The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-20

itary island in Laguna de Bay. There, are now about one hundred and eight prisoners on the island and from num-. Der of these the American has received the following communication:
 After serving for from four to seven months upon this island we have come to the conclusion that we have suffi- cient grounds for requesting that an in- vestigation be made of the manner in which this prison is conducted. We I know that it is useless for us to address l our complaint to an army officer and have decided upon your paper as the one most likely to bring it before the American people and the authorities at Washington. It would take too long to record every injustice we have suffered since coming here, so only an account of the latest will be given.
 Ion the 18th of March we had stew 1 'slum' is what we call it--for breakfast. The meat was tainted, and to kill the taste and smell cloves were boiled with it. They failed to do their duty and il. was impossible to eat the stew. A prisoner cannot work here without pro- per food and seventeen of us refused to work until we were given decent meals.
 we were tried for this and sentenced to be chained up, with our hands over our heads, and not allowed food nor water until we consented to work. We were up for about two hours when we consented to work if we were given enough dinner As all the meals are small here it was impossible for us to get enough dinner and ten of us refused to go out at fatigue call. We were tried again and sentenced to be chained in the same manner until retreat, and to lose our supper. This sentence was carried out to the letter and we went to bed supperless. We had another poor breakfast on the 27th, and being tired and hungry, we again refused to work until given proper food. We were sen- fenced to be chained to the posts of the barbed wire fence with our hands straight up over our heads and not al- lowed food or water from eight o'clock on the 17th until reveille on the 18th. It is impossible for us to give true de- scription of what we suffered at the post All day long we were hained up without food or water, and with several cans of drinking water in plain view. At noon and night the rest of the pris- oners ate their meals a short distance from us At one o'clock one prisoner was seized with cramps and his legs were drawn up under him. leaving him ranging by the wrists alone. It was ten minutes before he was cut down, and then he tumbled upon the ground. It was fully twenty minutes before the doctor and prison officer came and in the meantime the prison sergeant sat on his body to keep it from doubling up. When the doctor did arrive he gave him dose of medicint, and after waiting for about ten minutes ordered him tied up again, Groaning with pain and with a sentry holding him he was chained to the post again. This was the cruellest thing it has ever been our misfortune to see. All the afternoon we were chained up, the means of the sick man adding to our torture. Our shirts were torn from our backs, which were cut and bleeding from being rubbed against the barbed wire.
 At eight o'clock at night the sick man grew worse He was cut down and taken to his bunk, the prison officer remarking that he, the prisoner. had about all he could stand. A short while later all of us except two were cut down. The other two were left up un- til twelve o'clock. They were sore and stiff the next morning, but were worktd.
 "Whenever one of us goes on sick re.
 port, no matter what the complaint may be, the doctor looks at us, remarks
 that we belong to the post gang. ano marks us duty. One man who was sick
 and didn't buck wen on sick report
 and was told that he belonged to the
 post gang. He said that he didn't, ant
 the doctor said, "I have your name ant
 know that you do. and marked hin
 duty.
 Another complaint is this: Some times some of us are sick and have t
 go on sick report to get medicine. l we are marked duty. we have to worl an hour and a half longer than th rest of the men, although we are absen { only about a half-hour.
 "We work as hard as man evel worked before, and it seems wonderful to even us prisoners that we keep up ol the food we get. We are punished fo everything do do, no matter if we art in the right, and for some things tha we don't do.
 , "The officer in charge is here for pun
 ishment, and he is punishing everybod,