Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-01
CAMPAIGNING IN UUZON
Incidents Connected With Jawton's Second
Advance on San Isidro.
bravery of the Officers in Command of
the Launch Ocrnnia Death
of Mai. Howard.

William DinwTIdic in IIlrPris Weekly.
After Gen Lawton was Withdrawn from
Lis strategic position IT San Isdro, on the
right flank of Asuinaldo's army last June,
Gen. MaCArIhur's small column. the
railroad at San Fernando. comprised
the only opposing fore" in that direction
All the territory t" the eastward of the.
railroad as far south as PalIag again fell
into the hands of the Insurgents. ana. fur
Their, they once more had a practically
interrupted line Of communication between
their armies of the north and south Icy tire
routes to til" eastward. which had been
temporarily cut off.
Gen. I.awt"n began his second move on
San Isidro October 16-cr, more properly,
Gen. Young, who is commanding fifteen
hundred Cavalrymcn. advanced few days
earlier from San Fernando To Arayat. where
he met with Il" resistance. as the town had
been shelIcd out by the tin-clId gunbuats
and entered by o'.r reconnaissance parties
the day before.
Aryat lies twenty miles down stream by
the crooked winnings Of the river. and sew
cnteen by road from San Isidro. During
the entire rainy season have been hold
ing the village of Candaba-a virtual island
in the floods. seven miles below Arayat-and
carrying subsistence supplies up the river
from C1lumpit. the railroad. i'll the huge
native cascos lowed by light armorcd
launches equipped with rapid-re guns 1t
was intended to create here base of sup
plies, which might be promptly drawn upon
temporarily when the expedition TO San
Isidro began.
Gen. Lawton and his staff Travelled by
special tram. made up Of the stuffy little
coaches of the English type. and twenty
freight cars carrying some of the wagon
transportation and subsistence. At Calum-
PR the general left the train and proceeded
by boat to Arayat. The little launch Oeste
dragged Onsthe mud at almost every turn
ing of the river. but before the darkness of
night came on the party was landed at the
town. lying under the receptions front of
The single great mountain cone behind.
Town of Arayat.
The town of Arayat was filed with wo-
ren and children and large sprinkling of
ahle-bodied Filipino men. The American
military band played in the plaza before
the church. surrounded by a lounging
crowd Of soldiers and Iilipinos. The ma
tives-many of them good performers upon
their odd bamboo horns-gazed curiously
upon the great bass horns the fiageOlets
ana tr"nbones so new to them, while the
half-nuGc children clustered. squatting
upon their bare h. els. beneath the feet of
the men, and found childish delight in clap
ping their hands against their ears in time
TO the music Down the street great
huiking negr" Of the 24th Infantry, with !
white teeth showing from to car came
cayorting in inin,itable steps of d cakewalk
while his glossyskinned bunkes patted
time for him. and the natives yelled in
high-keyed ecstasy of delight one feels
that at some time an attempt at benevo-
lent assimilation Of this half-child, half
devil race will be successful. but not until
We remove the present handicaps of life by
a rehabilitation Of commercial interests.
The American troops gathered at Arayat |
on the 11tn Of October numbered some 5000 |
men The largest regiment Col. KEEL |
lers 9th Infantry. recruited up to over a |
thousand men. Among these colored men, |
who seem forever in a good humor were |
many familiar faces of those who had |
served through the Cuban campaign.
Gen. LawtOn lost no time in starting the |
forward move after his arrival. A small |
engineer corps under Lieut.. Oakes was
through the twenty-foot- high emba nkment |
to the rivers edge. where the new ferry
boat was to travel on rope from shore to |
shore. carrying Il hundred at time |
1t took them two days to complete this
work. but by the evening of the 18th, I'M
der the final supervision of Gen. Lawton,
who seems to be everywhere at once, in
shilling force and energy into his entire
command. Maj. Balances battalion of the
I'd was crossing. preparatory to a night
advance on the town of Libcrtad four
miles up the river.
Getting Ready to Move
Orders were out on the evening of the
nth for all troops to be ready to move the
next day. except Mai Baldwin's battalion
Of the I'D. which was to hold the town Of
Arayat- But the most serious problem
which confronted Lawton was the ways and
means Of getting his subsistence and am
munltl"n supplies up to San ISidro. The
river had in two days, fallen six inches
and promised to drop still lower. He had
at his command the armUred launch Flor
Ida. drawing from five and one-half to six
reet OF water; the armOred launch Oeste.
with four and one-half feet draught and
the unarmCred launch Oceania, reuuiring
about four feet of water. Lieut. Dalton
with the Florida could not get above Array
at. and had already grounded half n dozen
times between Candaba and Arayat on the |
lower reach The oceanic was sent ahead |
towing casco. and told TO report at the |
HeaG OF the column. wherever that might
be In the event of river TRANSFORMATION
proving SInpracticaoe, the general had but |
lwtnty-one four-mule wagons and one hum
dred carabao carts to carry subsistence SIM
plies overland The layman cannon 1rn,Iar
standard. for that matter neither does |
the field offcer-why less than one-te1;h Of |
the transportation provided for by The. req
uldtlonS in peace times is available now thar
the army is on a war footing and engaged |
In a Campaien, where the necessity of |
quickly Following retreating enemy is al |
WAYS present
The telegraph line below Arayat was cut |
during the day, and this seriously inter
Tered with military business. The break |
was discovered To be nicely mended with a |
bit of cord, which prevented contact win
the opposing ends Of wire. hut deceived all |
Out the sharpest eyes of the signal men
AT O'Clock the same night the wire sud
denly went down again and CAPTAIN cnn-
ninGham Of the signal corps with only a |
detachment of eight cavalrymen, started |
c'' - llIdhe tHe ioheIE ride over I'M
guarded country TO find the rroube |
He met with no opposition and found |
the wire TWO miles out broken, with ends
hanging down. The alcalde of Arayat
was called into the generals HEADQUARTERS
and told to send out messengers immeli-
atcly To inform his people that If the wire
were tempered with again the nearest
house to the break would be burned. and
any man found interfering with the tele-
graph system would be hanged, not shot
Th.rc has been no trouble since
An Interesting Incident
One Of the incidents of the second on
trance into san Isidro was the finding Of
six Spanish prisoners. who had hidden |
themselves away in odd corners. and rush
ed out To meet the advancing skirmish line
swinging their hats and yelling with de-
light Three Of them afterwart asked nar-
mission to join the army. saying that for
fifteen months they had been abused and
beaten. and while they wanted IN % h,r,,.