The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1902-02-13
In THE PHILIPPINES.
An 0skaloosa Soldier Writes of
His Experiences.

4 AAo A0RS&A>ASSSs
The following extracts from pri.
vate letter from an Oskaloosa boy,
Perry Thompson, who is now serving
with the 30th U. s. infantry, will be
interesting to many friends here:
| Calapan, Mindoro, +. l., Dec "a.
Dear Folks: Tomorrow is Christmas
The first have ever spent away from
home and it seems that when distance
did come it came with a vengance
doesn't it?
Pa, I received a letter of yours yes
| terday, dated Oct 29, and four or five
| days ago while / was in the hospital,
received two of yours dated Sept. Is
! and Nov. 10; also one from Nettie, one
| from Cora and one from Lulu; also
some papers telling of the Presidents
death and burial. That was a great
! loss to the American people. Uur flags
! We're all half-masted for about thirty
| days after the news came that he had
passed away.
We have so much else to think of
here, however, that there was but very
little stir.
y
to write and tell you what though of
the country. OF course my opinions
do not go very far, and coming as they
do from a soldier who sees everything
through the haze of his own interests.
| they are likely to be prejudiced. Such
as they are, however, | will let you
| have.
suppose in the general lay of the
but the island of Mindora is the only
one I really know much about Most
parts of the interior of this island are
very mountainous and the valleys are
most of them so filled with rice pad
dies and swamps that marching thru
them Is very hard, dirty work. The
only actual farming the natives do is
raising rice and there is very little
work about that. Bananas and cocoa
| nuts and pineapples raise themselves
of coures and require no cultivation.
Sometimes, especially in Luzon, around
Manila the natives devote themselves
to raising hemp. The mountains are
covered with forests containing bam-
boo, ebony, mahogany and many other
valuable woods. ] understand that in
some parts Of the islands there are
also valuable mineral deposits, such as
coal, iron, gold etc. In some cases at
tempts have been made, before the
American occupation, to develop these
mines but nothing ever came OF it.
This seems to be very poor coun-
try for domestic animals-all the dogs.
hogs, horses, cattle, etc, have seen,.
being very leand and poor The cari-
/ uoos are about the only animals that
seem to thrive, and they are a great
help to the natives.
The country will never be as pleas
ant a place to live in as the United
States, for it is too swampy and the
climate too damp.
The people themselves are most of
them very worthless lot. The best
way to describe their mental def
cheney is to say they haven't ordinary
horse sense. They have not the slight
est knowledge of natural philosophy
and do everything just exactly the way
they should not. There are some of
them, however, who have come in con-
tact with Americans and other fore
igners, who are little above the or
binary run and can be trusted to do
things in some where near the right
way. Their dress is very simple, con1
sisting Of pair of trousers and cdmisd
or shirt and straw hat or white rag
arotind the head. Some of them are
pretty we'll built, but most of them
don't amount to much. The regular
Tagals make very poor soldiers. There
is a company of Filipino scouts here
and they're about the slouchiest look
ing people I've seen for some time
acpanialIu in hopd1fY0 a rifo Given
the command port arms" they come
up one at time at intervals of about
two seconds, making a very ragged
looking movement. 1t seems to me
that it will be many years before the
United States ever gets any good out
of them. 1t might be different if war
was not being carried on, but this Is
far from being the case as yet, as the
late reports of fighting go to show. In
fact our officers are expecting an at
tack this very afternoon and we have
, orders to stay in quarters.
There were 5S recruits that came
over in my gang. Three of these are
already gone-Brantley got disability
discharge and was sent home; poor
Mander died of yellow jaundice, AMI
Peyton is in the hospital with large
part of the bone taken out of his leg
next to the foot as result OF wound
received at Abra de Hog.
When l went away from Calapan
with l. Company, nearly two months
ago, we went to Palnan, around the
| northern extremity of this island. We
were there about a week when we
startd across the island on the hike,
taking a pack train with ten days ra-
tions. After four days hard hiking"
| over mountain trails and swamps we
| captured the American deserter, Rick
| ter, who was a captain among the in
surrectos. | was among the six men
detailed to go out after him. We Caught
him and three gugus in a shack. He
| and two gugus started to run. We
| killed the two natives and then he sur
rendered and lies here at Calapan in
| the guard house now. After we caught
| him we "hiked" on across the island
| to Abra de Hog, where we found about
! 20 of the So recruits belonging in my
gang almost naked; they had drawn no
clothes for months. Two nights before
while they were eating supper and
were about two hundred yards from
their rifles they had been attacked by
one hundred insurrectos with rifles,
and one hundred bolomen. Some OF
the 'niggers" got almost between them
and their guns, but seven of our brave
lads ran for seventy-flve yards direct
ly in front of their fire and got their
rifles and killed twenty-five 'niggers'