The National tribune., 1902-10-30

The remainder, IL not ioSt, WAS oh l'i'
Ouartermaster's OK carts. But one wa:
needed as a cover at night, because OF thu
practice of quartering the troops i'll thu
abandoned houses. Villages were within
a few miles of each other, and it was sci
dom we did not remain over night at one
of these.
A shelter tent is composed of two strips
of canvas, officially known as 'shelte'
halves" Each man took one OF these
halves and his share of the poles anf
wooden pins. The tent was pitched by
sticking two jointed poles in the ground
buttoning the two shelter halves together
and pinning them down stretched over the
poles 1t is done in few minutes. This
makes a shelter large enough for two men
to crawl under and keep out of the rain.
These are also known in the army as dog
tents" and more irreverently as pup
tents" They are of little use in the Philip,
pines, for in the day time they are a burn,
ing, fiery furnace in the hot sun, and at
night they are not needed for shelter un-
less its rains, and then the men are likely
to be drowned out of them. l remember
one night at Moronoco this happened.
We had pitched camp, two regiments,
on the edge of the struggling town, and
the officers had taken lodgings in the aban.
doned shacks. About midnight tropical
rain began to fall. 1t more than fell. 1t
tumbled. In 10 minutes the water, con.
fined by the rice ridges, rose several
inches. and the men were literally driven
the town, each man taking with him his
gun and belt, for this is something they
never parted with, and sought shelter IN
the houses also. In the morning the COM
manding officer Quartered the entire COM
mand in the huts, and thereafter we never
put the men on the ground unless COM
PEELED to do so. Then all they wanted was
some little cover to protect them from the
chill of the night that always comes ON
COMPANY MAsCOTs.
When my company started from home
II took with it two mascots. One was a
bull dog and the other bull terrier. Both
were white. The bull dog was named
Mike, and belonged to the men from Port
land, while Tip was brought by the COM
pany from The Dalles, my company hay-
ing been made up by consolidating two
National Guard companies. Mike and lip
went through the entire campaign with
us and came home, each receiving an ofti-
ciaI discharge duly signed by the Colonel.
Mike enjoys the distinction of being
wounded, coming home one morning from
nocturnal rambles with several bad knife
cuts on his body. But it was Tip who
became the genuine campaigner. He went
with us into the field, but Mike did not.
He followed the beys into battle, and
barked at the noise and snapped at the
bullets that went whistling by his ears,
and generally seemed to have good time.
He learned that Filipinos We're .'much
malo," and was inclined to show his teeth
to them when they came near him.
With another company went huge
mastiff named ''Bummer," but like Mike
he never was under fire and was, in fact,
more of hummer than soldier. Other
mascots were picked up while in barracks,
such as goats, monkeys, parrots and other
birds, but the only campaigner of the en-
tire lot was brave little Tip, unless NEIL
ton be made of a nanny-goat my cook car
ried along, tied by string to a slow-gOing
OK cart, for the milk the beast supplied
him for his coffee.
Tip was coveted by all, and was sew
eral times stolen. but we always managed
to get him back again. The last time the
Colorado boys got hold of him just a few
days before our regiment sailed for home,
but somebody saw him at their camp and
q committee went out for him. When
they returned just in time to go on board
the transport there was rejoicing among
the Oregons.
POSTAL SERVICE IN THE FIELD.
Mail is something dear to the soldiers
heart, and the further off he is into the
wilderness the wilder is his Joy when the
bull cart works its toilsome way into camp
with its load of mail sacks. During the
first year the Government transports were
erratic and uncertain in their arrival, and
often a whole month would pass without
enc of them coming into port. She then
had on board mail from one to two months
old. Letters were III answer to those
written three to four months before, and
newspapers were almost ancient history.
This was why exaggerated and absurd
stories went so long uncontradicted that
they became settled belief and contradic-
ton was hopelesss. Some soldier would
write home an absurd story or repeat some
irresponsible camp gossip, such, for in
stance, as the story that verbal orders had
been given to take no prisoners, and the
old grannies at home would get hold of it
in the papers, believe it, stew over it, write
vehement denunciations of it to the press,
bring it up on the floor of Congress, and
fill long columns of editorial space with
it. Three months later We would hear of
1t iE Manila and a month or SO later our
denial or explanation would reach the
United States. By that time opinion had
become crystalized and fixed, and no
amount of denial or evidence would serve
to undo the mischief.
The further, we moved to the front the
worse it got as to the receipt of mail OF
the opportunity to send letters home. The
Quartermaster's Department purposely
concealed the sailing days of transports un
til the last minute, and many a soldier was
thus ctIt off from sending lafferS homo ha
cause he did not know of the opportunity
In time. The only way to do was to write
whenever opportunity came, and permit
letters to accumulate for the transport
Out in the field word would be suddenly
sent round that wagon or ambulance OF
something was going to start for the near
est railroad station in half an hour, ant
then the men would plump down wher
ever they could and grab anything in tn,
shape of paper and pencil and write |:
hasty letter. Sometimes they used the sid,
Of paper cartridge box. Often they wer,
without envelopes and most continuously
without stamps. Sometimes this lack o
envelopes was supplied by weaving on,
out of strips of banana leaf, the same Il.
the patata is woven, or from the innel
bark of bamboo, such as is used fo
baskets. Such envelopes are much prize,
curios in many soldiers home.
As for postage, the Department hat
made ruling permitting such letters t,
be carried and postage collected of th
receiver. All that was necessary was fo
some officer to write on the envelope "Sol
dier's Letter" and sign his official title. A
first it was held that this must be til
writer's own commanding officers. Late
any officers name was accepted, and still
later even this formality, absurd and in
convenient, was dispensed with. The usua
fn. mt hry ft<, In, EoI