Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-03-17
LIFE AT MANILA.

A Company A Boy Tells Of Some Of the
H%ardships Of Soldering in
the Tropics.
Fred N. Whitaker, q private in Com
pany A North Dakota volunteers at
Manila, writes Of some Of the h%ardships
of soldering. He says:
The steady warm weather tends to
make one ANYTHING but industrious, and
doing guard duty every four or five days
walking post for two hours at g time in
the hot sun is trying but il does not
seem. any hotter than some Of the days
at Camp Briggs, Fargo, last May. Then
there is the outpost duty which means
"a hours in the jungles each week,
where we have to sleepin the grass in.
habited by snakes and lizards, some of
which reach enormous, sizes. Then
there is the duty on an advanced post in
the night, where we have to strain the
eyes trying to see through inky darkness
in the tropical woods, and perhaps when
the eye refuses to penetrate the black
ness, to stand with listening ear to try,
to hear, between the noise of barking
dogs, croaking lizards, steps of bare feet
or the rustic of the parting bushes toap-
prise one of the approach Of the dark
visaged savage and intercept him as he
tries to creep up and get a knife between
your ribs before you are aware of his
presence. All this goes to show that the
life of a soldier in Manila is not a bed of
- ~s1,,
alarms the friends and parents of the
boys who are here by writing back
stories that are not true, for the sake of
getting sympathy and perhaps interest
some Of their friends in getting them a
discharge by favor OF to work for the
early return Of the regiment is not wor-
thy Of being q soldier in the Philippines.
"The N. d. volunteers are in very
good health now, and Miss Tenney, the
N. D. nurse is doing good and effective
work among those who are in the
Division hospital. Capt. Black, who is
N. D. doctor incharge Of ward 6 Divis-
ion hospital, has the best record of any
medical doctor in the hospital, He is
also the BAR, eye, nose and throat spec
ialist of the entire army here. 1t is
needless to say that all the Nd. boys
who go to the hospital try to get in his
ward and he always prefers them to
other men, for after his examination of
us in Fargo he. knows that we have.
strong constitutions. There have been
quite a few cases of small pox mostly
confined to the Kansas regiment. N. D.
had one case, John Halvorsen, of Com
recovered and is on duty again.
tsT,r:oo - roopkb NO oro oapk n tho
doctor to be examined for vaccination,
have to have another arm scrape, some
and have had several arm 'scrapes' but
now they use virus from the native
water buffalo, which takes on most of
us.
'There is a report out that we will re-
ceive pay once, a month instead of once
in two months as heretofore. In this
way the boys will not be broke fot, SO
long a time AS they. used to be.
1--WE are expecting trouble with the
insurgents and are ready to fall in with
a hundred rounds of ammunition and
light marching order at the call of the
bugle day or night. Tomorrow, we IN.
d. Vols.) go to. the front with intrench-
ing tools, i. e. axes, shovels and spades,
but we do not know what we are to do,
and we have been soldiers long enough
not to care as long as there is not too
much work connected with it. We are
veterans now, have been under fire and
stood the test, even if we did not get a
chance.to do any execution ourselves,
and that is better than some of the other
regiments that are getting a good deal Of
praise.
"The different regiments are figuring
which will go back first. The 18th boys
think they have pull enough to 60 back
among the first and the N. D. boys are
afraid their good reputation for outpost
duty, where'it takes cool and steady
men, will work against our early return.
But of course we all expect to go away
from here early in the summer at the
latest. It seems the longer we stay
away the better our native land seems,
and some of the boys who have not been
home for years are determined to visit
the old place when they get out Of the
army"