Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-02-17
FROM PARKWAY MANILA
capt. John Moran, Formerly of BrattIe-
boro, Writes About Life with Our sol-
dIers, the Natives and Their Customs.

bOrO, Writes About Life with Our Sol.
dlers, the Natives and Their Customs.
Mrs. John T. KANE has this week 70.
ceived letter from her brother. Cant
John Moran, who is with the first Mon.
tana regiment in Manila. The letter is
dated Jan. 4. A part of Capt. Moran's
letter is as follows:
We are all in pretty good health here.
The men in my company are in fine condi-
ton and l hope they will stay so. | do
not think we will have any trouble with
the insurgents as they seem to be willing
TO come in and lay down their arms If the
United States gives them the assurance
that it will not give the islands back to
Spain However, If they are foolish
enough to open hostilities they cannot last
long as they are poorly equipped and have
no money with which to provide rations
for an army. Our company received three
large boxes filled with Christmas presents
from Great Falls and it made all of us feel
pretty good. Every one of us got some
thing and tn re was one large fruit cake
for the company. The boys had a great
dinner on Christmas. 1t consisted of
turkey cranberry sauce, plum pudding,
pumpkin pie, fresh radishes, onions. pota-
toes, bread and coffee; in fact we could
not have been much better off at home.
The natives here are a poor miserable
lot, and live huddled together like so manv
sheep. Very few wear any kind of foot
covering, most of them using simply
wooden sole with strip of leather across
the top to keep 1t on the foot. When the
children wear anything it is a sort of shirt
which comes little below the arms.
Sometimes the weather gets little cool,
not what we should call cool at home, but
the natives SILVER as If the thermometer
were 20 or 80 below zero. The heat has
not been oppressive here so far but the
hot season is coming from January to
April. 1t is hottest here, they say, after
the rainy season sets in and remains so for
four or six months, but l expect we will
be in Montana about July unless some
thing unforeseen occurs. The volunteers
will be sent home in the order in which
they came as fast as regulars can be got
ten here. That will make us the sixth to
go as the regulars who came here before
us will remain. All the boys will be tick
led when the word comes to go, not that
they are having hard time of it, for they
are not, but because it is getting monoto-
nous and tiresOme.
In a letter written Dec Is to his neph-
ew, John Kaine, Mr.. Moran describes the
camp life of the soldiers in Manila aud al
so speaks of the habits and customs of the
natives. He mentions the fact that the
mosquitoes are very thick there, saying that
every soldier has TO have net over his
bed. A large share of the work, he says,
is done by the Coolies, kind of Chinese,
who carry very heavy loads by means of
wooden bar placed across the shoulders.
The heaviest work is done by bull teams
twowheeled carts drawn by water buffalo.
The horses though tough and wiry are
small, rarely weighing over 700 pounds.
At the time Captain Moran wrote this let
ter 10000 Spanish prisoners were confined
in several of the larger churches and con-
vents,