Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1900-01-05
FRIDAY JANUARY

covered yet.
The gun carriage was taken over the
bridge by the men in charge of it, as
sisted by the men Of Company D, and
scaling the Instructions placed at the
end of the bridge by the insurgents,
they set up the gun, aad with the aid
Of the infantry fire the trenches were
cleared and the American troops moved
into them. Without the gun Hunting
ton and his little band, as well as Com
panies D and E, would probably have
been cut off. as the enemy was reform
ing, and, seeing the small force opposed
to it, seemed debating as to the ad-
visibility of a charge.
Van Houghten refuses to consider his
exploit anything out Of the ordinary.
'Any. one would have done the same
thing under the circumstances, he pro-
tests; but nobody else did it, and it was
an emergency that demanded prompt
action
mot only Van Houghten but others
of our officers surprised the Fllipinos
and Spanish by their feats of skill and
strength. While at San Felipe we fra
ternized with some Spanish prisoners
who were on parole and were quartered
in the lower story of the building which
we occupied, the upper story being the
more desirable having been reserved
for ourselves. At night these Spanish
officers were accustomed to amuse
themselves with feats Of strength and
skill. They invited us one evening to
Join with them, and several of the
young officers who had recently left
college and were trained to athletic
sports entered the game. The first
thing they tried was high kick. One
of the Spanish officers held hat which
another kicked. After he had done his
best Captain McGregor came forward,
one of our tallest men held hat as
high as he could reach and McGregor
kicked it. The Spaniards were much
surprised and gestidulated and chartered
at a great rate. Then one of them
went over to where blind officer stood,
and taking the blind mans stick ex-
planned the kick by showing how many
times the length of the stick it took to
measure the height Of the hat from the
ground. The blind man listened, and
then shook his head, sayin that it was
incredible; he declined to believe it.
Then one of the Spaniards made a stand
ing broad jump. and one ,cf our officers
jumped four feet further. Again the
blind man was told with much excited
gesticulation how many lengths of his
stick it would take to measure the dis
tance covered by the jump, and again
he Indignantly repudiated the possibil-
ity Of any Americana outleaping a
Spanish officer and gentleman by so
great distance. The high jump was
also easily won by an American officers
and then the Spanireds brought out
their strong man. He took cannon
ball which he raised from the ground
with both hands and poised at the level
of his shoulder. Then with great diff
Guilty he raised It until it was at his
arms length above his head. Van
Hougnten then came forward. Grasp
ing the ball with one hand he raised it
without apparent effert and held it
out at arms length horizontally. This
was the closing feat, for the Spaniards
had played their trump card. They ex-
planned cnce more to the blind man the
feat of strength, and how again the
Americana had excelled, and the blind
man apparently believing that they
were trying to make game Of him
threw his stick on the ground and
chided them for telling him such false
hoods. After that the Spanish officers
issued no more challenges to us.
Referring to instances of brave men,
I recall a case that may be called excep-
tional, for the patriotic zeal of the man
resulted in his wearing himself out.
Sergeant J. L. Rundell Of Company L
was good soldier and not even sickness
was able to keep him awsy from the
firing line When he was quite i'll he
was ordered to the rear for medical
treatment, but he refused to go and by
remaining endured exposure and fatigue
which was undoubtedly the cause Of
his death, for he finally succumbed July
20, on the Morgan City when three days
from San Francisco. Corporal LARA
bee of Company M was another man
who did duty when he was not physic-
ally fit He was suffering from the
effects of fever and although GONZALES
cent he was far from fit for duty. He
was ordered back from Calumpit, as he
was suffering from tropical ulcers, be.
ing covered with them from his neck to
his knees. The disease is peculiar to
the country and is the result of condi-
tions prevailing there. He was not
willing to go, insisting that he would
do as we'll at the front as elsewhere,
and he wanted to be where there was