Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1906-05-17
FIFTY YEARS
IN PRISON
On Island Of LuzOn Was Sen.
tenCe of Private Rhodes
Who Was PardOned.
TELLS STORY OF MUCH SUFFERING

With his face scanned with lines.
and his hair thickly sprinkled with
gray, Alfred Field Rhodes, a military
prisoner, who was pardoned Tuesday
May 10, by President Roosevelt, from
the Alcatraz prison, opposite San
francisco, where he has been CON
fined the past eleven months, arriv.
ed in Albuquerque today. and in con.
versation with a representative of
The Evening Citizen, told the story
of his court-martial and subsequent
punishment.
Rhodes, who is "a years of age, mas
the appearance of a man of so. His
face is rugged and scanned, and his
hair Is fast turning white Across
his stomach two long, jagged scars
are discernible, made by the bolos
of the Philippine soldiers. before
peace was declared in 1901, leayine
him minus part of his intestines.
Il first enlisted, at the outbreak oi
the war, with the Second New jersey
volunteers" said Rhodes, "and latei
transferred 10 the Fifteenth infantry
being assigned to Company f, under
Captain Willis Uline.
Il soldiered in the Philippines un
der General Smith and General Mac
Arthur, and 1t was at battle on the
Island of Samar, in February. that
! received the wounds that left these
scars on my stomach.
Shortly after peace was declared
on July 6, 1901, | was on guard as a
sentinel, at what was known as Post
No. g. hospital. Several of the Fill
pinos, who had already turned In
uneir arms, were carrying bundles OF
hemp through the streets, to different
places, and number of them got tc
playing around where | was walking
my post.
They kept running around me, az
l stood there with my gun on my
shoulder, and finally one grabbed my
| gun. | had always been trained that
a sentinel should guard a post with
his life, and allow no one to take his
gun, so when the Filipino grabbed
hold of my gun, gave him the Butts
Manual, that is, struck him with the
butt of my gun.
Il struck pretty hard, | guess. and
the butt OF my rife caught the Fill
pino in the forehead. He fell in his
tracks, dead. | called the corporal OF
the guard and they took him to the
! hospital and me to the guard house
| stayed in the guard house about
three weeks, when they gave me a
court-martial trial.
shortly before this all took place
| General Frederick Dent Grant had
just arrived and taken charge He
came down to the guard house one
day, saw me, and asked me why |
killed the native. | replied that not
even the president of the United
States had a right TO try to take a
sentinel's gun away from him, ana
that ! struck the Filipino while de-
Tending my post and in discharge of
my duty.
Shortly after that, my court-mar-
tial was held; the majority of them
said they couldn't see where / had
committed the act with malice, but
General Grant said he thought | had.
and instructed the youngest officer OF
the court 20 give me a severe sen
tence, which he did, making my SEN
tence fifty years in the Billebib
prison on the Island of Luzon.
well. | was Immediately removed
to that place God, what a hell on
earth it was. In the morning we got
a bowl of oatmeal and one slice of
bread: for dinner, some bean or pea
soup and two slices Of bread; for
supper one slice of bread and some
apple sauce All day long, in the hot
sun, We broke rocks. For each little
thing We did, We were fined, our ra-
ti5ns cut down-put on bread and
water
"Tae major that was in command
of the prison at the time / was there,
used TO take the ffty-three cents a
month that the prisoners were al
lowed by the government for tobacco,
toilet articles, etc, and turn it into
his own pockets promising us in re-
turn, bigger and better dinners on
Sundays. which we never got. The
same major today is doing a sentence
of sixty years i'm the Billebib prison,
which he once commanded, for en-
beZZl ement.
81 was i'm the Billebib prison over
three years, when, through the good
Offices of Congressman OTIS. of SYRIA
cuse, \. Y. / was transferred to the
prison at Alcarraz, near San Fran
cisco.
1T was like coming out cf he'll into
heaven, to get TO Alcatraz. | was
,c-.f.,,,4 IN mana Fourl