The Van Buren press., 1899-04-08
PHILIPPINE WET SEASON.
War Department Officials Looking
Forward to the Advent of
the Rainy Season.
IT is NO NEW AND UNTRIED DANGER.
The Hot Season Now On, and With
the Advent of June VIII Come
the Drenching Rains Which
Transform Everything Into
Condition of Perpetual Soak.

Washington, April 5.-War depart
ment officials look upon the approach
of the wet season in the Philippines
as likely to be an important, if not
decisive factor in determining the
character of the military movements
during the next six months. This pe'
riod of rains and storm is no new and
untried danger for United States
troops were in the trenches around Ma
Mia through much of the worst part
of the wet season last summer. Mai.
Simpson, chief of the bureau of mill
tary information, was then on the
staff of Gen. Greene, and learned from
experience how far this wet season af-
fected the health and comfort of the
men and retarded military operations.
Generally speaking, he says, men were
UP to their knees in mud and water
turing July and August, when our
trenches were drawn around Manila.
But while this was a great personal
inconvenience, it did not cause any
mtearial increase in the sick rate.
About the worst feature was that the
stretches of quagmire made it next
to impossible to execute military i'm
provements on large scale.
The Hot Season is Now On.
The wet sason does not begin, as a
rule, until June, so that. it is about
two months before it's effects would
be seriously felt. The present
months, April and May, generally
come under the head of the hot sea-
son, which just precedes the drenehing
rains beginning in June.
The hottest weather is in May, al
though it never goes above 100 de-
grees. Gradually this merges into the
heavy rains and violent storms of June,
the wet season lasting six months.
The season does not come on abrupt
ly, but is a gradual transition until
everything is in a condition of soak.
Last Years Experience.
Last summer the first expedition of
United States troops landed about July
/, and by the time the wet season was
well under way the men were sent
into the trenches for "a hours and
then relieved. In this way two regi-
ments would be moved up every morn
ing, and for that day and night would
stand in the knee-deep rain and mud.
But it would have been difficult, if
not impossible, to have kept troops ex-
posed to such conditions for an extend
ed time.
How the Astor Battery stood 1t.
The Astor battery was one of the
bodies serving during part of the
rainy season. Capt. March, one of the
officers of the battery, was here re-
Gently, and in speaking of the sick
rate during the wet season, said that
it was kept down to four per cent.
This is considered very low, even un-
der favorable circumstances, and is
taken to offset some of the serious re-
ports as to the effect of the wet sea-
son. This low sick rate is in part at
tributed to the strict sanitation en-
joined upon the American forces.
Malaria and Typhoid Abounds.
Malaria and typhoid abounds, so
that our troops were made to drink
boiled water Maj. Simpson says that
at no time did the malaria of typhoid
assume an epidemic form.
1t is the general belief that Gen.
Otis will complete his present cam
paign before the wet season opens,
and confne his efforts after that to
holding the ground already won, keep
ing up communications, protecting his
llanks and waiting for {. dry season
to give him another perio> IT active
operation.