The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1899-01-27
OUR MANILA LETTER.
More About the Ancient Philippine City
Strange Hallucination Of the Span
ish Soldiers, Who Receive but
Two Dollars per Month.
MANILA, P. l., Dec. 8, 1898.

Dear sister and all:-Received sever
al letters from you last night and
some of the mail had not been dis.
tributed yet. l am in good health
and am getting fat; the climate seems
to agree with me 50 far, We are still
on sbip-board and do not know when
we will land. 1t is reported that our
Colonel said we would land next Mon.
day.
A volunteer by the name OF Vancil.
from lola, died last night with ty-
phoid fever. He was in the hospital
while was there.
was over to the city day before
yesterday and saw the sights, and it
is great sight to see. The place is
very old looking, but has some fine
dwellings and some grand and mag
nificent churches.
There are about $1,000 Spanish SOL
diers prisoners here. They are sta
toned in some of the big churches
and have nothing to do but run around
town all day, though they must be In
their quarters by s o'clock, They get
better food than they ever did before.
They are very friendly with the U. S.
soldiers and try to talk to them all
the time. They do not believe we get
as much pay as they do, but the fact
is they get only about So per month.
Some of them are very anxious to join
the U. S. army.
The Pasco river divides the two
towns, Old and New Manila. The
Old town is surrounded by big wall
20 feet wide at the bottom and IA feet
wide at the top and about 80 feet high.
The natives are very friendly and
are anxious to learn to talk the Eng
lish language. They are small-sized
people and about the same color as
the Chinese. There are a good many
Cinnamon here and very few Ameri-
cans except tue soluierS,
The U. S. soldiers have good quar-
ters; some Of them are stationed in
the Spanish barracks, Others in large
buildings, and some are in large pri-
vate dwellings. And these dwellings
are like palaces, with marble floors
and mahogany woodwork, but few of
them have glass windows, iron bars
being bolted across the windows, just
like Jail.
The streets are very narrow and it
keeps them busy keeping them clean.
A great many Of the natives live in
bamboo houses. The street cars here
are drawn by small horses about the
size of Shetland ponies. l have not
seen more than two or three American
horses since coming here. The natives
have what they call water buffalos;
they look something like American
but their heads and horns look
like the antelope'S,
l ate dinner while l was in town
and this is what l got: Soup, then
beef cooked in Spanish style, and po-
tetoes, picked tongue, chicken, Ham
burg steak, beefsteak and onions, pud-
ding, bananas, oranges and coffee.
We also had bread and butter and |
olives. 1t was great meal and most
ly all meats. When over there l got |
a sword from one of the 23rd U. s.
Infantry boys who captured it from
Spaniard when they surrendered.
was offered So for it, but am going to
keep it and send it home for relic.
Tell Mr.. DunsmOre l will try to get
him one like it or something of the
kind.
| forgot to tell you in my other let
ter that we went to bed on the night
Of the 18th and got up on the morn
ing OF the 18th, and only slept one
night. Doesn't that seem queer?
More U. S. transports have arrived;
me is the Newport with the rest of
he Kansas regiment; the Others are
jhe Pennsylvania with the Iowa regi-
nent, and the Pueblo with part of the
regiment.
| hope they will put gas in at Thay-
II; 1t would be of great benefit to the
own. am glad to hear the rest of
,he Republican ticket got elected in
Kansas. Affectionately,
G. A. MCNULTY.