Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-08


| formation to the whereabouts Of her
| hayward boys, but the police thought she
| was not acting fair with them and toted
| her off to the lookup. where charge of be-
| ing implicated in bandoleriSmo WAS placed
| against her.
While the Americans. not being willing
| to use puajane methods, are just that
much limited in their facilities for obtain
| ing information, pulajanes have all sorts of
| ways of learning of the movements of Ameri-
| cans and OF what is going on in the towns
| In the country around which ,ney operate
/ and they We're not long in learning OF the
| arrest of the old woman. That gave them
| the opportunity they were locking for Ihey
| now had an excuse to begin hostilites Inc
| mother of two of their comrades had been
| foully assaulted and thrown into JAN
| Madre &c Dies, Could men stand by and
| see such inhuman cruelties as were prac-
ticed by the hated American IS, tThe munic-
| ipal police and all the other officers were
| FilipinOS. by the way. So, on June Ia.
| band of about forty red legs paid visit
| to Barauen under cover of darkness. They
| crept softly up to the town han and VIXEN
| AL was ready rushed in. The police were
| taken completely by surprise, and tlVe were
| killed before they could bring their weapons
| to bear on their assailants. Five more
were' wounded, ard the remainder over
whelmed, bound and placed hors de COM
| bat All this was done in the most Gusi-
| nesslike manner. and with little or no
| noise The old woman was released and
guard set to prevent interference. while
| the better part of the band carried the
municipal records cut of the town hail. and
| made neat pile of them IN Inc street.
| The pile was set afire and the pulaJanes re-
| tired, carrying away several prisoners ana
| the guns of the dead and wounded police
| men. together with quantity OF ammunl-
| ton. Throughout the provinces the ponce
men, constabulary and soldiers are the only
| persons permitted to carry arms. so IL was
| impossible for the people OF barauen 10
| mako any sort of demonstration. During
| the fight at Baruen the pulajanes lost sew
| eral men. among them one of the leaders
| of the band. They retired to their haun's
| in the bosque in good order
Death of Lieut. Worswick.
| Elated at the success they had in Barauen
the red legs impressed many peaceful citi-
Zens into service. This is an easy matter
| in the provinces. The bandits simply place
a gun to the head of the man they want
and tell him to join and he usually joins
! When he does mot there Is a death In his
! family Hundreds of innocent men were
| impressed into service in this manner In
Layte during the weeks following the
Barauen affair They were not permitted
| to have firearms. but were armed with their
working bolos. sharpened and pointed to
suit the occasion. Greatly increased In
numbers the 'pua james moved north. A
small party of constabulary operating in
! the pathway of the moving band Were sur
priSed and defeated. In this conflict Lieut..
Worswick of the constabulary was killed.
This young man was on his first campaign.
He was graduated from the Kansas Uni
versity last year and entered the constab-
ulary school in February. He grad
uated from that institution in June and
sent to Leyte. He had been at his post but
a few days when he accompanied de-
tachment sent out to look for the Barauen
marauders
| If the victory over the police at Barauen
| had inspired the pulajanes slightly, the
manner in which they defeated this little
band Of constabulary set them crazy and
they started on career of murder and
plumber that caused the civil government
to ask for aid from the regular army. A
detachment of the 24th Infantry tcolored)
was stationed the island and these
troops were sent into the field with the
constabulary The pulajanes swept through
!. the country toward Tacloban. the chief
town of the island. So bold had they be-
| come that they believed they could try con-
illusions with anything on the islands. BY
! this time there were at least a thousand
| in the band most of them armed only with
bolos, and a majority of these unwilling
| warriors, but they swept nevertheless,
and one bright day they espied a detach-
ment of Sodiery.
Tackled Buffalo Soldiers"
| There We're about hundred CT them. and
! they were all brown men. Constabu!ary
again, thought the leaders. Here was an
| opportunity to make big demonstration.
| Kill many men and secure much arms and
ammunition. They made their demonstra-
/ ton and We're received by a well set-up
! band of negro soldiers who hated them like
! sin. The story of that fight was one of the
I first that flashed over TIE wires to the
United States about the newest PuIaiane
outbreak Bitterly did the puIaja regret
installing colored troops armed with maya
zine rifles for constabulary, who, being
armed only with Springfield carbines that
the army has cast aside useless, are
practically unarmed after they fire their
guns once, so quickly do the bandits rush
their opponents. When they retired from
the field the red legs eft fifty dead and
almost hundred wounded. They carried
off as many more wounded. That was the
beginning of the fighting Since then troops
have been poured into the island. The pu.a-
james have been defeated repea tedly but
they have had revenge too.
Lieut.. James of the S:h Infantry and five
brave comrades lost their lives in an at
tempt to attack a large band with small
detachment of troops through Il banana
grove after dark. They feH victims to one
of the deadly boio rushes. Few people I'M
derstand appreciate the character of the
fighting against these people. While it is
true but few of them have firearms, the
methods they employ give them some ad-
vantage. In the case of the fight where
Lieut. James was killed. the party passed
up narrow trail between thick groves of
banana trees. They could see nothing on
either side of them Lieut. James went
ahead of the column about a thousand
yards. His comrades heard four shots and
rushed to the pace where they had seen
| the flashes. They had hardly reached a
| point where they could fire at the dancing
figures they saw silhouetted against the
horizon, when they We're set upon from
both sides by crowds of bolomen. Too close
quarters to use gun except a club, and
this practically useless against twenty times
their number of men whose daily bread
depended on their skill with the bolo, how
any of the party ESCAPED is Il source of
amaZement to those familiar with the con-
ditions, and how these men brought back
the mutiated bodies of their dead COM
mander and those who fell with him is
matter of wOnderment. That is the story of
the James fight and that is the way holo
rush is made. How the cOnstabulary, arm
ed with old guns, thrown away unfit for
the army, can withstand such attacks, IS
they often do, is a matter OF frequent COM
ment.
End of the Outbreak.
The governor general and the general
commanding the Philippines division of