The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-05-27
As a Soldier He Spent Some Time in
the Philippine Islands.
Tells Some Interesting Stories About
Natives of Far-off Land.
He Was Engaged in One Skirmish and
Considered 1t Fun.
From Thursdays Daily.


of the country on a furlough, has been
long time in the service and has many
an interesting tale to tell of his military
experiences He is fond of the soldiers
life and now would not be happy any
where else than in the army. His first
three years of service expired last Feb
ruary, but he promptly re-enlisted for
another three.
Mr.. Torstrup is young man, Wig
orous and hearty, and is just the kind
that Uncle Sam wants. He first en-
listed at Mankato three years ago last
February. He was not long in joining
the Thirteenth Infantry at the Preside
post, in the suburbs of San Francisco.
The Second Battalion in which he was
enrolled, sailed for Honolulu on the
United States transport Indiana, March
10, 1901 The vessel arrived at Honolulu
on March % and remained there two
days. Honolulu is fine city, with cleo
tric street railways, and other modern
improvements, such as are found in
parts of the world where the white mans
civilization was planted at much earlier
times.
The vessel next sailed for Guam and ar
rived there April T. Mail was unloaded
and the ship left the same day for
Manila, which was reached on April Is.
The battalion disembarked on the fol-
lowing day and moved up the Pasig river.
The means of transportation by water
here consisted mainly of Filipino boats
called cascoes, each one capable of hold
ing $50 men, or one of the four compan-
les of which the battalion was composed.
The boats were rough crafts of slightly
hewn limbs and logs, yet they answered
the purpose of barges very well. The
soldiers were thus brought to Lake La
guna in the province of the same name,
and landed at their destination, viii
lage of about thousand people, popu-
lated entirely by Filipinos, the Spaniards
against their rule and the subsequent
war between Spain and America. This
village had been named Paeti, and was
used by the Americans as a stronghold in
their warfare against the Filipino in.
surgents, who were in rebellion against
the rule of the United States. The
battalion here took the place of another
of the Fifteenth Infantry, which had
been assigned to another part of the
archipelago.
The village was a type of the kind
of civilization with which the most in
telligent elements of the native popula-
ton had become imbued during the long
rule of Spain. The villagers represented
a mixture of Filipino savagery and Span
ish civilization, such as it was. By
far the most conspicuous object in the
entire settlement was a church. This
church was about the size of the Saul
appeared like a huge stone building
Yet it was neither a stone nor frame
edifice. 1t was made of kind of doab
or clay mixed with lime. The walls had
been built up, little by little, by filling this
doab, mixed with gravel and rocks, in
between two frame supports, which held
the doab walls in position until they be-
came dry and hardened in the sun. Thus
a huge structure in the form of an or
binary church, consisting of main body
and several wings, was erected. The
height of the edifce including the steeple
could not have been less than eighty
feet.
Inside the church were many COM
partments. The interior structure was
entirely frame, ebony being used with
as much freedom and profusion as pine
and oak in this country. The lumber
had all been sawed by hand There
were no glass windows but isinglass was
used exclusively.
The interior of the church, especially
the auditorium, was profusely and beau
tifully decorated with images and pic
lures of sacred subjects, as is usual in
all Catholic churches, as this was. The
isinglass was prettily stained, in the
colors that are usual in church windows,
and fashioned into the customary de-
signs.
The building was at once church and
a school house. The priest, very in
telligent Filipino, who spoke both Span
ish and Tagal fuently, and had some
knowledge of English, was the school
teacher Nearly the whole population of
the village could read and write both
Spanish and Tagal. Books were brought
up the river from Manila, as was all
sorts of merchandise, such as is apt to
be on sale in an ordinary country store.
The children were bright and easy to
teach. Most of them wore no clothes
at all until about ten years old. Nearly
all the clothing that the villagers wore
was of hempen cloth. The women loved
to ornament their dresses with gay col
ored ribbons. AS rule the people went
barefoot, but sometimes wore wooden
shoes. The hats that were worn there
somewhat resembled the straw hats