Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1899-03-03
FROM THE PHILIPPINES

IL llOM llIL i llI ILll / lIkC
a Nephew of Cl.as. callahan, of the Sol
tiier.' Home, Writes Ehtertain-
ingly of the Islands.
The STAR is under obligations to Mr..
Chas. Callahan, of the Home, for the
privilege of printing the following com
munication from his nephew, Geo. d.
Benson:
MANILA, p. l., Jan. 1, 1899.
DEAR UNcLE:-
| received your letter and was glad
to hear from you, and that you are
we'll. We are quartered at Manila on
the east branch of the Pasig river. We
get a little scare from the insurgents
once in while but it don't amount to
much. Things will be settled pretty
soon We have started to take pos
session of the Islands. An expedition
was sent to Iloilo pronounced Eleh-
welo in Spanish.) don't know wheth-
err they had any trouble or not. We
we're issued 10 rounds of cartridges
yesterday, loaded with smokeless
powder. This makes us 80 rounds to
every man. We are armed with the
Springfield rifles, single shot, calibre
40 20. They are good shooting rifle.
We made an average of % 3 5 out of a
possible so, 10 shots to the man. The
target was the picture of a man kneel-
ing, with his body crouched down SO it
was about is inches high, at little
over 200 yards. In an all days fight I
believe that tho Springfield will beat
the Crag- Gorgen. The Crag is SO small
calibre and uses SO much powder that
they heat badly.
You wanted description of this
country. There are nearly thirteen
hundred islands in the groupe About
one thousand of them are inhabited.
The island of Luzon is the largest. 1t
has IL range of mountains on the north
and west side; the rivers run mostly
south and east. The country is very
low around Manila. Up the river
about 30 miles there is a lake which is
about II miles long and three miles
wide. This is the head of the Pasig
river. 1t is swampy around the lake,
though the country rises to table
land and then to foot hills. The coun-
try is very productive, especially the
table lands and foot hills. The noun
tain sides are covered with cocoanut
and kind of wood called manila oak.
The best of the lumber is equal to
black walnut for furniture, only it is
very heavy. There is some of the fin
est ironwood and lockwood ever saw
There is some satin wood, but there is
, no ebony or camphor wood on this is
land, but they say there is some or
the islands farther south. There is nc
, mahogony on this island. Most of the
$ mahogony we get in the states think
! | is nothing but manila oak. They raise
rice, sugar cane, tobacco, all kinds o.
tropical fruit, sweet potatoes and al
kinds of vegetables. The climate il
very nmoist and hot. We are having
our cool weather now. 1 think al
American can stand it all right here i
he don't work. A white man cam
n work in this country.
I don't think it is SO very unhealth,
,. here. although the smallpox is prett,
bad here in town. The first month
% person is here he will be bothered witt
o. cramps and then probably the climati
II fever-a kind Of malarial fever. Mos
Of the troops have had it. Those tina
drank liquor and raised the dew
around town had it pretty hard, th
h rest of them were back on duty in te
IS days.
10 think there will be more gold take
10 out of these islands than will ever b
IS taken out of the Klondike country. ]
10 will be nearly all quartz mining, bu
D. a person can't do anything here in th
., way of mining until the government
9 gets the islands under control. Ever
II island of any size has got II to Is dill
r ferent tribes and each tribe has
chief. Spain has never held control @
only few of the islands.
must close for this time. I vii
~ write again and tell you about Homo
3: lulu. From your nephew,
n. GEO. d. BENSON.