The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1900-04-18
An AWFUL TALE.
The Horrors Of the Philippine
War Shown by Suicides.
OFFICERS AND MEN VICTIMS.
A Story Of Ne Feoa, Ne Shelter,
No Shoes, Nc Clothing
For Men From Tenn
parafe Chimes.

parafe Chimes.
From May l, 1899: to April l 1900,
according to official records, there have
been ss suicides ia the armies Of the
United States, nearly every one due to
insanity.
Daring the same period nearly one
thousand soldiers have been shipped
| from their vsrieus posts in Hawaii,
Porto Rice Cuba and the Philippines
the the military insane ssylu q in
Washington.
OF these about 80 per csnt have come
from the Philippines.
Since December last there have been
80 suicides there, al due to insanity.
During the war with Spain the aver
age Of suicides in the the army was no
higher than that in civil life. But
once the theatre of operations was
trsnsferrea to the Philippines the rate
mounted rapidly till at length General
Otis reports more suicides week than
deaths in action.
The figures show an average Of three
suicides week nowadays. And these
are not confined to the enlisted msn.
Omeers, whose fever-racked brains and
disease. tortured bodies are giving out
daily, are finding the same recourse
from suffering as the privates.
To date six officers have blown out
their brains in an effort TO rid them
selves of the delusicns of mind brought
about by the fevers incidental to
Philippine life and the hardships
necessary Of the campaign in Luzon.
Only the other day The World re-
corded the suicide Of Lieutenant Louis
P. Weber, Forty-seeond infantry, U.
s. Y, New York boy and former
member Of the Seventh regiment, whose
patriotism led him to volunteer for war
in the Two Hundred and First New
York against Spain and later in one Of
the Philippine regiments equipped last
summer. He landed in Manila on
January l last, and on March 8, lit
tie more than two months later, he
blew cut his brains with revolver:
The torture Of fever and malaria had
unbalanced his mind.
But younger officers are not the only
ones. The list is led by Lieutenant
Colonel John j. Brereton, Thirtythird
infantry. Every branch Of the service
contributes victims.
Mentally deranged" is General Otis
comment on each Of these deaths. but
behind each is story Of suffering which
even the horrors Of the civil war, which
lssted fosr years, cannot duplicate.
1t is story Of campaigning through b
incessant rains; of marching through
jungles and swanps in pursuit Of the
elusive enemy that fights hslf-naksG
for its homes and fresides. It story
Of 10 food, 40 shelter, no clothing, no
shoes, no rest for men from temper
perste CLINE who must 90 without all
these under fierce tropic sun.
But the suicides are but drop IN
the bucket. For every man of the
eighty-two who has blown cut his
brains with his revolver or Krsg-Jorg-
ensen there are dozen who have just
gone mad and have been saved by their
comrades before they could do them
selves bodily harm.
For these General Otis has mercifully
ordered 1000 pairs Of handouts from
Washington. he can thus restrain his
insane and send them back unharmed
to the United States where many recover
their reason under the influence Of aor-
nal life and s temperate olimste. Each
transports ia now equipped with pad
ded cell, 80 that the soldier boys cannot
harm themselves before they get back
10 their native land.
Each transport is now bringing les
eusts Of insane. The last TO sell from
Manila was the Sherman, with twenty
Ave maniac soldiers. It is not lack Of
food or clothing. It is simply a cues
tion Of tropio heat and inesssant rains
and an utter inpessibility for the
euarternasters to get their stores
through jungles and sWanps. The
troops near the towns fare IS well as ever
did soldiers in tho fe!d. Melancholia
| is the symptom.
statistlcians in the war department
haue been figuring privately have found
that the rate Of suicide in our Philip
pine army is the largest in the history
Of modern warfare. There were 5000
| suicides in the Union troop during the
| civil war, but it lasted four years, there
| 2,e0e, 900 men engaged and tbs hor.
rers Of war were infinitely greater.
The doors Of St. Elizabeth insane
asylum at Washington are hardly closed
upon one batch Of insane soldiers from
the Philippines before they are opened
to receive more Of the unfortunates.
Il vas only week ago that eight were
committed to the asylum.
Today there are l50 insane soldiers
st St. Elizabeth, some Of whom will
never recover their minds. They come
to the asylum wrecked physically as
we'll as mentally.
Recently many doctors and nurses
left San Francisco for the Philippines.
The war department is preparing for
the epidenics Of fever which come with
! the rainy season.
| 4 dispatch came from General Otis
today announcing 2s desths, including
one suicide. The dispatches Of two
days make this showing:
Soldiers who have become insane, %.
Suicide, l.
Died from wounds in action, 8
Died of disease, Is.
Drowned, 2.
Accidentally shot, 2
In spite Of these 6guree, the officials
insist that the death rate is lew in the
Philippines.
! These tventy-nine officers aad men
Of tne United States army has commit
ted suicide in the PHILIPPINES since