Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-01-09

mud is about six inches deep all around
this place, but as the natives all go
nearly naked. they had not taken any
pains to build sidewalks, etc. My
work here is to establish civil govern
ment on a line laid out in the orders,
keep order and to run. things general
ly. We had an election and the peo-
pie elected an 'alcalde,' or mayor, for
this town, and 'barrios,' or trustee,
for each certain district outside the
town. These 'barrios' act as council
to the 'alcalde' and they are expected
to create police force, collect taxes
and licenses, hire labor for repairing
roads, etc. The whole plan seems to
be easy enough if they would go ahead,
but thev have never had any experience
in governing themselves and act just
like little children. / have not sworn
them in yet, as / am wa1ting for their
oath of Office to be translated into
Spanish by an interpreter at San Fer
nando. Il have since found that only
four out of twelve elected know any
Spanish. and that the oaths for the
Others will have to be translated into
their native Macabebe. The native
priest helps me great deal, as he is
very enthusiastic and can speak Span
ish and all the native languages. /
have learned enough Spanish to get
along fairly well, with the help of a
Spanish dictionary. | had meeting
this mornirr with the padre or priest,
and several influential citizens (?) and
it took nv two lieutenants, myself and
the doctor who is attached to the COM
PAM. about two hours to tell them
that the United States government
wished all the natives to resume their
daily avocations: that they would be
allowed to choose their own officers.
and that we desired them to issue a
proclamation to that effect. 1t will be
slow work, but guess we can make it
go all right. The biggest job will be
to teach the people some OF the
simplest laws of sanitation. They
have no sinks and consequently scatter
their filth all around and there is
nothing except the hogs to clear it up.
''We are not so far from civilization
graph station and two men of the sig
wagon, which makes one trip each day
and brings out bread and meat. We
are having trouble with some of the
men who buy a drink from the natives,
called 'rino. In my opinion it is sort
of an alcoholic drink and about two
drinks of it will set man crazy 1t
always leaves its victim in bad shape
At the present time | have ten men
in the guard house for using it. and
two natives for selling it. The latter
will be tried tomorrow and guess we
will give them about thirty days al
hard labor. $500.
eve have fairly good houses to live
in, but it is necessary to split the com,
pany into squads TO guard each end Of
the town, SO we are not together much
of the time. We have a sentinel posted
at each of the six roads that lead into
town and the day after they have beer
on duty they act as old guard fatigue
| and guard prisoners. We are required
| to furnish an escort of fifteen mer
| for all wagon trains from here to Array
at, the town just north of us, and az
| there is a train nearly every day, il
makes it the hardest duty we are call
ed upon to perform. We have patro
of three men every day, who meet thu
patrols from the other towns on eithe;
| side of us, so you see it keeps us busy
and the men do not get much rest
The remainder of the letter is in re
gard to personal matters, but writer
across one corner of the letter is this
81 am out of stamps and you will hav'
to dig up;' can't buy any out here
Accompanying the letter is maj
drawn by the captain, which fully ex
! plains the position of the differen
towns of which he speaks and tn,
route taken when on the expedition
that was expected to capture the will.
Filipino chief, Aguinaldo.