Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1900-04-09
LETTER FROM
MAJOR STANTON
Army Palmaster Relates Some
Very Interesting Experiences
MEETS WITH CANNlBALS.
Didn't Fancy Their Diet Although
Very Hungry lie Gould Not Rec
gale on Young Dogs

The following very interesting letter
is from the hand Of Major Charles u.
stanton one Of Salt Lakes most popu-
lar citizens The letter Is TO an old
friend,unde date Of February 18th, and
relates some very amusing experiences
that befoll the author while travelling
over the Philippines paying OF the sol
dIers. The letter Is as follows
IL has been Just a month since /
wrote to you-far and away the hard
est one we have had in tine service
and 7 never knew It was possible TO do
SO much In q given time paid In
January lOs pay rolls aggregating $685.
700. about $4,000 more than any man
ever paid here In one month, so you
can understand we are not loahng any.
The troops here are so scattered,
that we travel Tor month without a
break, going on foot with fun team,
horseback or ambulance sleeping out
o nights, eating when we gee chance,
etc, It's a great experience. but a man
who wants more OF It than we are
getting must have bristles on him,
AS we pay bi-m0nthly we 90 out
again next month and IL bids fair to
be harder work than IN January Two
paymasters. who started out on Janu-
ary End. one for the northern part Of
Luzon. the other TO the southern IS
lands, are not home yet and we have
not even heard from them, except in
directly.
DOGS A FAVORITE DIET
In my last letter I think I told you
Of the Zulu island people the Moros.
and since then ] have met one Of the
northern tribes. the lgorrotes, who are
head hunters They are big and black,
or rather bronze color. wear human
teeth Of dead enemies plated In their
hair, have from two to a dozen heads
hanging around IN the rafters of their
dwellings and are cannibals. Their ia
YOrite diet Is a young or puppy dog,
and they carry them over the noun
taius In baskets so that they won't be
tough.
I'VE tried to get some eggs from
them and by gestures made out we
were very hungry They consulted
awhilt and brought in a fine woolly
pup and were greatly astonished when
we wouldn't take him.
They wear nothing but a string
although they live from 1000 10 5000
feet above sea level and Il Is so cold
your breath steams In the morning
Their weapons are an axe carried In
this @ string OF bella and a wicked look
ing spear. chief threw the latter
through a target the size Of a playing
card at ninety feet.
Their money Is a copper coin made
by themselves, called "clackers' and
they use nothing else. Their pipe bowls
are made OF brass. gold and silver, and
they have plenty Of it. They make brass
by fusing copper and lead. The chief
OF the tribe has q service OF gold TO
eat on as we were told by local mag
nate, who saw when General Wey-
Ter went up {. to call on the chief
This local magnate offered nuggets and
dust at so per ounce and IL could
have been had at SO I think.
COPPER AND GOLD PLENTIFUL.
Copper and gold must be very easy
Of access. for they have any quantity
Of g., and no tools but axes that | saw,
20 work with. They are a hard lot, these
| igorrotes and an people are enemies
and look alike 10 them, so If we ever
do aly mining, wen have TO exter-
inmate them.
IAN the people here unite IN saying
that MindanaO Is the richest Island ot
the group IN hemp. timber copla,
sugar cane. rice and gold, but as 10 the
latter. there Is enough on Luzon 20
make thousands OF people rich
Major Schofleld has gone up a
stream OF water a half mile seeing
nothing but black sand all the time,
and that Is only forty miles from Man
| Ia.
Tn the extreme north away up in
/ the mountains are splendid pine for
| este. but In the southern Islands there
/ are hundreds OF miles Of virgin forest
/ Of wonderful hard wood. They have
enough OF a. 10 make the Pullman cars
| and pianos OF the world for a century
/ / saw In Cehu a table top Of one piece
| OF wood seventy-elght inches IN dia-
meter and flooring boards three feet
| wide all hewed out by hand and they
polish like ebony. The steps and some
| floors in the Hotel Oriente here are
| planks OF rose wood two feet wide.
AN AMUSING MULETEER.
although we work like dogs. We
| occasionally get a side light on Ike
] that Is very amusing. / met an army
mule driver on Cebu island that was a
/ character. We were going up on the
mountains eight miles with four DIS
] mules and an ambulance, and he KEPT
! talking 10 the mules all the while as
| though they understood him. In follow
| ing the river bed We came TO a plac'
I where the water had swalled 70 one
| side. and got stuck IN bad mud hole
/ He gave me the lines, jumped down II
| mud and water 10 his waist, sWore 2
/ little al getting wet and then wen
around 20 see II everything was intact
/ talking an the time. Addressing th'
strappine biz near wheeler he said
" Don't you shake your head at me
| sirl Don't you tell me you cant pul
4 out OF this hole. for I know a damn
| sight betterl You've been I'm lots o
worse places than this and always go
out and you can leave this one behind
too. N YOU want to- Now, you use GOO
sense, ana when / give a yeil yo'
/ novel Dyou hear me?"
''He walked around the wagon, petite
each one OF them a little, and thel
/ standing on one side, gave yell tina
l reminded me Of home. The mules wen
up on dry ground so suddenly that
vent over backwards and nearly brok
my neck. but we were o. X.
II commended him on his manage
ment and he said: oh, that amt NUN
I'M. major We see you've got 70 Away
argue with a mule. II you know some
thin and he don't, you've got 70 con
vince him n Il takes a pick handle bu
N he knows somethln and he know
YOU don't know Il, all hell won't NOV
him