned while crossing that river-but they
come into town and go into camp down the
road. Everything goes along all right, until
suddenly the general sends word he wants
to sec me.
81 go over to his quarters and he says:
'Majer, l thought you understood that there
was to be no looting'
General l says, I threatened to hang
that bunch of horse thieves that I'm the
boss of If they so much as chased a chicken
across the road
Well said the general all right.
guess it wasn't your men, then. But the wife
, of the mayor of the town is here and she
says some soldiers in the road stole her
family carriage, and she wants it.
II said General my men never took that
carriage. They sometimes loot but they
never steal
"Juet then the woman gave shrek and
pointed down the road
Why guess that must be her carriage,
now says the general. Aren't those your
men, major?'
II commenced to get cold all over but
looked out of the window, and may | be-
blown to pieces by shrapnel IL there wasn't
about ten of my red Indians with that car
rage. They had a caribou hitched in the
shafts, and they had torn out the red plush
seats OF the rig and had fixed barrels on the
seats and were hauling water to camp in the
state equipage of the alcalde. They had
three pigs, that they had killed, tied to the
rear axle, and under the seats must have
been about a dozen chickens and geese.
THE general turned around to me-
Major he says, L am so glad those young
men of yours confne themselves to looting
and do not steal. For if they stole it would
be so awkward. We would have to put a,
lock and chain on the church and take the
artillery into the house every night
"And what could / say?"
The Mohammedan chief, Datto Mandi, who
figures in the reports of American operations
on the island OF Mindanao, deserves an non
orable place in the list of friends Of Amer
lea. When Commander Very of the gunboat
Castine was invited to land marines on
Mindanao he found that his force was in
sufficient. But the people Of the island were
so anxious for protection against Aguinaldo's
emissaries that this Mohammedan chief,
Datto Mandi, offered 500 warriors. When
Mayor Midel surrendered the town of Zam-
boanga, Commander Very asked that Datto
Mandi, with 500 of his followers, who were
then on a neighboring island, come to Fam
boanga. Datto Mandi's men soon arrived,
armed with swords and wooden shields, and
were used on picket duty.
Our new friends, the Moros OF Sulu, rarely
carry gun, but they WELD an ugly knife
as handily as a professional butcher. Ac-
C0r0lnS as the knlte is SNAPPED IL is named
barong or kris. and there are differences in
the shape of each class. If it is broad on the
back sometimes three-eighths of an inch,
with wide rocker shaped blade, it is a
barong. 1t may be anything from eight
inches to two feet or more in length, but 1t
is always razor sharp. and the knife vendors
like to show the keen edge by shaving the
hair from the backs of their hands. If the
knife has the same width all its length, 1t
is a kris. Sometimes it is shaped like the
lines the children draw in their picture
books to represent waves. This waviness
may extend the whole length Of the blade
or only over the upper part, or sometimes
only at the end it is all the same 1t is a
terrible weapon. The blades Of all their
knives are made of a fine quality OF STEEL
and they fashion them themselves in the
rTdest sort of smithies. Sometimes the
blades are inlaid with silver in fantastic
shapes to represent fish or birds or beasts,
and many OF the finest knives are of Damas-
Gus STEEL The handles of wood or horn,
sometimes inlaid or covered with silver, and
at the end is always figure, 1t may be in
silver or ivory or wood, carved to represent
a bird, the same bird which in the form of
a huge wood carving stands at the prov OF