The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-30
GEN. OTIS IS CONDEMNED
BY the Rank and File. Of the
Montana Regiment.
ROAST HIM TO A FINISH
His Policy Has Made the Natives Look
Upon the American Soldiers
With Contsmpt-Glad to
Get Back.

Proprietor Hugh 1. Wilson of the Butte
and McDermott hotels, who was one of
the Montana delegation that went to San
Francisco to meet the volunteers, and
who got home from the bay late Thurs
day night, says no one who did not see it
could imagine the joy of the Montana
boys at getting back to their native coun-
try. He also tells a different story from
some of the reports sent UP from San
Francisco, relative to the feeling of the
soldiers over the Philippines war.
Instead of being SO unanimous in praise
of General Otis and his methods as some
of the reports would have them, Mr.. Will
son says Otis is condemned almost to a
man by the rank and file, though the
officers have less to say.
Il can't begin to convey an adequate
idea of how glad the boys were to get
back" said Mr.. Wilson yesterday "A
large party of us were seeing the sights
around the bay on the state tug, the
Governor Markham, and had just finished
seeing the Union Iron works, when the
whistle commenced to blow. We put out
Immediately and found the zealandia at
anchor at quarantine. We were allowed
to go aboard and you should have seen
the boys. l simply can't tell you how
glad they seemed to see us. They were
like lot of children in the warmth of
their joyousness at being home once
more. The Montana delegation did ev-
erything possible to give the boys
warm welcome, and they appreciated it.
The same thing was repeated when the
Valencia got in and the soldiers are the
happiest lot of fellows it has ever been
my pleasure to see. You may bellevs
they will come home together pretty near
ly to man."
Asked as to the manner in which the
soldiers expressed themselves concern
ing the war and Otis, Mr.. Wilson said:
1T is all bosh to say the soldiers have
no complaint to make against Otis and
his policy of conducting the war. They
simply fall over one another to get a
chance to talk. You start talking with
soldier and a dozen will crowd around
you and all try to talk at the same time.
And they all talk in the same strain, and
as though they were under no restraint
whatever. | never saw anything like it.
They don't seem to care anything for the
fact that they are still under orders and
subject to court-martial. They talk just
the same, and don't care who hears
them. Almost to a man, irrespective of
their politics. they roast Otis to a finish.
| talked with a great number of them
and all said pretty much the same thing,
condemning Otis and his policy. From the
number of expressions I have heard
along that hneiit would seem that the men
have the impression that Otis is in SYM
pathy with the natives. They all men
ton one thing in particular. That is an
occasion when they say the Americans
had 5000 insurgents cooped up and could
have annihilated them, but orders came
from Otis not to fire and a loop hole was
left for them to get away. They say that
the American soldier is looked upon with
contempt by the rebels because he has
orders to endure all their insults without
I Slan
published some interviews with the SOL
d!ers from the Examiner. ! don't know
that l talked with the same men, but
talked with men'who told me exactly the
same things contained in those interviews,
even to the story that Fi,ipinos were al
lowed to come through our lines and sell
fruit, etc. to the soldiers and return and
hand the money over to Aguinaldo. tell
you you will hear some great stories when
the boys get home. OF course, the Off
GERS have little to say except a few of
them. They most of them act as though
they had been seen, but a few do not hes
itate and talk just like the men"
Mr.. Wilson said the California people
treated the soldiers royalty. "They have
seen the soldiers coming and going for
more than a year now said he, ''but
their enthusiasm does not seem to have
abated in the least. They turned out in
tremendous crowds and gave the Montana
men a splendid welcome. They seemed >
think more of the Montanas than any
other regiment outside of their own and
their reception of our men was in ac-
cordance with their feeling. Montana GER
tainly owes the Californians debt of
gratitude for their courtesy.55