The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-18
JOE WHEELER UNDER FIRE
THE LITTLE GENERIL'S EXPERT
 ENCES IN THE PHILIPPLNES.

csting Episode of the War, in Which
 He shows an Uncommon Kindness oi
 Heart.
 There's nothing doin' on the firing
 line," one commissary officer, profane-
 Iy known as "cracker box captain,
 said to me- Wont be until some
 troops and mules and wagons and a
 few things that are used 10 carry on
 war. with get over here. There's noth-
 ing on the line but sleeping in little
 nipa shacks that the niggers take
 sight on in the daytime and shoot holes
 in at night. Nothing on the line but
 slapping mosquitoes all day ard fight
 ing four-round mills with them at
 night. Nothing but heat and rains and
 muddy trenches and sick soldiers. or course, when the campaign opens up and the new troops come and the Hip,
 hip hurrah, come on, boys business starts, then it will be different. But
 Manila is a nicer place to wait for things than the firing line is.'
 But General Joe Wheeler said he wouldn't join the "coffee coolers" He didn't have much of an excuse to give, except that he didn't like stiff-starched white suits. The collars made his neck sore. So in the army vernacular he linked out" I was at the train the morning he left town. He looked as full of line as a schoolboy, and swung himself up on the car with one jump
 There goes old Joe,' said an officer. "Hes the same old Joe. Always look ing for trouble" If I was a general in the army would consider that remark the highest compliment l could receive.
 I followed the general in few days. He was so hard to locate that I al- most reached the conclusion that he had grabbed up regiment somewhere and started off into the insurgent country to see what the insurrectos would do if they were kept moving two days in succession. Bacolor is where Colonel Bell and the new Thir- ty-sixth volunteers are stationed, and is on the way to Porac, the town which we are going to take some day as soon as everybody gets good and ready and the< insurgents complete the new trenches they are building. I figured that as the next move would be on Porac, and that, as the Thirtysixth was sure to take part I would find General Joe Wheeler out that way still Hooking for trouble" Sure enough at Bacolor was told that General Wheeler had been there, but that he had gone on to Santa Rita, which Is two miles and a half nearer to Porac than Bacolor.
 The next day I went to Santa Rita and found General Wheeler. Santa Rita was a town of the ordinary Phil ippine type. It had a great church in the center of the town with a grass grown plaza in front, surrounded on three sides with one-story houses on stilts. Most of the houses are of nipa thatch, but others are we'll built, with stone foundations.
 found General Wheeler with his coat off sitting in his quarters, frame house on the plaza, painted white and blue. He was fighting the mosquitoes with one hand, and writing down sta tistics of the sugar industry in the Philippines with the other. Since his arrival he has been to Guaga, Betis, and on several scouting trips out to- ward Porac. He was we'll pleased at being at the front, and was eager for the long planned movement against Paroc to begin. After we clean up Paroc and the territory south of that place and Angeles, then we'll be ready for Tarlac," said the general. He was enthusiastic over the idea of an early move against Tarlac, which is now Aguinaldos headquarters. "It'll be good job taking that place." said the general. up there In the mountains, steep hills on both sides, they'll roll rocks down on us like they did on the Spaniards. Got big guns there, too. Rascals will make a fight. But we'll get 'em. We'll get 'em. But we ought | to do some f1anking."
 Then he got off on his favorite | theme: We ought to have plenty of | cavalry for that movement. We must | get cavalry here. Get cavalry-good, | big American horses that can eat these little rat-tail ponies up in one mouth full. That's the kind. Start cavalry after these rascals and then push things along"
 With another correspondent I was taken down to the hospital to sleep The hospital Is a sort of "best room"
  We did not believe there would be an attack in the morning, so we undress- ed to go to bed. Undressing on the fir ing line means taking off your shoes. So we undressed and lay down on the bamboo floor. A tree frog sang under the house, and away off night bird screamed. l drifted off to sleep and woke as man always does on the f1r- Ing line--as wide awake as though he had had plunge into q cold bath. There was the steady roll of heavy vol ley firing. Outside the window bull let whistled past and Mauser popped over the house. A horse came galloping down the road It stopped and I heard its rider throw himself off and jump up the steps of ,he coloners house and rap, rap, rap )n the door. Some voice away off was shouting: TX company, fall in! K fall in!" The insurgents were firing <heavy yolIeys. AS their bullets struck the bamboo and the roofs of the houses, it sounded like the swishing of rain { against the windows Our matches ] were wet We struck five, and each ]