The National tribune., 1902-01-09
CONTINUED from last week.)

cieS, in the 81 men ne Hau unuer Ills
command, be found a competent engineer,
an experienced fireman, a tirst-class engine
driver and several men who had belonged
to local volunteer fire companies and un-
derstood how to handle fire hose. With
these he reached the engine house and dis
covered that the Filipino crew had all gone
to sleep, fatjgued with their eXertions ear
lier in the evening. When he wanted TO
know why they did not turn out to the hre
he was assured that they were very tired;
that the horses could not possibly draw
the engine after so much eXertion as they
had already had, and that if the fire
burned till morning they would come
again and see what they could do. This
settled it. He did not waste any more
time on that outfit. Having his men
hitch up the team with lightning speed
he put one of them on the box, and that
engine went to the fire with the too
tired horses on the keen jump, the driver
yelling at them and hitting them lick
with the whip at every jump.
The new engineer took the antiquated
machine in charge, one that he had never
sen before and with no light save that
from the burning buildings studied its
construction while steam was being gotten
up in the boilers, and had her ready for
business as soon as there was steam
enough TO throw stream. Meanwhile
the Filipino hose cart had been brought
TO the fire by its crew, stimulated by bay
onets, but they could not be induced to
go within two blocks of the blaze. From
this cart j secured two lengths of hose,
one without nozzle, and manned them
with half a dozen men each. We then
attacked the fire from my side of il, and
it never again crossed a street. The only
force We had on our streams came from
the gravity force in the water system, and
it would throw q stream only about 10
feet, or Just above the floor on the second
story. Nevertheless, we made up for this
by getting close TO the fire. ! remember
one tight place, in which the boys were
so close to the fire that a pipe-man could
remain only minute at time. One at
q time they took their turn and then
dropped back TO be SouSed with 4 bucket
of water to cool them off and keep them
from bursting into a blaze. But they
stuck to it, and it was the work done at
this particular spot which checked the
flames on this side, while the engine was
doing like work on the south, aided by
other lines of short hose from the hy
drants.
GEN. KINGS CANARIEs.
While we we're making this desperate
stand, Gen. Charles King came along and
complimented the boys highly on their
gallant work. He was not on duty, and
W lHSit Sllul)Is a sptNIntOl'
this time l was informed by one of my
men that cage of fine canary birds was
about to be burned in q house which had
caught fire in the roof. | went in and
climbed upon pyramid of boxes until /
could catch hold of the heated railing of
the inner court and drew myself up far
enough to loosen the cage and pass it
down TO the soldier who had assisted me.
He took it out into the street, and by the
time | had climbed down again and got
n breath of cool air, l saw that Gen.
King had secured possession of the birds
and was walking away with them. OF
course, / said nothing, but a year later,
when | had come home and been nus
tered out, l wrote him a letter asking
what became of them and related the
method of their rescue from incineration
He replied that he took them to his head
quarters at San Pedro Macati. but that
they lived only a few days. He had no
idea, he said how they came into the
possession of the soldier from whom he
received them.
1t was o'clock in the morning. after
five hours of such struggles as this, be-
fore the fire was under complete control
and its further spread prevented, after it
had burned over district of at least
mile square of native huts, interspersed
with good wooden buildings. and had de-
strOyed half hundred blocks of solid
wooden and stone buildings. Nearly all
this property was owned by the Filipinos
themselves, and nothing whatever was ac-
complished for the insurgent cause by its
destruction. On the contrary, the cause
was injured, because the income from
the property had been largely used in the
past 10 support the insurrection, while the
loss thus caused was the means of max
ing many strong opponents Of the insur-
rection among the property owners of
Manila.
Distinguishing the fire, however, was
not the most exciting experience of the
night. Suppressing the insurgents who
were using it as a cover for an uprising
was the most serious undertaking, and be-
fore it was completed several Americans
had been injured and several hundred Fill
ipinos either killed or wounded. The in
surrectOs who made the attack upon the
TcHdO garrison were driven to the north
ern portion of the burned district and
never got into the heart of the city to help
the local Katipunans slaughter the Amer
leans, as was planned, while the expected
panic among the Americans did not occur,
nor were the lines around the city weak
ened by the sending of troops into Ma
Mia, as was counted upon. Therefore
the cOnspirators within the city were left
TO rely upon themselves, and most of them
were afraid to attempt anything Yet
Mausers from the windows of buildings
some distance from the scene of the fire.
and others got upon roofs for the same
purpose. From these vantage points they
fired at the American street patrols and
the soldiers at work extingushing the fire
The crack of their rifles could not be
distinguished from the swapping of the
bursting bamboo while their use of
smokeless powder helped to prevent their
discovery. Such a sharpshOoter, standing
back in the dark interior Of building
might fire out of the window unobseryed,
or by hiding behind the wall of q fiat roof
of which, fortunately, there were not
many, might amuse himself for a long
time undiscovered. The men working like
beavers at the fire occasionally heard the
hiss Of a Mauser bullet and its thud as
il buried itself in the side of house or
the clatter II made as it drove its way
through the light bamboo of some nipa
hut; but they worked on, regardless of
such annoyances, leaving 10 the street pa
troll the task of discovering and dealing
with the concealed sharpshooters
To this task the patrol gave its atten-
ton to such purpose that score or more
of the shooters were disposed of before
they abandoned the dangerous business.
The most difficulty was experienced with
men on the tops Of houses At last the
Captain of one of the Oregon companies
doing duty in the Binond0 district took
one of his sharpshoOters to the top of
the great Binondo church and supplied
him with field glass. From that van
tage point, far above the surrounding
buildings, the sharpshooter swept the vi
cinity of the burning district with his
glass, and whenever he saw a native on