The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1900-05-24

Writes Home TO His Parents From The
Philippine Islands.

''sFP'fc .'''''-''
indian Philippine Island, March
13, 1900. Dear parents and brother
Arthur:-Once more will pen you
few lines to let you know / am still
among the living. l am we'll and
having good time. How Is old
Logan; is 1t as dull as when / left
there or is there plenty of work there
now. Well just come off guard
and IL is raining. These islands are
very rough and mountainous and
hard to g,t over. The company has
gone on a scouting expedition and
will not be back for SIX days. When
we go on march we march one hour
again. 1t is an awful rough country
here to get over. There are deep
gulleys to cross SO steep that we have
TO pull ourselves up by roots and
vines. There are great many of
those places. We left Manila Jan.
3rd and come on the line where we
are now. We got In several sklr-
mishes and one 4S hour battle. TT ere
were 1900 insurgents and $50 Ameri-
cans. They had there trenches
across a swift river so we could not
get to them and we went to work to
build bridge while they were fire.
ing at us. The bullets buzzed around
our heads like bees but we did not
mind them much after little. You
bet we kept plugging away at them
black rascals all the time. We could
see one drop every little bit but that
quick another black imp would be
up in his place; we kept this up un-
| til gunboat arrived and fired few
shots into the trenches and routed
| them out, then we went at them on
double quick charge, you bet they
few then and us after them yelling
and shooting. We killed about Is of
| the coons that we encountered after
the fight was over and don't know
| how many more for they carry them
away as fast as hey can. I think
there is about ten niggers for every
| gun, for as fast as one would drop
another would grab the gun and take
his place. Well, now L will tell you
a little about our trip after we left
Manila. We left MeLila January
3rd from there we went to Santafedro
about ten miles from Manila; stayed
there about three days. Then we
| fo n nIonn oalIad Dncp, q N
small place. We stayed there one
day and then on to the next town
called Bali of about two thousand
population we drove the niggers out
and into the mountains, We lay
there three days for rest then we
went through the mountains to Bian
about two O'Clock and marched un-
til ten a. m. when we come to place
called Sealong of about two thousand
Inhabitants; it is very Lice place
with several large stores. When we
went in we were fired on by squad
of coons in an old church at about
800 yards off but it SO on ceased when
we began to fire into the church the
niggers ran and us after them, but
they knew the place and we did not
so they got away. We killed five of
them and had one of our boys
wounded. We stayed there three
days and then NOV d on to Indian.
We lay there three days and then
went on up into the mountains. We
marched five days ana landed in
Samara where we found what we
were looking for. There were 1900
| nj in tb a nj oa q rn, aH NJ | 4 n rn I, ,o
and corn cutters. We fought them
for four long hours until dark came
on. There was a river between us
and the niggers, so deep we could not
cross it to them. We rested and
slept in some old store houses that
night and the next morning re-en-
forcements arrived when we crossed
the river on temporary bridge
after them In EARNEST. We captured
three canons, they loaded them with
scrap iron such as bicycle chains,
pieces of shell, and many other
things too numerous to mention.
One of the boys said as We heard
piece of iron hum through the air,
it sounds like Frencn-harp playing
home sweet home. Well we had
lucky. We only lost killed and
eight wounded. 1 get $3.50 per
month and get paid every two
months. The fruit here is cocoanut
and banana. We had watermelons
here in march while you were hover
ing around the fire. Twill be back
home in little more than a year.
1 was mustered into service Septem-
ber s, 1899 and will be mustered out
June 30 1900. Oh my am getting
tire dof hash three times q day. 1
will let you know when am coming
80 you can have me good dinner.
wish you would send me Logan
paper and Cincinnati paper, please
don't forget 1t, / get hungry for news
from Logan. will close for 1 am
getting tired. From your son,
WILLIAM HI. TIMBERLAKE.