The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-18
Cincinnati Enauirer.

SoiuIer Lanin-William A. Lanl1n,
and brown. why and slender He was a
lar Digger and heavier man when the regi-
nnd mar marched from home He was stu big
Luzon for the Chinese campaign. He has
been back from the Orient for a year,
him Guess III STAY sk no Down
awhile" says he. Most of the boys who
went on that campaign are the same way
that Is, those who are alive.
Our regiment was full-you might say,
oyerloaded--when we left Tarlac, for q lot
OF young fellows had just been brought on
from home, and we mad a fulIecomplemen:
Of officers and men. From the colonel to
the drummers there were, If remember
right, 1,3S5 of us. e
"out of the original total 2s5 men were dis
causes Fifty different reasons Some, plain
aeseItionngot away and we're never cap
tured, Dozens of poor devils, drunk OF
dazed with opium, strayed away into the
depths of Chinese cities. The fate of most
OF them must have been too horrible for i'm
aginatien, Then there were those who just
got homeSfck, mostly recruits There
were those who were bad lot, anyhow-tha
Kind OF follows who are always leaving their
regiments There was the desertior list.
while the, dshonorable discharge total was
swelled thru onvictions for this, that and
the other crimes, thru drunkenness and opium
smoking.
Then the death list-and how that grew
Gay after day! Mon died by the bullet, and
the knife, and the Ratchet that Is always ii,
the sleeve of the Chinaman waiting around
the corner for the straggler. Men died III
fair fight, and men were piche ed off from am
bush, and men died by torture, captured
whom they vsntured from the lines. And
inside the walls the boys dropped eff like
poisoned sheep. There was every kind CT
disease that You ever heard CT, and lot more
that you never dreamed existed. And all the
time the boys kept going over the wall-just
for lark just for bit of air. just for a
spree-and lots were brought back dead, and
more crawled back to die 1~ .....' ...r
~ f6o
home in the end. Or course, some arc still
out there fighting Fiipinos; some are try
Ing various lines of business In Manila. and
some. hopeless wrecks, hang around thu
opium dens and the black holes of the east
nome, friends everything they ever were OF
ever had, forgotten.
POISOND WELLS.
well, you've read the story Of the march.
DID you ever read, tho, how the officers stood
guard at the wells along the dusty, baking,
ones and captains stood there with reyolvers
drawn and how they used them too? How
they shot down men mad with thirst. who
and who rushed upon the officers to drive
them from the water? Poisoned. those Chin
csc wells wcre-poisoned--every one of them
but you couldn't make those frantic soldiers
understand 1t. They were parching with
thirst they were burning up with red fire
in every throat, and it was that the re-
volvers cracked and the swords swung, and
the boys died there around the poisoned wells
There were bits of comedy, too, to re-
Heve the horror, but the horrors were SO
vile shows to light up the background. One
aight, by the sea, We camped on the pref
test piece Of dry and level sand you ever
snemy hs bssn big and and bright the
down on that sand as happy bugs in rugs.
Then the little dog tents were up and the
coffee steaming, and pretty soon everybody
was asleep. :
Attacked by Land Crabs
And then-oh, pandemonium wasn't q
screams and yells and oaths the dog tents
were uprooted everywhere and men were
had shot out their Inhabitants. Dozens OF
the boys, whoooping and yelping rushed into
the water and waded up to their necks.
Here and there an officer. as badly ratified
as the rest, danced up and down, bowling
Take him of, take him of! Orderly, guard,
take him Off @.- .,' :
devils, about. billion creatures more
horrible than any Of the dragons the
Chinese carried on their banners-land crabs,
gigantic land crabs, bodies big as kegs, legs
long as fshpoles, claws twice as big as any
Holsters. They had come out of their holes
in the sand, and every soldier had from one
ant had eleven. The camp didn't quiet down
Till dawn:
we'll on the march. You've read what the
Russians did along the route, but nothing
you ever read could depict the truth as Il
occurred. When the Russians struck vii
1age they erased 1t from the earth and every
body In it. They exterminated men and wo-
men, children, dogs and cattle; they burned
the village to the sod and then moved on.
I'VE had orders during the first few weeks
to search all Cinnamon coming thru the
gates, and, If they objected. to shoot them
AS rule, to expedite matters and save con.
fusion, we shot them first and went thru then
afterwards. Great numbers of them came In
thru the gates. seeking trade, or, perhaps
trying to look up their homes and families
the insolence of them! You couldn't hear
much but the POPPING Of KraEa for Awhile