Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-02-02
FROM MANILA.
Letter From a Boy Whose Birth
place is Washington County.


l. Washington county. The young
man is a grandson of George S. Cor
ner, of Cornerville, on the Little Mus
kingum, and was born on the Corner
farm, where his grandfather has lived
his entire life. The letter was written
on December 18th, on board the trans
port ship Pennsylvania in Manila bay.
Mr.. Corner is a member of the Fifty
first Iowa Volunteers and was sent to
Manila with the last expedition that
was intended for the relief of Admiral
Dewey.
We give those parts of the letter we
think will most interest our readers,as
it was published IN the Iowa papers:
We are still on board the boat; near
ly everybody went ashore on Sunday.
The colonel had arranged so that it
cost us Is cents to go on big tug to
the city. The tug made two trips,
irst at a. M, second a 1880 a. IN.
| got a pretty good idea of things.
If course, most of the stores were shut
up, as it was Sunday, and we could not
see as much as we might on week
day. They say the stores didn't use to
shut up on Sunday before the hmeri-
cans took the city. 1t is hard to des-
eribe the city; there is so much to tell.
1t is a city that is away behind the
times, on account of the Spanish rule.
There is the old and the new Manila.
Old Manila is a walled city, just like
We read about in ancient history. New
Manila is more monern, uut it is still
behind the times. Old Manila has a
great big high, thick wall, an covered
With moss and a moat around 1t all
illed with weeds then at the gates
here are drawbridges that they used to
lraw up so that the enemy could not
get across the moat, etc. This wall Is
iull of rooms and dungeons. Inside
he city, besides the houses, there are
seven or eight cathedrals, that are
going to ruin, and there are dungeons,
md secret doors, etc. Everything is
Catholic, just like in Spain. OF course
here are natives and Cinnamon, but
everything is under Spanish rule.
The Spanish soldiers are ali inside
he old city. They are not reany pris-
Dners; they have certain liberties.
They have their quarters in the old
churches. In the day time they can
90 outside the old city, but they have
o all be inside the wall at p. m.
There are no American soldiers in the
)Id city, just on guard at the gates and
IN the wall, so that at night there is
10 danger of their escaping; even if
hey would, there is no place to go; the
Insurgents would get them. The Span
sh are getting better treatment now
han they did when they were net
prisoners. They get good food, two
meals a day-one at a. m. and the
other at p. m.-and the United States
pays them Is cents, Mexican, a day.
It don't seem possible that the United
states is paying Spanish prisoners, but
is In time the Spanish soldiers
l be sent back to SPAN. There is
Z French steamer in the bay now that
, being loaded up with them. There
re many priests over here, anu they
lave a good deal of power. The insur-
gents are all around the city. Our out
posts and theirs are 500 yards apart.
The greatest number of insurgents are
between Manila and Cavite. Cavite Is
lbout seven miles from Manila by
water. That is where Dewey and the
Jattleships are. Everybody who goes
% Cavite has to go by water on ac-
count of the insurgents being on the
tand. Down by Cavite is where the
naval battle was, and where the first
soldiers LANDED. There are arms hid
Ien everywhere and especially in old
Manila. There are some discovered
lbout every week. The American au-
thorities here have secret service part
les hunting for the hidden arms, but
hey are too slow to suit some of the
Joys and they are investigating on
heir own hook. The boys are not al
owed to do it, either, and If they are
,augnt trying to force some old door
or batter hole in wall they are ar
'osted and put in the guard house
dst last week a crowd exploring on
he SLY discovered 1900 rounds of
dauser ammunition and a lot of
dausers. OF course, after they found
hem they turned them over to the au-
horities. ] was talk with some
# the Fourth cavalry and
ONE G the Oregon boys that
ave been stationed down e. Ca
lite; th7y say down there you can see
ungecns that have been torn open by
hells from the warships. There is
ne dungeon there that ,Aey use to put |
he Filllpinos in and when the tide
anne in it drowned them like rats in
hole. Then, there Is a wall there
lere they used to stand the prisoners
for execution, and it has been used
o long and so many times that part
the walls have been worn away by
he bullets, foot deeper than the sur
ace of the wall; then there were piles
chains, not rusty, but smooth and
right, worn that way, That is the
eason the Filipinos hate the Spanish