Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1899-07-27
Awful Official Incompetence
Declared to Prevail In the
Philippines.
A UNIFORM STORY is TOLD
Returning Manila Volunteers
Reveal Terrible CondI-
tlons.

The Denver News of July. % con-
tains a special telegram from San Fran
cisco as follows:
Five hundred gaunt, hollow-eyed,
fever-scorched, pain-racked, MANNED
and wounded men, bearing little resem-
Dlance to the best we breed" that
started away a year ago, returned on
tne transport Morgan City from Manila
today. And the shame of it, when all
testified that their coDdition and the
condition of the others back in the
philippines was caused by mismanage-
ment, by the prosecution of war that
might have been ended months ago by
competent commander. There were
men from nearly all regiments in fhe
Philippines, and their comments, may
be taken as the concrete sentiment OF
the army. But the men are yet in the
service and were cautious. Asked for
their story, they said, Look at us -
One man said the word passed around
on board ship: ave don't want to hear
any complaints from you fellows or il.
will be the worse for you."-
Six men on board had their discharges
IN their pockets, and General Court
Martial no longer had any fears for
them. One of them, Private w. E
Brown, company &, First South Dakota
said: I'VE had the rebels cornered at
Calumpit, Paranaque, Maninte and
other places ana a rush would have
ended it, but each time Otis, back there
In Manila, ordered halt, and we stood
and watched the rebels slip away At.
others we Lave stood ana watched them
construct trenches, that the Americans
could hold against any army in the
world, and after they were completed
we would charge and take them and LET
the rebels build others.
"The volunteers with their old Spring
neidS we're sent to the front while the
regiments with the Krag- -Jorgensens
were held back as a reserve. And all
this time there were 10000 Krag-Jor-
gensens In the arsenal at Manila. Has |
Otis cabled that9
"Has he cabled that the hospitals are
overcIowded and that they are putting /
UP tents for the overflow?
HAS he cabled that he has not been
to the front since March 26?
{. "Has he cabled that one March day |
fifty poor fellows fell out of the ranks
exhausted and were slaughtered by the |
all because he did not provide |
the command with an ambulance corps |
HAS he cabled that orders have been
Issued to permit Filipinos in white |
Clothing and protesting to be friendly |
q pass behind our lines2
Has he cabled that hundreds of dead
Filipinos have been found with pair
Qf white cotton trousers and white
blouse 10 their haversack2
{ "Has he cabled that these friendlIes'
hire their rifles, slip on their white uni
forms, go behind us and after our lines,
recover their guns and attack isolated
pickets and guards we postp ..o--
HAS he cabled that his entire, army
y sick of his dilly-dalIy policy, heartily
eick of the entire war, and wants to
come home?
"lf he has not cabled all this he. has
not cabled the facts. He cannot help
but know that his army curses him for
his Incompetence and inaction." --5-
"Our fare on the way over" said an
other, has been corned beef so rotten
that we gagged at it, and have fished
worms out of the grub nearly an inch
long Nice fare that for hospital ship.
They had mess room, where, for fifty
cents day you could get good grub,
4nd those who had money ate there, but
4ply a few had the price. Yet, we are
allowed sixty-two and a half cents
Gay for hospital fare 1t was not given
10 us. Where did 1t go"
sHsPhat' Is the TRUTH said T. ID. Scott
If cbmpahy 'R, Thirteenth Mlnnesots:. /.
M could not eat the ar my rations after
taeing what was in them, and paid m "
10 cents day for good food out of my
kwn pocket. If the American fathers
only knew how their boys were treated,
hFer there there would be trouble in
khis country. We are not hoodlums nor
k0nvicts. We did not go for the money
Yearly every man Of US left good posi-
$ions because we thought our country
heed d our services"
/ III had letter from my father just
before started" said one, "begging me
10 not re-enlist. Poor old dad; he needn't
have written that. | wonder if he will
know meY And the 20 year-old hero
passed his hands over his sunken cheeks
md looked at his sunken limbs. !..s I
: II have eaten nothing since yester-
Gay" aud a thin, weak little fellow
6hifted his rife to the other shoulder
And dragged his feet YEARLY along the
EhA. sss';. =. lf IA III
pseI was court msrtialed and fined $40,
fOf trying to take an onion from eiis.
Vegetable box,', said Private John ID.
Nallett of company M. First Iowa. Z
was also fined $40 by q c0prt-mar-
HRl becaHse | Was too weak to bngle
khe calls,s said MUSICIAN Schah of the
Eirst South Dakota, a weak, tottering
kOung fellow, who. conyalescing from
fmell po<, had been again Frustrated by
Uphold MALARIA.
& Their stories were unanimous, and
ebe common injunction was "Wait till
Fe ere discharged