The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1900-09-27
LETTER FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
Henry c. Duvall Writes an interesting
Letter to His Parents Relating
to Our New Possessions.

/
| to Our New Possessions.
| Pandon, 2. l., June "a, 1900.
Dear Mother and Father
1 shall endeavor to write you a
brief letter this pleasant Sunday
morning. l am i'll my usual good
health and hope this will find you the
same. am going to write you as
interesting a letter as my education
will permit, concerning this country
and her people. do not expect to
make much of success of it but 1
shall do my best.
This section of the islands are very
} mountainous hut not SO rocky as
one would suppose. They raise
some corn here, but mostly rice and
| of.two varieties. One is the little
white rice the same as we use at home
and the other is large variety of
reddish color and is fed to horses.
It grows best ON swampy land and is
very pretty to the eye. The ridges
in the rice fields are of great advan-
tage to the American soldiers in q
fight as they afford splendid protec-
ton. The rice blades are very fine
and the heads resemble wheat. When
they thresh they tread it out and
afterwards hull it, and then beat it
out with a club like base ball bat.
They have just begun to SOW rice and
always use single plow.
There are some horses here but
they don't use them very much, they
| work the water buffalo or oxen.
Sweet potatoes grow here but have
| never seen any Irish potatoes.
| Onions and tomatoes are also grown
and that is about the extent of their
gardening. The people are all small
and wear very little clothing espe-
cially on their head or feet. They
are not as well civilized as the Ameri-
can Indians were 40 years ago. All
kinds of timber grow here. Cocoa
nuts, pine apples, mangols, and bana-
mas grow here i'll abundance but they
are not fit TO eat. The sap taken
! from the cOcoanut tree is called
| "tubba." Very little of it will make a
fellow drunk and cause him to get i'll
all kind of trouble but the more reck-
less soldiers use it regardless of re-
suit. But the worst drink of all is
made by the natives from rice and
wood alcohol and is called "beano"
and not few of the boys have died
from drinking it and many are in the
hospital now suffering from it's effect.
| We have got canteens here now and
| believe that is right for if the boys
are bound to drink they can get good
whiskey and beer thus avoiding the
natives poisons.
There are few good buildings
here that were built by the Spaniards
but the natives houses are of very
inferior order.
1t has been raining every day and
night for the past two weeks and we
are camped about 600 yards from the
coast and the sea at times has been
very rough. We have got 25,00C
rounds of ammunition with us which
we may be called upon to use at any
time. We raised flag pole here yes
terday, it is 81 feet high and from tho
top "Old Glory" waves rs proudly as
NJ home. Our battalion has burned
several towns recently and we have
4 5000 bushels of rice here with us that
we confiscated. The natives are Oh
starvation and how they manage tC
live is mystery to me.
We are paid every two months and
l am saving my money for when
get out want to buy farm i'll Okla
homa. will close now as my suppl,
of information for this time is about
exhausted. Goodbye. From your
son,
HENRY G. DUVALL,
Co. E. ,44th U. S. v. Inft
Large sun spots, astronomers say
. caused the extreme heat this summer
and doctors declare nearly all til.