Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-02-25
FILIPINOS BURN MANILA.
Fearful Conditions In the Philippine
Capital.

| Capital.
Manila dispatch of February q.
Last night was one of terror to thou
sands of the inhabitants of Manila,
the rebels making good their oft-re-
peated threats to the extent of burn
ing acres of buildings, wounding an
officer and three men by firing through
windows during the excitement. At
8 o'clock an incendiary fire occurred
in block of brick buildings occupied
by Chinese, on the Calle Lacoste, in
the Santa Cruz district.
A stiff breeze was blowing and the
inflammability of the structures caused
the blaze to spread with alarming rap
idity. The city fire department was
hopelessly incompetent and the Eng
lish volunteer brigade from Santa Mesa
was summoned, and with a modern
engine pumping adequate streams from
the canal, succeeded, after four hours
of work, in getting the blaze under
control. Meantime the entire block
and the greater part of the others
across the street were completely
gutted.
A regular fusilade of rifle and revol-
yer shots were fired from the windows
and roofs of the buildings.
Hundreds of inhabitants were rem
dered homeless. The Chinese and ma
tives lined the adjacent streets, while
hundreds more, fearing a general con-
hagration, removed their furniture and
other portable goods in every direc-
tion, within a radius of quarter of a
mile when the fire alarm was first
given. General Hughes personally su-
perintended the police arrangements.
The whole city was thoroughly pa
trolled and the guards were doubled.
Every available man was dispatched
to the region of the fire. Impediments
were placed in the way of the firemen,
and the hose was cut five times. This
resulted in all the natives being driven
from the streets, those in the imme-
diate vicinity of the blaze being cor
rallied in vacant lots and guarded until
|
stances the natives were insolent and
paid no regard to the orders given
them, and the soldiers were compelled
to use harsh measures. The butts OF
their rifles and their bayonets were
freely applied.
The danger from live electric light
wires necessitated the closing of the
circuit in the burning region, and the
only lights in certain parts of the city
was that furnished by the blaze. Short
ly after midnight another big fire was
started in the Tondo district, where
the native are thickest, and when the
fremen and soldiers attempted TO
work they were fired on from the
houses. The firemen, escorted by SOL
diers, proceeded to clean out the
houses, while the fire was unheeded.
The Thirteenth Minnesota was re-en-
forced by detachments from the Third
Infantry, the Second Oregon, the Third
Artillery and the Tenth Pennsylvania.
Bullets flew in every direction in al
most every street in the Tondo and
Binondo districts, causing the most
intense excitement.
Captain Robinson, of company G,
Thirteenth Minnesota, and three men
were wounded.
Many timid persons, imagining that
the rebels had effected an entrance
through the American lines and were
advancing into the city, buried from
their hotels and houses, only to be
stopped at the first corner bya guarc.
The sounding of a native bugle call
Immediately preceding the fire, lent
color to the story. Thousands of Chi
nese crossed the bridges and plazas
under fire, hurrying with their bundles
to the Chinese consulate. All night
long the fire spread through the Tondo
district, sweeping away rows of houses
and devastating acres of territory.
The damage is inestimable. With day
light measures were decided upon, and
the Americans, though tired after their
sleepless nights work, soon cleared the
district of every native, after slight
resistance.