Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-01-12
STORY Of LIEUT.. GILMORE.
Gen. Tino Ordered All Americar
Prisoners Shot, But an Ofhcer's
Disobedience Saved Them.
ABANDONED IA SAVAGE COUNTRY.
Terrible Hardskips and Suffering During
Their Eight Months Captiyity-Starv-
Ing and Defensessss, Rescue Came
When Death Seemed Certain-PrIson-
ers Were Found December 1S.

Manila. Jan. 9.-Lieat. j. c. Gill
more, of the United States gunbcat
Yorktown. who was captured by the
insurgents last April, near Baler, on
the coast of Luzon, and rescued few
days ago by Col. Luther Il. Hare, of
the Thirty-third volunteer infantry,
sat yesterday in the apartment of his
sister, Mrs Major Price, at the Hotel
Oriente, in Manila, and told a remark
able story of his eight months in
captivity, ending with his dramatic
deiverance from a death that seemed
inevitable.
The steamer Venus came into the
harbor Saturday from Vigan, prov
ince of South Ilocos, with Lieut.. Gill
more and 10 other American prison
ers, including seven of his sailors
from the Yorktown. Lieut.. Gilmore,
after reporting, came ashore and hob
bled along, with the aid of a cane, to
the Hotel Oriente, where American
officers and ladies were waltzing
through the halls to the strains of
"Aguinaldo's March,"
Although tanned and ruddy from
exposure, he is weak and nervous,
showing the results of long hard
naldo and very bitterly against Gen.
Tino, declaring that while in the for
mer's jurisdiction, he was treated
splendidly, but after he fell into Ii
nos hands, he suffered everything.
Col. Hare and Lieut.. Col. Howse,
the latter of the Thirty-fourth volun-
teer infantry, rescued Gillmore's party
on December Is, near the headwaters
Of the Abalut river, after they had
been abandoned by the Filipinos and
were expecting death from the sav-
age tribes around them. When the
rescuing force reached them they
were nearly starved, but were build
ing RATS in the hope of getting down
the river to the coast.
Lieut.. Gilmore made the follow
ing statement to a correspondent of
the Associated press:
The Filipinos abandoned us on the
night of December 16. We had reached
the Abalut river, near its source, that
We then went down the stream, along
4 rough trail, guarded by company of
EilipinoS. That night we were separated
from this guard and another company,
armed with Mausers, put in charge
of US. I suspected something, and Ques-
toned the lieutenant in command He
said:
ST have orders from Gen. Tino to shoot
you all, but my conscience forbids- L
shall leave you here
I begged him for two rifles to protect
us from savages, adding that 1 would
give him letters to the Americans who
would pay him well and keep him from
all harm. He refused this, however. say
ing that he would not dare to comply.
Soon afterwards he left with his COM
pany.
We had seen some savaces in war paint
around us, and we prepared to fight them
with cobble-StoneS, the only weapons
that were available to us. The next
morning we followed the trail of the FIJI
ipino soldiers, feeling that 1t was better
to stick to them than to be murdered by
SavageS, but we could not catch up with
them. Then ordered the men to build
RATS in the hope of floating down the
river. 1t was forlorn hope, but I knew
the river must empty into the sea some
where. I was so weak myself that 1 did
not expect to get out, but thought some
Of the men could.
On the morning of December Is while
we were working the RATS, the Amer
leans came toward US yelling. One of my
men shouted, t1They are on u.s." He was
flashing a raft OF bamboos. I, however,
knew it was not the yell of SavageS, but
the yell of Americans. The rescuing
troops thought We had Filipino guards,
and called to us in English to lie down
so that they could shoot the Filipinos.
men 1 ever saw.
Lieut.. Gilmore could not speak en-
Enthusiastically enough about the 40
picked men who had rescued him ard
his party.
The command spent the day in
making rats. Col. Hare thought
Lieut.. Gilmore too weak to live
through the trip, but there was no
alternative. They shot many rapids,
the men losing all their effects, and
Lieut.. Gilmore some valuable papers
Only IA out of 81 RATS survived the
first nights experiences and so men
were practically unable to walk when
Vigan was reached.
1.-The Filipino treatment OF the
Spaniards," said Lieut.. Gilmore, "was
brutal in the extreme. The insur-
gents had old grudges to wipe out
against them. Many talk about the
reconcentrados in Cuba, but I have
seen Spaniards dying at the rate of
two or three per day of starvation in
The hospitals at Vigan. L have seen
Tagalo officers strike SPaniards in
the face with whips and reyolvers-"
Found q Deserter's Body.
Manila, Jan. 9.-Among the enemy,s
dead found on the field after the cap
ture of Binan by Schwan's column,
was q deserter from the Sixth United
States artillery, Johnson. His body
was at Noveleta, clad in the uniform
of an insurgent major.