The National tribune., 1902-10-23

ruStllng every moment he cOulu get AWAY
from camp or duty. He always had some
plausible excuse for wanting to go some
where. Among his other acquisitions was
q whole Filipino family, consisting OF
somewhat comely mother and several pick
anihlies He was not an educated man,
but was born linguist, and III a lttle
while could talk botL Spanish and Iaga-
log. Frank was his name, but to the ad-
mirinr natives he was La Grande Fran
cisco, the adjective being bestowed be-
cause of his six feet three of hight. AS
soldier he was utterly worthless. As a
seeker for the good things of life he was
q brilliant success. AS devlser OF eX-
cuses and reasons for doing things he was
q perfect Tallyrand.
l never allowed any struggling on the
march. When a man wanted to fall out
for any purpose he had to ask PERMISSION.
Some companies were managed differently.
] have arrived at tire end of a march with
every man of my company in the column,
while others were short a third OF theirs.
In such companies the foragers had good
time.
=. l remember one tireless man of another
company who was able to visit every
house and shack within quarter OF a
mile of the line of march on either side
and still keep up with the column and be
on hand for supper. 1t was he who al
rice, sugar or corn, a carabao or pony
to be found when needed. What else he
found that he did not report l do not
know, but not much of value, L think, Tor
the simple reason that it did not exist to
be found.
DESERTED FILIPINO VILLAGES.
This matter of looting is another thing
that gave our anti-expanionlstS spasms.
liffla InntinU fhp fill
sense of the word, but it is hopeless to try
to restrain entirely the predatory instinct.
1t is especially hopeless to attempt to
eradicate it from the Anglo-Saxon blood,
descended as we are from centuries of
predatory ancestors. Yet there was not
much looting from the FiEoinOs. 1t may
have been that there would have been
more had there been more of value ex-
posed to confscation.
The inhabitants fled to a man before
our advance. Poor, ignorant beings, they
had been made to believe that the Ameri-
cans were ruthless barbarians, giants in
stature, heather in religion, and cruel and
bloodthirsty. Upon this basis of misrep-
resentation, steadily maintained by Agui-
naldc's official paper, much of the univer-
sal adherence of the inhabitants to the
fortunes of the insurrection was secured.
They feared to do otherwise, both because
Of what the Katipunans would do to them
II they favored the Americans and bee
cause of their fear of the Americans them
selves, whom they believed killed the men
and violated the women who fell into their
hands. Therefore, as the army advanced
the entire population fled before it, leav
ing towns without a single inhabitant for
us to march into. 1t was natural for our
soldiers to go into the houses and natural
for them to take things if they saw them
abandoned.
In the great mass of Filipino huts there
was absolutely nothing except bare floors
and walls. Clothing and the little store
of food had been carried away by the fee
ing people, and there was nothing else.
Here and there a crude print of a saint
hung on the wall in bamboo frame, also
q cheap rosary and crucifix. A few kitchen
utensils and earthen crooks, bamboo stools,
an old bolo, a basket or two for chickens
and eggs, bamboo utensils of various
kinds, patatas were sometimes found, and
occasionally quantity Of rice.
In the better houses more was neces-
earily left In them was furniture, also
extra clothing, more food, occasionally
books, crockery, and, joyful for the find
ers, bin of ripening mangoes. This fruit
is picked green and packed in palai, or
unhulled rice, much as we pack eggs in
oats. Here they are allowed to ripen in
the comparative cool of the basement and
IN the dark. When we ran across a few
hundred of these packed away carefully
then there was looting in fact.
There is something in human nature that
makes man under such circumstances
1nstinctiyely destructive, just as boys
break the windows of unoccupied dwell
lngs. A soldier who picks up a piece of
crockery is more apt to let it fall on the
6oor than to lay it on table.
All this is the commonest experience of
= nv opr No oh,
was property taken away from the custody
of any owner. 1t was the custom to de-
tail provost guard upon entering any
town of importance enough to contain
good houses, and soldiers were prohibited
from entering all houses save those in
which they were quartered. Before the
necessity for this was recognized, however,
the soldiers used to go through these good
houses and paw over everything in search
Of money. The clearest sweep of this
kind l ever saw was made by the Goth
Regulars at the city of Pasig
visited the city the day after its cap
ture by that regiment, and there was not
q house that had not been searched and
everything pulled out of the drawers upon
the floor. / saw elegant silk and velvet
dresses piled in heaps with pina-cIoth
garments. 1t was rumored in our regi-
ment that several soldiers of the Doth
had found considerable sums of money.
but it was only rumor.
week later two companies of our own
regiment occupied the burned and aban-
doned city of Malabon, but / never heard
OF anything being found that was worth
taking. As for myself, 1 picked up here
and there little articles of native manu-
facture and use, but of no intrinsic yaIne.
and brought them home as curios. This
was the extent of my own footing and of
that of most whom / know.
LcoTING OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.
The real looting was done when Manila
was captured. When our army entered
the city there was not a single case re-
ported of one of our men abusing an in
habitant in any way or taking ANYTHING
whatever. Later there were few cases
OF petty thieving- such as we have i'm our
own country. Some soldiers steal from
their comrades, and these same men. of
course, would not hesitate to steal from
others as well. 1t was official and can.
tured property that suffered. few in
stances will serve. The Spaniards had ac-
cumulated military museum, containing
arms of all kinds, such as had been used
by them in past times and such as the
natives used. 1t was not long before this
museum was a barren hail. with every
thing portable removed from it. Among
other things there was a beautiful royal
standard, made of heavy crimson and vel
low silk and having the coat of arms of
Spain richly embroidered upon it. know
nft y1<,v Al.