The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-17
AT THE FRONT IN MANILA
CORPORAL ". 1T. CE1SE OF THE
 TORTY-NINTH INFANTRY

Describes Life on Skirmish Line in
 Philipp,nes-Arrested Hachman for
 Being Out After Hours,
 The following letter was received in Norwalk last week from Corporal Wal ter M. Chase, Company H, Forty fifth United States infantry stationed at Mag, Philippine Islands, and dated January 31st last, at t'The Front on the South Line"
 This island is divided into two firing lines now, the north and south lines. The battle of St. Mateo, where General Lawton was killed, was the last battle on the north line, all the fighting being done here now The second battalion of the Foty-fifth, that is my battalion, had fierce fight at a place called Roy al George, and it was a battle royal while it lasted. The place is about for ty-one miles, a two days march, from here. It was on the 18th of December. Company H formed the advance guard and Freeman was with us,
 We were marching along as if noth- ing would happen, having taken two towns on the way out and were coming back. The advance guard had come to this cut and were going though it in single file, it was so marrow. The men stopped to fill their canteens with water when the enemy opened fire The bull lets were thicker than hailstones in that cut for a few minutes and you ought to have seen the heads duck for cover; How big we had grown in short space of time and how small the rocks seemed Every time a bullet would strike a rock down would go a head when some one would holler, Too late' Sergeant Gardiner took out his pipe, filled and lighted it and then went on shooting niggers just as if that had been his business all his life.
 STOOD IN WATER WHILE FIRING
 ''When we attacked the enemy we charged the trenches from the flank and that routed them. You know how Uncas' Leap is at the Falls? We'll, suppose another cut to run directly through it from north to south and the banks sand instead of rock, then you would have the kind of a place we had to go through The creek was about fifteen yards wide with the water up to I
  up to our hips. We stood in the water firing for three hours and a half with out stop and it was hard work. You could hear the Mausers coming ping ping; then the big Remingtons would holler wong wong. They are the same calibre as the old Sprngfelds, and would land against the rocks in front of you like battering ram. These bullets are deadly poisonous as they are GOV cred with a brass case that spreads open and explodes when they strike, and if one piece of that brass hits you, blood poison is the result and that | means death in the worst form known. |
 T don't think We shall have any more 1 scraps now. There is a rumor that the | Forty-fifth and all the volunteers in the island are to be mustered out soon. | Can you tell me what the papers say or | some time send me New York Journal | or a Press or a Norwich paper, as I | have not had one since I left home in November, 1899. Free GA. R. Freeman r of Versaiiles) and I are getting along finely I think that I would rather be bugler than corporal and am going to try and get back again if can. Free man can handle gun now just as well as he could a wheel.
 STOPPED THE HICKMAN.
 Corporal Chase encloses in his letter a hackman's permit made out in Span 1sh, allowing the carrying of passengers from Manila to Malalon, six and one half miles. He writes This I took up on the searching post at Caoocan on New Years night while on the patrol of the outposts. No teams are allowed to pass through the lines between retreat at 530 p. m. and reville at 6:30 a. m, This license was sent to the provost marshal and by him taken from it's holder