Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-13

A RIDE OVER A RAILROAD IN MA
Mia,

railroad, has been received by
the parents of E. M. Moores. a soldier OF
the First California Regiment, now in the
Philippine islands.
On November 20 the guard woke me up
at 4:3O. 1 had a pass to let me out before
~reveille. 1 met Meylan and Saunders at
the Bridge of Spain at sis. 1t was too
early for so We had TO walk
to the station, o a mile. We had
dressed as civilians so as to pass our
guard at the depot, who would let no one
through if he was a soldier, unless he had
a pass from General Otis. Passed the
guard like a charm and bought tickets
to Malolas, the headquarters of Aguln-
aldo, about thirty miles from Manila.
Our tickets cost $1.25 (MeXican) first
class. There are three classes. All the
natives, except officers, travel third class.
The first class cars are divided into two
sections, with doors opening on the sides.
All the coaches are made in England and
have steps running the full length of the
car, like our electric cars. Each seats,
three in the rear and two in the front
facing the other three. The seats are
caned. They never use cushions or brass
work., as the natives wOul cut off the
cloth or leather from the cushions, and
every brass fitting they can get their
hands on they unscreW and steal.
The only other first class passengers
were two Minnesota officers. Both were
fine fellows who were bound for Malolas.
There were also on the train three SER
geants of the Minnesotas and two from
Idahos. The three ~sergeants from Min
nesota had bought tickets clear through
to Dagupan, and we decided to go on
with them, officers and all. 1t is about 30
miles to the end OF the line, and our tick
cts only cost us $4.75 (Mexican) each way,
very cheap travelling. Before we had gone
very far we were all very well ac-
quainted.
The Minnesotans couldn't say enough
in praising the California people for their
of them. The first station was
Caloson. about three miles from Manila.
The railroad shops, etc, are there. y
guard of armed Insurgents were standing
at attention at the station as the train
pulled in. We had heard so much about
their disliking the Americans that we
were in a ~quandary as to how we would
be received, but it was O K.
All they We're looking for We're Span
iards. At one station when the COrpO-
raj looked in the window Saunders point
ed to me and told him l was a ~Spaniard.
He called the guard and was going to ar
rest me. l pretended to be scared at first,
but when l spoke to him it was all right.
A colonel of the insurgents got on at the
first station. He was very dignitied, but
soon lOOsened up and talked a great deal.
We passed a station about every six
miles. Usually there was not much to be
seen of towns on account of the trees.
The stations were all well built, as was
everything about the road. All the
bridges, and there are many Of them, are
steel and well built.
The train travelled at a fair rate, but
they stopped so often and SO long that
we didn't make very good time. We
averaged about fifteen miles an hour.
| AT every station there was an insur-
rp,+ ~, Z, yI FF1n Frrt e tam, MI ny
until we reached Angeles, there was
nothing much but rice fields on both
sides as far as we could see. A great
deal Of this country was more or less un-
der water. 1t is astonishing how little
the native owning these fields live on. All
they eat is fish and rice. They fish any
where. All along the side of the railroad,
eve in the fields, they were fishing. Most
of the rice is just ripening, although in
| some of the fields they are sowing seed.
Their way of harvesting is quite a con-
trast to our combined harvesters. A
| great deal of the rice is harvested by
hand. picking each stalk separately, one
at a time. They break each off about
four inches from the head with the right
hand, holding them in the left.
When they have a hand full they tie
it in a bundle and swing it on their back
The rice is dried after it is harvested,
Some of it they cut down in bundles and
haul it in clumsy carts with two solid
wooden wheels drawn by water buffalo
single or in tandem, but never double.
1t seems. they can harvest rice this way
and then sell it as cheap or cheaper thar
our farmers does the wheat. About ff-
teen miles out we came to the pueblo OF
Angeles. After leaving there the GROUND
was much higher and very rich. The
mountains were on both sides of us {
few miles from the road. In one place
they are very near the track. They ap.
pear about like our mountains at home
and are covered with trees and brush
Along this stretch of country there is il
some places quite a lot of timber alOnS
the road, but it is hardly large enough tt
be valuable. The trees are about two
feet in diameter and on some there ism
a sign of a limb nearer than a hundred
feet above the ground. The Scener,
through here is very beautiful. Their
are many pretty groves of cocoanut an
banana trees. There is about fifty mile
of this country. | got the best banana
up there that we have had on the island
The natives come out at every station
with fruit TO sell. The children ais
bring out glasses or a cocoanut shell full
of clear water to sell for one cent.
Some of our crowd would throw cop
pers to the kids" 1t was great fun t.
see them pile up on each other in tn
mud, like a lot of football players. Afte
leaving Bayamban, which has quite
large river flowing by it, we ran agail
in lower swampy country. We changed
conductors at Bayamban. The nev
one had been to the worlds fair a
Chicago and had been to school in Eng
land and spoke very good English.
We reached Dagupan at 2 p. m. Dagu
pan is also the name of a province. Eacl
province has a president. The conducto
took US UP and introduced us to tn
president. The president and his secre
tary were both very smart looking mer
Their quarters were anything but ele
CANT, but they took us in and gave IL
the best meal they could. None of Their
could speak English, but we managed t