St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-01-27
From the Philippines.

kins. who is a member Of the 23rd
U. S. Infantry, now serving in the
Philippine Islands:
Cebu, p. l., Aug. 10, 1899.
Mr. DEAR BROTHER:
After . journey of fifty-iour days,
l arrived safe at my destination, and
you cannot imsgine how glad l was
TO get OF Of the ship. We stopped
two weeks ut Manila, and five days
ut Cavite. / visited Manila wl:en-
ever I wanted to and I don't like
the city, because the sidewalks are
not over three feet wide, and the
houses seem to be Ten thousand
years old. The Pasig river runs
through the center of the city, and
on one side it ia called the wall city.
Il is . solid stone wall forty feet
thick. and cann0ns are placed every
twenty feet apart, and this extends
out to the suburbs OF the city and
up the Pasig river. The enemy is
thirty miles out over the mountains.
There are about $4,000 insurgents
out there, and about $1,000 Ameri-
can soldiers are after them The
lighting out here is on the same
scale as the civil war, only the
Fllipinos can. run faster than the
Americans, and they know more
about the iungles and bamboo
brakes. and can live of Of The fruit,
and the fruit would kill Americans.
When the FillpinOs enter the trench,
there are two Of them to M gun,
and when one is killed there is n
other there to take his place. In
order to wlmD them, we have to run
them like . rabbit Or snake in high
grass, and they = almost Outrun
. horse. The only way to whip
them is to just take after them. and
run them as hard al w can And
at night, while the sentinals and
pickets are ON duty, the Filipinos
will run out and shoot in our direc.
ton. and then run back IN the
jungles. The battleship bOlnbards
them once in . while and drives them
lack out OF the trenches, and Uncle
Sans boys take after them and
run them back into the juneles.
Manila Is quite . study. Es-
pecially was the city Of Cavite.
It Is almost the same, only it is
more of q country Town than Ma
Mia, and there not a many China
men there. We also stopped ut
Iloilo. That is the town where the
hot fighting is going on. The enemy
is camped on one eide Of the river
and Uncle Sans boys on the other,
aud the river isn't more than one
hundred feet wide, but they only
fight every other night. They very
seldom fight in the daytime. because
where they are camped Is nothing
but . grove Of cocoanus trees, about
5 or 6 miles, and they hide in them
in the daytime and come out and
fight at night. Tile prettlest town l
have been in 50 far is lloil0. The city
is governed by a Saltana. The
town that l am in now is an ancient
one. 1t is half demolished ever
since the Spaniards bombarded it.
The barracks that we are now in
hare all right. There are some
beautiful Spanish girls here, and
they are rich ones. They don't
mix with the natives Of this town ut
all. Lots of the natives live in
bamboo hus and canoes along the
beach. The mountains are as
beautiful as they csn possibly get,
and the clouds cover the tops Of
some OF them, and there are . great
many peaks that are much higher
than the clouds. It is beautiful to
see the u rise and set out here.
To see the sun set out in the Ocean
Ia just like being ut q distance and
looking into an illuminated city.
H. get mustered out here I will
60 through Australia and England.
There was rumor here that the 23rd
Regiment will go to Paris in 1900,
to the great fair. l don't know how
true it is. The 23rd lrss the best
fighting record of any Regiment
on the Islands. We have only one
insurgents barrack TO capture here,
and then they will have to r0ost in
the mountains. The insurgents are
allowed to come in whenever they
want to. Some Of them come
around and are as friendly with us
as the natives who live iu the town.
When we were coming out here
We passed some very beautiful IL
lands. Some of them around the
coast looked like solid rock walls,
i've Or ak hundred feet high, and
had caves in them, while others
seemed to be covered with nothing
but vines. When 1 come back, II l
ever do, l am going to bring three
or four monkeys and parrots with
me. l can buy monkeys for i've
cents. / think l have given you all
the news l know at present. l am
enjoying perfect health and l hope
you are enjoying the same.
There is not much danger In fight
ing these Filipinos, as long rs we
are running them, but when we
stop running after them they stop
running from us, lay down aud 90
to shooting at as, but they shoot
wild. Some bullets pass q foot or
so over our heads. They sound
uucomfortably close. especially
those Remington bullets. They sing,
and the Mauser bullets whistle.
You will have to pardon this
writing, as it is rather announcement
writing with q pen l made myself
out Of bamboo cane. Penh0lders
here seem To be . rare thing with
the boys. Well, Dear Brother. !
- - r-.A..