Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-03-29
TALES OF PLUCK
and ADVENTURE.

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Gallantry in the Philippines.
Y n October Major Howard, of the
United States forces now in the
Philippines, took the Oceania
G down to Arayat, in LuZon, and
from there started to slowly struggle
up stream against the swift curl ent,
with two great cascos of supplies. 1t
should be remembered that this boat
was unarmored. She had one Norden-
feldt tive-barrel rapid-fire gun on her,
which constantly jammed, and which
the insurgents had learned was in
effective when they had fired upon
her several times in the lower courses
of the river. There were two as in
trepid white men in charge of her as
ever fired a gun-Sergeant Harris in
command and Engineer O'Nei!, who
had been one of Youngs scouts. The
rest of the crew, five in number,
were Filipinos. With Major Howard
was his civilian clerk, Chamberlain,
and two civilian blacksmiths, who
were going up to report to the cavalry
regiment The cascos were furnished
with a guard of twenty armed
soldiers, but. unfortunately enough,
they were all beneath the heavy
bowed mats which cover this class OF
boat-invisible, and useless in the
event of an attack.
The boat whistled as she rounded
the great bend at the mouth OF the
: Rio Chico, which stretches offtoward
Tarlac, as q warning to the Oeste,
less than quarter of mile above.
Major Howard sat in a chair at the
bow of the boat; Chamberlain sat
near him, but toward the right, and
slightly screened by the awning from
the high river bank on the left, only
seventyf yards away, and was
] talking to one of the blacksmiths.
There was a binding volley from
the nodding grass on shore. Four
men in the boat fell-Major Howard,
shot through the great artery near the
heart; Chamberlain, thro ugh the
shoulder and arm; the blacksmith,
through the back and abdomen. and
the pilot, in the forearm. Every man
in sight at the time had been hit.
Major Howard staggered to his
feet, ghostly white and gasping. He
moved toward Chamberlain, who lay
paralyzed by shock on the deck, but
who screamed in excitement, sob,
Major, you are shot?" The Majors
only answer, as he fell to lie silent
forever, was "For Gods sake. keep
her going, whatever you dol"
The Filipino pilot dlyed into the
hold. Sergeant Harris rushed for the
quick firing gun, grabbing another
Filipino on the way and placing him
at the wheel. He fired one voiley
from the gun; then it iammed. He
took off the feed cases, pulled the
empty cartridges with hand eiector,
reloaded it by hand and fired two vol
leys through the canvas awning above
him, as that was the only way he could
elevate sufficiently to reach the am.
pushed enemy. The second steers
man was shot through the back, and
third one was forced to the wheel by
+ the sergeant; then the wheel itself was
shattered by bullet; but still the
launch forged ahead, and the brave
sergeant fired two parting volleys at
three hundred yards.
O'Neil as soon as he got his fright
ened Filipino firemen and assistants
III the engine room Strengthened out,
bolted on deck, grabbed rifle and
standing exposed on the stern of the
boat. fired shot after shot where the
grass was lit up with the flashes sof
guns.
The gallantry of these two men was
OF such remarkable nature as to place
them well within the category OF
heroes.
AS they rounded the bend of the
river, and came in sight of the Oeste,
the latter opened up with her revolv-
ing cannon in the general direction of
the firing. Lieutenant Simmons had
been afraid to fire earlier for fear he
might strike the Oceania.
The guard on the cascos clambered
out, one by one, through hole, like
rats IN trap, before the firing entirely
ceased, and answered the fire from
the bank.
The enemy had made a clever move,
strictly within the limits Of civilized
warfare; they had attempted to cap
ture an armed launch and their antag-
onists' subsistence supplies, which
they would have poled up the Rio
Chico to point near Tarlac. They
failed, but they killed one of the best
quartcrmasIers in the army.
knightiy Deed of "a Boy Hero.
As knightly Il deed as minstrels
have sung was that of Willie Coch-
rane, four years old, who gave his life
a few days ago to savo his baby sister.
His doughty deed of chiyalry was