The National tribune., 1902-09-11

soon the E1llplnOS would Degln war upon
US, provided some untoward event did
not precipitate it untimey. To be sure.
Gen. Otis continued to send reassuring dis
patches to Washington, to the effect that
he "had the situation well in hand" and
that he thought there would be no fight
ing; but we who saw what was going on
and came in more direct contact with the
natives than he, knew better. We knew
the war was coming, and was not far OFT
Otis did have the situation in hand,
so far as disposition of his forces to meet
attack was concerned, but not otherwise.
Every regiment and detachment had its
assigned place for action in the event OF
an attack or an uprising, and we knew 1t
was impossible for the Filipinos to ac-
complish anything. Nevertheless there
was great uneasness and apprehension in
the city, especially on the part of the civil
lians and foreign residents, and more par
ticularly the Spaniards, who had reason
to fear Filipino hostility. A sort of
panicky feeling prevailed among the popu-
lace, and this was several times mani
Tested i'll false alarms.
Information was constantly being
brought to headquarters that certain
nights had been fixed upon for an upris-
ang, and we of the provost guard were
routed out at all hours of the night to
take up our positions here and there to be
in readiness. Rumors and sure tips were
the order of the day, and all felt that they
were on the verge of an explosion.
THE FIRST GENERAL ALARM.
The first alarm of consequence came on
Jan. II, if my memory is right. A street
patrol over in the Guiapo District, just
beyond the Escolta, shot dog he thought
was mad. and some timid and eXcitable
individual at once raised the cry Los In
surrectOs, Los InsurrectOs" 1t was taken
up and spread like wildfre. Merchants
hastily locked their doors and barricaded
them, persons on the streets rushed TO get
under shelter, and pandemonium reigned;
to which the American soldiers contrib
uted their full share, not in the way of
panic, but in their efforts to get back to
quarters and report for duty with their
commands. 1t was about the middle of
the afternoon, and the cafes and saloons,
and especially the large Alhambra resort,
were full of soldiers off duty. AS soon
as the alarm was given these men poured
into the street and rushed for their quar-
tiers. They took possession of street cars
and whipped the little ponies drawing
them to run; they knocked drivers from
the seats of all kinds of conveyances if
they hesitated to take them as passengers,
and drove the vehicles themselves. In one
way Or another they got to quarters, and
In an incredibly short space of time every
regiment was at its assigned place and
the cityswas completely covered with
troops, while the approaches were all
heavily defended.
When the soldiers began their wild
scramble the Spaniards and natives sup
posed them to be in panic of fear, but
when they saw the regiments appear and
realized that the haste of the Americans
was to get where they could fight, and not
to places of safety, they changed their
hastily-formed opinion. In my Judgment
this demonstration of the spirit and readi-
ness Of the Americans did more to prevent
the actual uprising which was planned to
occur little later than any other one
thing. The Filipinos as individuals
realized that an uprising would be dan
,gerous business for the uprisers, and
though they continued to plot and actually
attempted the uprising, the individuals
who were to participate were afraid to do
90, and the whole thing was abortive. As
individuals they had not the nerve to carry
out the plans they made as an organiZa-
Zion.
TRAIIoRous FILIPINO SERVANTS.
incidentally this scare deprived us of
The last of our Filipino servants. We un-
derstood some time before that orders had
been given by the Katipunan for Filipincs
not to work for the Americans, and one
ny Ohc tucs uloppcu Ou uull dt IulS
time but few remained. Two of our
Majors kept a carriage in common and
had a cochero they boasted would stay
with them, but when they returned to
quarters after this alarm the cochero was
gone and was seen no more. / was equal
Jy sure of Juan, my dark-colored much
acho, whom had procured at Cavite, and
who had been with me SO long that he
talked English as well as l did Spanish
u rocaUDiza that fbic SC f;n,ap
ommendation for a professorship, yet he
had made good progress and seemed to
be proud of it. He was even known at
times tc speak disrespectfully Of the in
surrectos, and to declare that Aguinaldo
was much malo."
When we returned to quarters that day
Juan was discovered crouching between
the stair railing and the inner wall in
abject terror. Apparently the only reason
why he had not fed was because the door
had been closed and a sentry stood in front
Of it. We jollied him a little about the
lnsurrectos nearly getting him, and
thought no more of it. That night he dis
appeared without coming to collect his
salary for the past two weeks, and never
saw him again.
Helping in our company Kitchen we had
two Filipinos. One of them vanished, but
the other remained and did not leave un-
Ill few days before the actual begin
ming of hostilities. On the day of the
fight around the town he was found dead
In the insurgent trenches We knew then
that he had been dividing his time between
cooking for US in the daytime and point
Ing gun at us from the trenches at
night.
There were a number of these alarms,
besides which we were called out quietly
At frequent intervals. So often did one of
our battalions spend a portion Of the night
on the stone walks of Victoria street that
they began to refer to them as the "Vic-
toria trenches" One Captain took his
company so often to the Suspension Bridge
90 spend the night, that he claimed to be
able to classify every one Of the multitude
OF smells emitted by the Pasig River.
WATCHING THE FRIARs.
One feature of the alarms and this
period of uncertainty was The narrow es-
cape We had from shooting some of the
Eriars of the Recoletos Order, who occu-
pied a church and extensive convent build
Ing right in the southeast angle of the
wall, its upper windows overlooking
mosquito HILL" where we always main
tanned a strong detached post because of
magazines and guns there. That informa-
ton of all kinds was being supplied the
insurgents outside the wall was certain,
ard we had information that the Recoletos
Friars were specially friendly to the Fill
pinos, or especially hostile to the Ameri-
cans, which would be better way to ex-
press their state of mind. Suspicion also
attached to the San Franciscans, and re-