Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-01-12
OUTOF DEATH'SJAWS.
Lieutenant Gilmore Tells the
Story Of His Captivity.
TERRIBLE SUFFERING AND CRUELTY
Filipinos Hard Pressed by RelieI
Party Abandoned Prisoners to
stnrve-Found Two Days Later
In IA Destitute Condition.

MANILA, Jan. S.-Lieutenant ]. G
Gilmore of the United States cruise
Yorktown. who was captured BY the in
surgents last April near Bnlcr, on tn,
east coast of Luzon, and rescued a few
days AGO by Colonel Luther Il. Hare -
the Thlrty-thIrd volunteer Infant, sot II
the apartment Of bio sister. Mrs Maiol
Price, at t.e Hotel Oriente, in Manila
and told a remarkable story of his eight
months in captivity, ending with his dra
matte delvCrance from death tha' |
seemed inevitable.
Lieutenant Gilmore made the following
statement Tor publications:
"Thc Filipnos abandoned us on the |
night of Dec. 1G. We had reached the +,
Abulat river hear its source that nom
ing. and the Filipinos RATED lis ovcS. We
then went down the stream along a rougt
trail, guarded by company Of filipnos
That night we were separated from this
guard. and another company, armed viii
Mausers, was put in charge of MS. | sus
pected something and questioned the lieu
tenant in command, He said: 4 have or
ders from General Iino to shoot You all
but my conscience forbids. | shall leave
you here
Il begged him for two rifles to protect
us from savages, adding that | woulc
give him letters to the Americans, who
would paw him well and keep him from
all harm He refused this. however, say
ing that he would not dare to comply
Soon aftcrward he left with his company
I'VE had seen some savagcs in war
paint around MS. and we prepared To fight
them with cobhcstuncs, the only weapons
that were available to us The next morn
ing we followed the trail of the Filipino
soldiers. feeling that it was better to stick
to them than to he murdered 10y savages
but we could not catch up with them
| Then ordered the men To build RATS in
| the hope of floating down the river. II
| was follorn hope. but | knew the river
must empty into the sea somewhere. !
was 50 weak myself that did not expect
| to get out, but thought some of the men
| could.
"On the morning of Dee. Is. while We
| were working on the RATS, the Americans
came toward us yelling. One of my men
| shouted. They are on us He was lash
| ing raft of bamboos. i. however knew
it was not the yell OF savages, but the yell
| of Americans. The rescuing troops
| thought we had Filipino guards and call
ed to us in English to lie down so that
| they could shoot the F'ilipinos. That was
| the finest body of officers and men ever
| saw"
| Lieutenant Gilmore could not speak en-.
Enthusiastically enough about the 14O pick
ed men who had rescued him and his par
ty.
The command spent the day in making
RATS Colonel Hare thought Lieutenant
| Gilmore too weak to live through the trip
| but there was no alternative They shot
many rapids. the men lashing all their eff
| fects and Lieutenant Gilmore some valu
| able papers. Only II out of 81 RATS sur
| vived the first nights experiences. and 50
| men were practically unable To walk
| when Nigan was reached
| Describing the flight from Bcnguet
when the Americans approached. Lieu
| tenant Gilmore said:
The Filipinos, completely terrified, left
Benguct on Dec I. They hurried the
| prisoners from town to town. often re
| tracing the trail. not knowing where the
| Americans would attack. After being al
| most without food for three days they
| killed several horses, and we lived on
horsefiesh for several days. | did not
have II full meal from Dee until /
reached Nigan. Indeed the rescuins par
ty lived largely upon rice without salt.
There was one day when | was reduced
to chewing grass and bark.
| while we were in the hands of Gener-
| al Tino'S men he issued an order that any
person aiding an American by food OF
| money should be treated as criminal.
| One citizen of Nigan, Senior Vera, was
probably killed for beflicnding us We
would have starved but for the kindness
of some of the presidents of the towns
and some of the Filipino colonies. but
others treated us brutally. Wherever
there was prison we We're kept there.
| When there was no prison, they would
| lodge US in convent. We suffered
| greatly from want of exercise as well as
| lack of food
l For weeks Lieutenant Gilmore was
| covered with boils and in great pain.
4 When the Filipinos found the Americans
were approaching, the treatment became
better. There was sign painter in the
party, and he painted advertisements on
the rocks throughout the retreat with
other emblems, like IA skull and the word
vengeance, by means of which the
Americans We're able to follow.
Among the prisoners arriving with
Lieutenant Gilmore were +. J. Hubert
Edward Burke and j. j. Farley, sailors
from the Urdaneta: Won Galen of the
Baltimore, A. ii. Gordon and George
Sackett of the Third infantry, Leland
Smith and Frank Stone of the sigma
corps, Harry Huber of the hospital corps
William Bruce and Edward HoneymaI
of the Nevada cavalry, Martin Brennan
and James Curran of the Sixteenth in
fantry, Albert Bishop of the Third artil
lery and John o. Bren and David Brown
civilians.
Charles Baker of the Third artillery
was formerly one of the prisoners, but h,
became too weak to travel. and the Fill
Pine guards bayoneted him during tn,
last flight through the mountains