The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-15

ing and the strange noisees were not a bit conducive to sleep, but had an easy conscience, a sore nose and leg, a hungry stomach, and was good and tired, and was soon fast asleep At. daylight we all climbed to the top of the crater, and then down into it, Where we witnessed one of the grandest sights in nature. It is folly to try and de- scribe a volcano, especially when it is active. This one was just boiling some and splitting out steam and sulphur fumes and some mud and making lor of noise, and the sun was beating down on us at the rate of 105 in the shade and about two hundred on top of the crater, and hope may never be bad and get in the hands of the devil if his home is any worse. have never seen a volca- no in full blast and can't imagine how I missed being in Martinique when the eruption took place there; but I am blad was not there, for a tame volcano is bad enough for me.
 One good breath full of sulphur fumes is enough to last a lifetime. I was like the COW with a corncob crosswise in her throat, who was about to 'coffer dam head off, i" and it took me a good month to get the stuff out of me. There has not been a big eruption of the Taal volcano since 17S0 when it went on rampage for several months and destroyed many big towns and many taos" as the natives call their bombres. This volcano is 8 mud and steam spouter and does not bother with lava; but that Is not much in it's favor, except that it is easier to dig one out of mud should he get covered up.
 The country through which we rode was once very rich and prosperous, but the war and ladrones have devastated | it completely. It is a dangerous coun- ! try to ride through on horseback or car aniata unarrned or without an escort, but it is safe enough on bicycle. You are usually by q ladtore before he. can recover from his astonishment.
 All the ladrones have been Killed or l driven out of Rizal province, and have taken refuge in the hills and mountains around the volcano, and it will be hard
 to dislodge them from there.
 | When we got back from Taal to Ca lamba I met some natives from Pasig, \ who insisted upon my remaining over the next day and going up to the hot
 springs on the mountain side back of
 Los Banos, to bathe with them. The
 girl is beauty and decided it would
 be as little as could do in taking a
 bath with her, as I had just had her only brother locked up for stealing from the government. We started out early | in the morning and in the party were 1 several of Dr. Jose Rizals cousins, sis- l ters and cunts. Calanba is the home of Rizal, and he has some very pretty relatives there. I slept ill the house with them and bathed in the same tub with them as if was one of the family,
 and I was treated handsomely and
 shown all the honors tue my rank. was the only white man in the pool, and 1 it would have done you good to have l seen the maidens admiring my manly | form. 1 We went into the water about a. m
 and stayed in until noon, when some of us came out to get lunch, which was cooked on the bank. Most of the crowd stayed in the pool and ate their lunch, and remained in the water a
 couple of hours longer, and then won-
 dered why they felt so weak and tired when they got back home.
 The water is impregnated with sul- phur and in some places is hot enough 1 to boil an egg. At Los Banos at the l foot of the mountain, the government has hospital for sick soldiers and ei-
 william employers, and it is cloimed that the baths are as efficacious as those al Hot Springs, Arkansas.
 I rode over to Los Banos and there met some of my old Havana friends
 who were there for a couple of days
 duck shooting on the lake. There is al
 excellent hotel there.
 It seems strange to meet so many olt
 friends in such out of the way places
 Only recently rode up the Mariquins l'valley about twenty miles to repair g bridge at Montalban, and who should meet there but Lieutenant Fyle, O.
 there with him, living in a nipa shack and feeding on 'manooks and camo ties. ."-chickens and sweet potatoes.- ITelfair Hodgson Writing from Pasig
 Province of Rizal, in the Mobile Regis
 ter.