Graham guardian., 1899-09-29
FROM MANILA.
An Interesting and Instructive Letter
from the Far Away Philippines.

AN0hA eRic ar away Fhhppines.
The following is a letter from
our old friend, A. Frye, one of the
pioneers Of Graham county, but
who is now In Manila, to his son,
Ii. Frye. By special permission
of the writer we are allowed to re.
produce il;
Manila, Aug. l7th, 1899.
DEAR SoN:--It has been long
time since i wrote you letter. l
have been at work for government
since Jan. 26, and sometimes have
had to work quite hard, bat the
last three months have had o
very easy time of it.
When l applied for work they
asked for my papers, / told them
[ had no papers nor never had,
neither do / need them, and no
person to identify me here. If
they wanted me to work to take
me on trial. The quarter master
gave me note TO the head en-.
gineer; he put me to work. So /
have held my job ever since. They
don't pay high wages; the first
three months they paid me $40 90.
(Mexican) per month, then after
leaving me all by my lonely" for
about three weeks the engineer
came down and asked me show she
was runing." told him all right.
"Well," said he, II will send a
native to help you" So pay day
my wages were raised to $4,000,
{ (Mexican.) also draw rations
now, although it is a printed gov
ernment law that an employee of
the government drawing $50 10
gold or less per month are entitled
to rations. They have swindled
me out of five months rations. But
II happened that some discharged
soldiers went to work at the quar-.
ter masters and they were posted;
so / went after the quarter master
and got mine too. Now L draw
my rations with the train guard
and eat with them. They quarter
in the same building with me. /
have my sleeping apartment all by
myself, tile floor and barred win
dows, a very cool place.
/ some times take q ride out on
the cars; the train guards tell me
that / am the only person outside
of the quartermaste that can ride
on the cars without pass. 1t is
so too. The railroad is in the
hands of the government. There
is no fare taken, but 1T is at the
option of the quartermaster to
grant passes or not. The govern
ment has the railroad as far as San
Fernando, distance of forty miles
from Manila. North from ,here,
Aguinaldo runs it 10 Ragupan, the
on the gulf of Eingayen.
l take it for granted that you re
ceived maps and book, so you can
locate. these places on them.
Now, will say here that this
war so far has been nothing but a
farce. If our government don't
change its way of dealing with
these natives, it will take $50, 600
and ten years bard work
TO subdue them. As tits, they are
allowed to pass in and out of our
lines at will. All they. bave to dol
IS to Put on white SUIT, tie al
white rag to a stick aud come in,
-"mucho amigo, Filipino muy
nalc, Americana mucho bueno,
ne no quiere bonn, bom." They
,ome in and go wherever they
want TO; go among the soldiers,
,et rested up and filled up, then
20 back to fight again. Oar boys
rave captured quite O. number OF
hem and recognized, them- Our
Boys will wade through mud; swim
'ivers, sleep in mud and water for
light or ten days andSget 4000 or
1000 of them surrounded where
hey could slaughter the whole
punch, then orders Will come to
,ease firing, then our,lines will be
opened and let them all out.
Sometimes it is hardework 10 con-
rol the men. When. our boys got
lfter them when they wsBe let out
IF Malabon our officers. tri ed to
top our boys. General Wheaton
lsked Col. Stottsenberg if he got
lis men stoppeds Stott ,enberg
aid: "Stopped, be damlaed; all
,ell couldn't stop them" ar, I'd away
hey went. But the Agugy IS" could
,ut.run them, 80 they had. to come
back that night to get something
20 eat. S,ottssnbeTg was killed
afterwards I'm "a fight, and
The soIlders mearned hi s loss very
much. He belonged to the Ne
brasks. regiment.
/ was acquainted with a good
many of the boys Of'the Kansas
They were jolly, good fellows
They drew ratiens for an extrs
mai and made me come andi eat
with thaIn for month. Then
they moved away and that let me
out Intact all tie soldiers, that
have come in contact with have
treated. me, FIRST tate
Martial lsw has ruled here ever
sinae the outbreak. Al first nj
one was allowed on the streets
. G.. u ~, l.lnlnnH un,u IL in Q. .Qi