The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1906-01-18


self rouingsand tossing on the waters for
i three weeks. sMhen you begin to see
the green earth and trees in the distance
you eel as proud and happy ae boy
with his first pair of red-top boots. At
sea everything and everybody becomes
monotonous, and you get "nutty" and
sour, and long for home and mother.
Here we are! landed In Manila, seven
thousand miles from San Francisco.
Things take on change and we forget
for time, at least, about home and the
biscuits mother used to make. Pretty
soon we were landed in Walled City, or
Old Manila, where we were assigned to
different regiments and companies to bat
tie against the insurgents. After being
assigned to Co. B. grid u. S. infantry
two days after my arrival, we were or
dered to Quingua, town 80 miles north
of Manila, where the insurgents were up
rising.
Manila is city of 100000 souls, the
inhabitants being chiefly Filipinos. There
are Chinese, japanese and Spaniards
galore. Many Americans are also there
engaged in different lines of business, viz:
buying hemp, rice, sugar, ETC., and SELL
ing booze, beer and other merchandise.
The sugar is not refined in Manila. 1t is
shipped to America in large, black crude
chuncks, weighing about 200 pounds
each. Manila is not factory town.
Most of the raw products are shipped to
this country. About the limit to factories
is cigars, Panama hats, wooden shoes
and it has large ice factory which is
ow ned by Americans.
There is only one railroad line on the
Island of Luzon. 1t runs from Manila to
Daugupan, distance of $50 miles. 1t is
a narrow guage concern, with the poorest
kind of equipment, the coaches being a
pattern of the old style English stage
coach. The entrance to the car is from
hinged doors on the side. The cars are
dimly lighted by cocoanut oil and they
have no closets or other comforts for pass
engers. A curious custom about rail
reading in the Philippines is that when
night overtakes train en- route the crew
"ties up and does not proceed on the run
until next morning The railroads were
at that time owned and operated by The
government and the fare was I 4 cent pei
mile. The average speed of passenger
and mail train was about miles pei
hour. At one time our company was
stationed at San Fernando, town s.
miles from Manila. 1t took US just six
hours to reach Manila and the train
wasn't behind time, either.
| The natives of Luzon consist of many
different tribes of Filipinos, viz: Tagalos,
Pampangoes, Pangashanans, Igorrites,
Macabebes, however, were the only tribe
(which was friendly to the u. s., and
| thousands of them enlisted in the Ameri-
can armies and made good soldiers. The
other tribes were dangerous, treach-
erous people who thought no more of life
than snake.
| The occupation of the Filipinos in the
| interior consists chiefly of raising rice and
sugar cane. Fishing is the universal oc-
cupation of those who live along the
coast. Early in the morning you car
see hundreds of natives out in their ban
cos (skiffs) in Manila Bay hunting fol
oysters. At first it was a rare sight tt
me. The Filipino would row. his bancc
out to where he thought was fine bed Of
oysters. He carried on board bamboo
pole about IS or 80 feet in length, which
he would push down into the sand below
the water. Then he would get out of his
banco and proceed to pull himself head
first down the pole ten or fifteen feet to
the bottom of the bay and dig up the oys-
tiers with stick and put them in a sack
attached to his person. 1t was really sur.
prising to me the length of time he could
remain under water. Although never
timed one, but honestly believe have
known him in some instances to remain
under three minutes. The oysters they
gather are very small, milky and no good,
because of the hot climate the year round.
The fish are small like sardines, which
they catch in great quantities. salt and
dry for market. They get their salt by
building small squares near the bay with
a mud wall around them about inches
high. A small drain is made from the
square to the bay which admits only the
surface water, enough toscover the square
one-half inch in depth, after which the
square is damned up and the water IS all
lowed to stand several days, or until the
hot rays of the sun absorbs the water and
leaves several bushels Of nice, clean salt
which they gather up with boards.
Our first engagement with the insur-
gents was at Quingua. The American
army had driven them back this far from
Manila. They were. under General Rio