Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-06-08
CONTINUED from last week.
TlDINGS FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
MANILA, April "a, 1899.

|
1t will keep the native on the jump
for a while to keep posted on Ameri-
can ways. The first appearance in a
new town of one of the signal corps
brigades creates panic; the ignorant
natives stand awestruck with open
mouth and some believe it is living
animal and will not come near it, and
you can imagine poor natives first
thoughts when he sees a six or eight
mule team. The native horse weighs
about 400 lbs. and shys at one of the
| American mule teams as our horses
home do at a locomotive. Standing
side by side, they are about the same
comparison.
The Hong Kong cheno as he proudly
calls himself is fast winning the con-
lidence of the American soldier; every
company has from four are more.
They are as patriotic as the soldier
and in more than one way or of great
value. Many wounded in the hospital
now thank his cheno friend that he is
not in one of the long trenches at Ell
Paso cemetery. When the regiments
are ordered in the firing line the
grub" question is often left entirely
with the Cheno and If there is pos
sible way of getting it to the men they
will not go hungry. 1t is a fact the
cheno will risk his neck to properly
feed his company and | have often
seen the different company cinnamon
fighting on the skirmish line.
The Ching Chow, or Chinaman, is a
lower class and is used by the govern
ment to assist engineer corps and sig
nal corps with heavy work. My sec
ton has over 20 in the field now, keep
ing wire behind General. Lawton's
in this advance. They also have six
chenos to do the interpreting. The
signal corps returned from Santa
Cruz by the way Of the lake and Pasig
river that fronts our quarters and our
chenos brought with them large bun
dies of plumber and stuff the negros
had no time to carry with them, and
now we have our quarters decorated
in Il Turkish oriental style, that looks
more like IA Turkish bazaar than a
sleeping place for II tired sun burned
soldier.
The Filipo soldier I know little
about save his fleet of foot. They are
towards and treacherous and poor
marksman; but Judging from all &C
counts there must be lots of them.
The boys call the different fights:
"The battle of umbrie rum" "Suicide
hill;" "Vamoose peak" A battle is
usually an artillery fire, skirmish
line " charge and away goes umbrie
several miles. But the Mauser bullets
are doing lots of damage to our ranks
and, the hospitals are getting crowded.
will long remember the first charge
was in and the way we drove them
back. There were over 700 buried
next day by the Idaho regiment. Then
those inch shells that Dewey fired
over our heads at the niger trenches.
Those large shells make u bad noise
in the air; but when they hit and you
see II pile of dirt, brush and soldiers
flying, and hear the terrible roar, do
not blame umbrie for leaving his job.
| have tried to avoid the unpleasant
side of the campaign and yet cannot
help but mention the boys who are
carried home on stretchers. 1t is a
hard sight to see mans arms go up
as though trying to catch something
to keep from falling, then few kicks
like " chicken with his head Off Then
that awful quiet. Lincoln's remark.
that soldier would if possible laugh
at his own funeral, believe is correct,
for one of the hospital corps surgeons
told us at Malolis that sergeant
dying on the field asked him to have
recall from fatigue sounded on the
bugle in place of the usual taps.
Fearing | will try your patience, |
must draw this to close. The moon
lights up the broad Pasig river and
shows boat load of Spanish ladies
with guitars and banjos, mingling
their voices with the babbling water.
The soldiers of Uncle Sans proud
army are seated before their quarters
watching the mounted sentinel rs he
rides to and fro and listening to the
last strains OF music rs the boat floats
beneath the bridge of Spain so they
turn into their quarters and wonder
Do they miss me ut home" Very
truly, MoNTFoRD SPENsLEY,
~ Signal Co., Regt. U. $. V. S. c.