Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-07-30
LIFE AND SOLDERING IN THE Philippines
Vernon County Young Man Tells His Experiences
Natives Dying eti Fas, with Cholera.
Under date of June i8th. fror

Under date of June 18th. from Baco
lod Negros Island, Laurence Marsh
writes hls father in this city. of his trip
ta the Philippines and his observations
after month there. The Young man
80 member of Company J.. 29ih In
ia try. He enlisted in the regular
army and left here about a year since.
He hiss since heAn stationed at different
points of the United States The CEN,
S0ll Is permitted 10 glean from Mareh's
lrt' b" fatlnwius facts Of interest.
Il am feali',g tin ton erd tiis the
Islands first rate, although it gets p city
rOt here sometimes Tine rainY season
h.a i1st commenced and it rains NEARLY
all the time You ought to see It rain
once. 1t is much more than in the States,
Ii just pours down in streams,
We left San Francisco the first of
April and arrived here the tentn Of May.
We had - nice trip all tha way across
We stopped at Honolulu four days and
lett there on the 18th of May. The next
stop was at Wake Island where we
helte5 10 take off some ehipwrecked
sailors, and we arrived in Guam two
DAYS later, and we only stopped few
hours and made Manila six DAYS later.
but we did not land on account of
cholera. but were sent sixty miles south
Part of our regiment is on Cebu, part
on Paney aud Company M and my com
pany are on this island and we are
strung along the island for about ten
miles. We ara having good times
plenty TO eat and plenty to wear and no
drill at all, and we have had only one
little skirmish since we landed and that
did not amount to much rs nobody got
hurt except few Niggers We were
out on hike short time ago and up
in the mountains we ran across q small
hand of holomen in bamboo hut. We
mada a charge and they ran in all di
rections. | did not get chance to shoot
but a few shots were made before they
were out Of sight and we got five of
them. We got back to our quarters all
sata and sound. Time passes by very
fast over here It doesn't seem to me as
if hsd been here week We are get
ting bigger paw now. | draw $3f 90
every two months and | deposit S25,
and win have some money when | get
out. l only weigh 1871 pounds now, but
feel rs eood or better than | ever did
You ought 20 be here and eat some of
the fruit. II is pretty good but | am
going to leave it alone until | get used
TO the climate. Every thing is cheap
here. You can get cocoanuts as big as
your head for two cents and bananas
are cents for q whole stock. | got so
cigarettes for a nickel and you can get
good cigars for cent better than you
get at home for ten cents
Tell the Pennell boys they were right
when they said that 'bino' would kill
any man no matter what he was made
of Two boys out of our company ha, g
gone crazy from drinking II. | have
not tasted it nor will /. Ask the PEN
nell boys if they ever had the DOLBY itch.
IL is worse than poison. did nothing
but scratch for six days, but am all
right now. The cholera has just broken
ont here among the natives and they
are dying off like sheep. IL is among
the lower cli sses The natives have
cock fights every Sunday They go to
church, in the morning and get on their
knees and pray and are as religious as
the devil. but in the afternoon they go
to the cock fights and get drunk and
fight and raise h In general. After
every funeral they are sure to have cock
fights