The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-02-02

brother, Thomas, of 223 North Walnut
street from the Philippine islands as
follows
Dagupan p. l., Dec. 20, 1899.
"a merry Christmas to you, dear
brother, and happy New Year will
follow You may think 1t very strange
for me to write you letter on Christ
mas day, but this Christmas / find my
self on guard at the u. s. hospital. 1t is
the first time ever worked on Christ
mas, but everything goes in the
army. We will have our Christmas din
ner tomorrow as we have to take our
rations with us today Our rations
for today-Christmas- coffee, sugar,
bacon, hardtack; a very nice diet to
remember that Christ was born on the
25th day of December. Anyway, Christ
himself went without food sometimes.
Well, Tom, / received your letter of
the 9th of November. 1 was glad to
hear that you are well and enjoying
yourself / am also glad that you like
IL our present position and hope you Will
Met along first rate; and also hope that
(you will get to so to Brooklyn with
= them, as it is a very nice city. I am
sure you will like it there j never told
you / was in Brooklyn but l will have
to let you know it now.
Tom. you must be careful around ele-
vators. They are very dangerous, at
times / had a little experience with
one in the Buchtel hotel, at Akron, o.,
when l worked there. and that's all 1
care about too. Tom, if you would
only have kept going down in the ele-
Vator you would soon strike China,
then it would not take you long to strike
me, in the Philippines.
Tom, will never see "Bill" again in
the Philippines. He is going home
pretty soon and 1 am so far away from
Manila that it's impossible for me to
go and see him. The railroad runs in
here from Manila but our officers will
not let us go to Manila, because 1t is
so very dangerous, so you see, Tom, ]
can't send you anything at all for
Christmas; not even those pictures
got taken in Manila.
Tom l believe in politics no more.
Soldiers don't vote, you know, and I'm
not a bit interested. The Republicans
have a little too much money to be
beat, but the old song is never forgot
ten: "There'll come a time, some day."
Tom, the last six months 1 didn't save
a cent The paymaster always paid
us WHEN we uluU nave Jul SdNlhSs
books: our savings books are in the
field chest and we have not seen it since
A we left Paranaque. It is stored away
feioNn in Manila, somewhere. So you see
1--WE can't save our money and if we
Marry it around with us we might loose
Iflkt in some skirmish. l would sooner
Bi|spend it than lose it, so you see I'll only
: N Save about $50 the first year; will save
oil a M hIlt
t8not much as we wear out clothes very
= quick here.
suppose you have heard before this
that General Lawton was killed; he was
brave soldier. We fought under hin
at Paranaque and he praised us up fine
of us when he said he felt safe wher
company M of the Thirteenth Infan-
try was his body guard
General Schwan was wounded pretty
bad, too; we also fought under hin
when we cleaned up the south line He
also said we We're good fighters ant
didn't hesitate on going into fire like
some regiments he was with. We al
(the Thirteenth Infantry have grea
sympathy for both generals and WE
hope General Schwan will recover
quick, so he can see the finish o
Aguinaldo. "Aggie' is in pitiful con
~dition now. He has been shot twice
around the body somewhere. He can
not last long.
/ received your picture. 1t is a very
nice one and am am very sorry that
cannot return it by sending mine.
There are flowers in the Philippines
but presume you are having plenty o
snow in the States.
Well, Tom 1 will close for this time
Roping you keep your health and enjoy
Iourself and with best wishes for tn,
New Year, l am,
Yours effectionate brother,
WALTER KEATING.
Company M, u s. Infantry, Manila.