The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-20
PLAIN MANILA TALK
MEMBER OBJ COMPANY A, THIR-
TEENTH MINNESOTA, HAS
SOMETHING TO SAY
ARE NOT FIGHTING SPAIN

BeIligerent Expansion Editors Are
Willing to Employ the Artillery
of Their Own Mouths, but Hest
tate to Shed One Drop of Their
Blood - Philippines Not a White
Mans Country.
That the general feeling among the
boys in the Philippines is in favor of i'm
mediate return to the United States is
evidenced in a letter received yesterday
by f. H. RUSSELL of Eyota, Mimi, from
Nicholas Hansen, an Eyota member of
Company A, Thirteenth Minnesota The
letter Is written from Manila under date
or June 8, and in it Mr.. Hansen says:
L presume you have long ere this re-
ceived my letter telling you of my unsuc-
cessful attempt of stopping a piece of
Filipino lead I did not get over that as
soon as l thought, and 1 am still here at
the hospital med1tating over the conse-
Queqnces of that fooIishness. I have been
progressing steadily but slowly. I had to
remain In bed nearly four weeks. which
was something Of trial itself in this eli
mate otherwise I have not suffered
greatly especially as compared with some
Oh the other wounded men here who not
merely have their flesh torn. but also
thelr bones shattered Some of them have
peen here for four months and will not
get well Tor a good while yet. The last
two weeks 1 have been hohh1ine, obo,,4 ~
Waro little on four legs, but have lust
discarded my crutches. The wo,,,,d &C. 81
most entlreiy healed up, but my leg gets
ca easIly urea OF supporting my weight and
II Will De some weeks yet before T will
get my former strength back again ,rba
Injury VIII not, however, be permanent
AS stated in my former letter. we arc
tdlrly We'll treated here in the hosDitaI
though the same lack Of discipline and
tanning so manifest in the volunteer
al my may also be seen here. The INV
t 9ioiehs are both competent and conscien-
tlous' surgeon Major FITZGERALD of Mn
heapol1s, especially holds the confiderno
u the wounded men, but that can bordI1
Do s@Iu OF the nurses. There are Soma
eooo women nurses here but not enough
onu Tue men nurses are neither so caraf,1I
hor SO attentive to their duties &C +bo,
.1tisLt De We get fairly good board al.
ti ilUen III, ~ is made up largely of army ra-
'io ,.E with few extras added.
II is generally expected here +bo+ +bo
Dieeons VIII embark on the Hancock for
tne united States in few dave Tba
rest VIII then follow as soon &c 49,.
ep '1 . can De got ready, and hardly need
Ten you that the entire volunteer arr,I
- cneerl'lg over the prospect of a speedv
49, sumo OF the expansion papers
nave animated that the volunteers ,,ofo-b4
Dke to stay until the fighting sha7,IS
cease. How those fellows prafa abo1'+
nshtlnS when they are at a distance 80
1U'oVV mics from the scene of the con
met. l sometimes wish that these in.
tensely bell1gerent newspaper men vJo,,Id
Ne or9anlzed into brigade and sent over
mere 70 40 the hght1ng. 1 will bet ten to
one that they would change their oninion
IN less than twenty-four hours-and +bo
country would at the same time be rid
OF lot of prating knaves. They toll
ABOUT our soldierly honor as if thew
ever mad any; about quitting under fire,
as II they had ever been under fire: about
sheuulng glory upon American arms
etc., ETC, all OF which big sounding
phrases they are willing to support noosf
zealously by the artillery of their own
mouths, but not by one drop of their
own blood.
We'll, am using somewhat strong
language, but 1t is really exasperatine
TO see these papers attempt to show thai
we nave sort of picnic here and that
they know the sentiment of the yolun-
teers when, as matter of fact thew
nave not tried to ascertain our senti-
ments at all. If they had thew would
know better. The letter of Gov. Lee of
South Dakota, to the president renre-
sents the sentiments of the volunteers
pretty well. They feel that the purpose
they enlisted for has been attained ana
mat II the United States decides upon
an aggressive policy regulars should he
secured as soon as practicable To suno
port that policy This does not neces-
sarlly argue that the volunteers are tfrnid
or pleading the baby act as some one
or the before mentioned papers said
On the contrary, they respond as readily
TO any call as they would under anv cir
cumstances. But they don't care to do #
II we were still lighting Spain nothing
would be said AS 1t is now, I doubt If
enough men to form a single battalion
can be induced to re-enlist and remain
here.
THE brushes we have had with tho
tilfplnos hardly deserve the name Of bat
ties. Excepting possibly three or four
they were rather skfrmishes. attended
with more or less severe loss Neyerthe
less our aggregate loss by this time is
not small, the killed numbering onward
OF 3OO, and the wounded upwards of 200.
There are troops here who have had
sufficient experience to learn what war
means, both as to danger and hardships.
On April q two battaIions of the Thfr-
teenth went with Lawton on his march
nOrthward. About that time it began to
rain more or less every day, and for
four weeks these troops kept trudging
over rice fields steadily getting more and
more muddy, fording streams and fight
ing Filtpinos. They We're wet nearly all
the time, either with perspiration or rain.
and had no chance to renew or dry their
clothes. They had TO sleep on the wet
ground, of course, with no covering but
a rubber blanket that will keep cut about
rs much water as a screen door They
had to carry their ammunition, and at
times their rations and finally they had
to convey their wounded men several
miles to the railroad. Well such is war.
If anybody chooses to call 1t a picnic they
can do so.
How cold is it here? Well, 1t isn't
cold at all, any more than 1t is cold in
Minnesota in July. 1 am quite sure that
the thermometer never fans lower than
rs degrees above the freezing point, even
on the coolest night in January, and this
we call pretty chilly here. This is not a
white mans country, whatever the pa
pers say to the contrary. | have not yet
seen the day here when a white man
could perform ordinary manual labor for
any length of time