Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-19
We noticed her be-

up lut uut suOW- "C hobiNCU hO2 DS
cause she moved occasionally, seemed
to be fussing around about something.
Some eight miles away, following
the curving coast line, was the village
of Las Pinas-in English, the pineap-
piles. In a straight line across the cres-
cent shaped arm of the bay, however,
it was not so far. We saw plainly its
buildings, glistening white. Two were
especially outlined-the church, with a
round tower at one corner, and another
house, a long, four cornered structure.
the sun blinking over them.
All at once there came the deep boom
of cannon across the water.
lei salve, senora!'' cried the little
brown Malay nurse girl, running in
with the baby We hurried to the bal
cony overlooking the bay. a cloud of
white smoke enveloped the low lying
gray war vessel that had been fussing
aboHt the bay in the morning. The fir
ing was from her then. Looking through
fieidglass we saw the vessel was a
monitor. 1t was the Monadnock.
Boom, boom, went the gun again.
But there, what was that, touching the
water ricocheting across the water like
skipping stone, throwing up fountains
like spouting whale? 1t was shell.
This was no salute. 1t was war, war
in dead earnest.
If we had considered moment that
this was Sunday, we need not have
been surprised by the shots. From the
days of Waterloo ON the greatest bat
ties of modern times have been fought
mostly on Sunday. 1t was SO at Bala-
klava; it was SO during our own civil
war. True to the tradition. the attack
of the insurgents against the Americans
at Manila was made in the early morn
ing of Sunday, Feb 3. This Palm Sun
day the monitor was shelling 1.-The
Pineapples the white village that lay
slumbering peacefully in the sun. The
long building near the church was a
regular nest of insurgent troops, and
they had thrown up Notifications there.
At the same time they thus invited an
American attack they continued to
keep their wives and children with
them in the town. If, then, you have
heard that americans kill Filipino wo-
men and children, you will know how
it happened
Boom, boom, went the great guns at
intervals of a few seconds apart. Now
and then sound came that shook the
earth and was loud enough to wake the
dead on resurrection day. 1t came from
the Monadnock's biggest gun. In five
minutes, not more, clouds of white
smoke began to gather in patches over
that doomed village. We watched every
step of the bombardment through a
powerful glass In ten minutes more
something else than smoke cleaned out
fierce and red and wicked and darted
wavering and quivering upward. Al
ready the shells had fired the town.
Then another great red band Of flame
darted up almost against the church
itself The fire had caught the long
white building that served as the in
surgent barracks 1t had sheltered its
last rebel In quarter of an hour more
it lay in ashes.
In an hour and half all was over
That long it had taken for the Monad-
mock to destroy the Filipino village of
Las Pinas A cloud of smoke hung over
the spot where it had been. AS the
wind blew this aside now and then we
saw the church still standing, with ruin
ed, blackened tower. A crowd-peaceful
Filipino house servants and American
soldiers on the beach in front
of our house, watching the lombard