Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-08
SENSATION BEFORE AND AFvTER
BATTLE.

~Phladelphia Press: The experience felt
Whlle hurrying to a battle is very differ
ent from that felt while there. The night
we were first called out every one was
excited, as distinguished from nervous.
we could not appreciate danger until wa
We're actually in it. Of i'm
patience to get to the front were loudly
made when the officers were going
through a lot of formalities during the
process of installing an improvised ma ior
MeanWihl exhausted men were being
shot to death. The bullets were heard
tracking about us, and the men got wild
with 1mpaticnce. Surely we would be
shot down without striking a blow if we
renamed in the pen field. MY fears ran
away with my Imagination, for suddenly
l1elt a bullet go through my lung. told
the men in my squad I had been shot.
Ihey laughed, but | insisted. They pulled
OIL my shirt and searched for the wound,
but found none. Somehow the pain
wound and all left me when we got the
command to march.
Let it be remembered that these eype-
riences relate to Manila. There has been
a tendency to belittle the fighting done
there. But bear this in mind. that if if
We're it not for our exceptionally strong
trenches the slaughter would have been
twice as great as it was at Santiago. /
nave been to sham battles and witnessed
a perfect torrent of explosives, but before
Manila | marveled at the rapidity of the
1lre. Where we fired five shots those fell
lows lred fifty. They came in an unin-
permitting stream for hours every night
that week until it seemed that surely
they must shoot away their whole sup
ply.
However, the next night Company X
was intrusted with the most perilous
position along the line-to guard the ex-
IRENE right flank, the place where most
of he mon yNn1.a lj11n1 tba ,1;alt $50.
AT daybreak we took position. This time
We realized what we had to do. Not ex-
cltelnent, but fear marked the men. Their
faces were long and pale, and most of
them huddled close to the intrcnchments.
Few were the words they had to say
they seemed to be thinking. | thought a
good deal, too, or rather, ruminated re-
respectively. 1t is said a drowning per-
son instantly recalls all the bad things he
ever did. But when a man is given a
few hours preparation before his death.
not religious feeling or remorse, but an
intense hOmesickness seizes him. I
started out along the muddy road in the
morning thinking of the good old days of
kirk and Sunday schools. An old hymn
that | had long forgotten: 90, Light of
Light, Shine In" revived itself in my
memory l could not get that tune off
my lips. l hummed it all day n all
night long. Then I would grow very mel
ancholy when l thought of my old haunts
and old home, which l could not help but
contrast with the picture of desolation
before me. My thoughts required to the
happy experiences in my life and the con-
trast made me miserable.
AT 9 o'clock that night, when a terrible
typhoon came up, the Spaniards made
another of their wild. spasmodic charges.
They came down the woods tina led to
ks" position, and half the was
without any protection save a low bank,
high enough to hide the body when it was
stretched out fiat. Into this came a ty-
phoon Of bullets, Every soldier remem-
bers the dirge of a Mauser bullet. It
sounds like a stone striking a tightly
drawn telegraph wire. He holds his breath