The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-02-11
rnE nFsour or o1LMoRE.

Before left exas my father SEEM
ed to have his mind set on the rescue
of Gilmore and his party" said Colonel
Luther r. Hare at Kansas City recent
ly. Let all other things go, If pos
sible,' he would say, and ct poor G
Gilmore out of the Filipino hands.
DR.. iAeberman of Kansas City, was my
chief surgeon, aud b-tw zen the two
OF us we got 300 men, physically fit
% go anywhere Fate and my father
seemed to be work ng tog ether, for
soon after reaching Luzon General
Wheaton ordered me north to Join
General Young's command, and Young
at once sent me out aft Gilmore. We
were about in the center of Northern
Luzon--at Bingnat, In Arara province
when we made the start with 1856
men and some natives. We passed
through the district producing the fin
est tobacco in all Luzon, and breech-
clout people grew 1t. Once we came to
a doubtful place in the trail, and a
piece OF blue flannel shirt set us right.
But the best guides we had were chalk
marks on the cliffs, These generally
took the form of Drink Blanks Beer
and we knew Americans had written
it, but we wondered why they should
choose to mark the trails with sugges
tons of that nature. We had been out
eleven days, l think, when we ran onto
a party of fifteen insu gents escorting
three Americans. We attacked, kill
ing Ave Filipinos, and the Others fed,
leaving the prisoners. They were from
Gilmore's party, had escaped and been
recaptured. Gilmore. they said, was
about two days ahead. Early the sec
ond day later we came upon the naval
officer and his party. Their captors
had heard of our coming and fed.
Gilmore begged them not to leave him
without food or arms, and his men
had had little except pony meat for
two days before we reached them.
Gilmore had been a prisoner nearly
eight months when we found him and
he seemed dazed. In fact, none of the
men were very demonstratiwe. True
Americans, they had never ceased to
hope, and the relief came rather as a
matter of course Gllmore's authority
had always been recognized by his
men, and he had made civilian nam
ed Langford his executive officer. And
here the beer advertisements on the
trail were explained. Langford was
agent for an American brewery and
was captured while in some out-of-the-
way place drumming trade. On the
march into the mountains he took
some chalk from a school house and
with this wrote Drink Blanks Beer
along the trail. The Filipino officer in
charge caught him at 1t, and of course
demonstrated.
"'Oh, I'm only advertising my beer
Langford told him, and the insurgent
thought It was a good joke. One OF
Gilmore's men, young fellow from
San Francisco, had a little monkey
which he carried on a the trip, and
they made good use OF HIM In many
cases the fruits and berries in the Lu-
xon mountains are poisonous. These
hungry men would lead the monkey to
the fruit. and If he ate they would eat,
otherwise the most tempting growth
would go untouched, aud the little
monkey never abused the trust placed
In him. We had no rations and decid-
ed 1t would be nearer to float down
the river to the northern coast than
10 try to go back. Rats took us out
near Apawi. where we found the
Princeton, in less than two weeks.
Rice was practically the only food
we could find. On the entire trip
lost only one man. He died of small
pox, and we brought his body back on
"a raft. None Of the other men were
infected"