The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-10

tack which I had managed to steal l We were in a mountain road or trai
 when I made the dash. Of course you
 know that the forest growth there is densely thick, so thick it is difficult tc
 make our way through it. It was into
 this thick undergrowth that l plunged
 and l got so good start before they
 could get their guns in their hands that l was out of sight before they gave up | the chase. Then, nominally, l was. I knew the general direction of places by the course of the mountain streams and tramped on all that day, the ensu- ing night, and part of the next day. | But the country all about there was sWarming with Filipinos and l was pretty sure to get caught and in fact was caught by band belonging to the same command that had held me pris- oner Altogether I was free only about thirty hours.
 Naturally I was not looking for a
 very agreeable reception at the camp and the actual fact was almost absurd in comparison with what might nat
 urally have been expected after the
 dire threats of what would happen if
 ever attempted to get away. The officer
 in command merely looked up when
 was brought in and said calmly in
 Spanish: Now, Alstaetter, why did
 you do it?'
 That was all I ever heard about it
 except that they told me they were not
 uneasy, after I ran away, as they
 knew I never would get out of the
 mountains.
 "The officers talked freely of their chances of success in driving the Amer
 jeans out. They pinned all their hope
 on the election of Bryan, They had
 a translation of an editorial in New
 York paper which gave them encour- agement and they passed it from hand to hand with much enthusiasm.
 They also had a translation of one of Senator Hoar's speeches which gave them much comfort and encourage ment. I suppose both were sent out to them from the Hong Kong Junta. They were very sure MT. Bryan would be elected and were waiting eagerly for election. One of them said to me just before election: In eight days more it will be all right. Mir. Bryan will be elected in eight days They were con vinced beyond question that when MT. Bryan became president the American army would be withdrawn at once, and naturally this made them fight on in what otherwise might have seemed hopeless cause to them.
 Naturally, men would be very fool ish to give irt when they were certain that by holding out a few months or weeks they were sure to carry their point. The only doubt that haunted their minds was about President Me Kinley. They were positive that Mr. Bryan would be elected, but they had fears that President Mckinley, whom ! they regarded as very bold and bad man, would ever Jet him mount the throne, as they termed it,
 q was released on the 20th of No- 1 vember, having been captured on the | first day of August. At the time I left | them they had not yet heard the result | of the election and were in a state of | great anxiety and anticipation on the subject. And yet I believe they would | 1t once have become suspicious of MT. Bryan had he been elected It is their | nature to suspect everything and ev- erybody. a
 T have not very much faith in the Filiplnos ever amounting to much. The trouble with them Is their inconceiva- | ole laziness. They simply will not work if they can help 1t. We paid la oorers four times as much as the Span sh paid them and yet we had to go ut and corral them in to work. Then some of them would leave after one day | md others after one pay day. They were utterly indifferent to money gain d by work-said they had plenty of 1t when they hadn't g cent in the world. The country out there is safer now to ravel in than ever 1t was during all he time of the Spanish occupation. Of curse there are plenty of robbers ladrones) still. A person travelling llone is likely to be held up by them. Is rule, though, they let Americans lone, because they are afraid of them t is the Filipinos themselves whom hey attack and rob. We frequently ad our laborers robbed after pay day." New York Sun