The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1902-03-20
Letter From r. o. DOlllson In the
Philippine Islands.
Sibonga, Cebu Island,
Feb l. 1909


Dear Parents AS / have moth
ing to do this evening, / will write
you. / have been working hard
this last week, clearing the line of
brush, and measuring for iron
poles. Have had from 1 to Z
natives working for me at 25c a
day. l will give you little ac-
count of my work. The chief
operator in Cebu, directed me to
clear line of brush and other in
terferances from Sibonga to Argao,
nine miles. l started in the morn
ing with two native police, as es-
cort and one native for work.
Had the line cleared about miles.
when the native cut small tree
which fell on the wire and broke a
pole off close to the ground. /
was in "cold sweat" for a few
minutes, as it was the most i'm
portant wire. One of the police
got two natives, and we had a new
pole up { any old kind of tree
does for pole here) in about 30
minutes. We had to "hike" to
Sibonga for dinner and come back
and fnsten wire to the pole; got
that done and cleared line about
one mile farther, when it began to
rain. We went into native
"shack" (house) and paid a woman
"duck-oes" e cents) to cook us
some roasting-ears. We then hiked
back to Sibonga, had about five
more miles of line to clear. Start
ed next morning with two police
and three natives, and got into
Argao that night. Got supper at
the quarters there, for myself, es-
cort and natives, and stayed there
till morning, when we left for
Sibonga and cleared three miles of
line and was done, and had six
more miles to hike to Sibonga.
About four miles from Sibonga,
had to cross bridge, and about
twenty natives were Changing
rornd" it. When they saw us
they all got on the bridge. Pedro,
one of my police looked at me and
said: "Quidan, este hombres.
lookse all same insuresto; mucha
malbo for trees hom bres combat"
He meant be careful, those men
look like insurrectos; too manv
bad ones for three men to fight.
They did not move till we got
pretty close to them, when Pedro
drew his revolver, and the other
policeman and l aid the same, and
they soon got out of our road
Pedro said he did not know WHY
they all got on the bridge, but it
was good thing they all got off,
for some of them would surely
have been hurt. They don't fight
much in this island now. We got
to Sibonga all O. X. and next day
/ stayed there, but on the next
day line was in trouble north of
here. Z orders to follow il to
Naga, fifteen miles. Got on
native pony, and three miles from
here (went by myself) / found three
poles had blown down and wire on
the ground. Got wire off the
ground, and went back and report
cd. Got orders to go Immediately |
and fix it. Got one police and one
native and hiked out and fixed it
all right. | was then ordered. to
90 from there to Carcar, four
miles farther and como back next
morning. Got to Carcar about 6
p. M, got supper at Presidente's
in Carcar, Ia "Presdente" is mum
icipal officer, with power of
nsyor,) Did not stay at Carcar
all night, but left there at 7:l5 !
and got here (Sibonga) at 8:45 p.
m. Walked all the way with one
policeman and one native. Next
day got orders from Cebu to meas
ure distance from half way point
between Sibonga and Csrcar and
three and one-half miles to Argao,
have about twelve or thirteen miles
TO measure. Put up iron poles,
100 feet apart, that is where my
measuring comes in. Today ] got
six carabon carts, seven natives
and have been laying the poles,
lay about fifty poles day, and
have about one hundred more TO