Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-06-19

write you very fully regarding general
matters, and could not do very we'll
in telling about my WI particular
part for the reason / then stated-it
made me nervous to think of it. II
also intended to enclose a rude map
of Mariloa. but found could not draw
one. From a perusal Of brigade re-
ports and from conversations with
parties who know, ! find that this
charge was the hottest fight, and the
bloodiest of the entire campaign.
From official reports I find that our
brigade In seven days lost one hun
dred and ninety-one men killed and
wounded, among which were four Of
ticers killed. Our regiment lost three
of them and Nebraska lost one, and
our regiment lost nearly half of the
entire brigade loss. We were used
as a wedge to spread the enemy, and
of course, while it tore us to pieces
pretty badly, still it was the fortune
of war, and someone had to take It.
General Macarthur, the division com
mander, said that any other troops il
the world but American volunteers
would have been repulsed, but that
these South Dakota men after driving
the enemy CT of the first line of
trenches waded and swan the river,
climbed the bank and drove the
enemy out, and still Richard Harding
Davis says that one regiment Of reg
ulars is worth five OF volunteers.
II it had not been for Slower and
his battalion at Marilao, coming up
at the right time and doing exactly
the right thing, our loss would have
been much greater than it was. Then
again at Guiguinto, Stover's battalion
dragged the artillery across the rail.
road bridge, under heavy fire. These
are facts, and known to be such by all
enlisted men, but what can we do
now?
Before we left the trenches at Ma
Mia, to begin our campaign against
Malolos, the insurgent capital, we
were informed repeatedly by the Span
iards that the natives were short Of
food, and in some cases starving, and
that their supplies Of ammunition
were nearly exhausted. During the
first few miles of our advance the
country was pretty barren Of any food
stuffs, but from that time or We found
unlimited quantities of rice, and Vege-
tables, and countless pigs and chick,
ems. Every time the army halted for
any length of time we would catch
chickens and in a little while we
would have a good feed of fried or
stewed chicken or perhaps pork, and
If we felt like it we could boil w
some rice. These supplies taken to,
gether with what the commissary is,
sued US gave us lots to eat. The
commissary department issued every.
thing to us that the law allowed, but
still at the same time had it not been
for the natural resources of the coun
try we would have been very hungry
indeed. There is no use talking about
the matter, the government does not
issue a sufficient quantity of rations,
One pound of canned beef or salmon
and one pound of hard bread is not
enough for troops In campaign. The
quality Of supplies issued was excel
lent. As to the matter of the insur-
gents being out of ammunition, that
was sheer nonsense, at least it seem
ed that way from the manner in which
they threw it at us. The only thing
we could see about their ammunition
that was in any way inferior was that
many of their cartridges failed to ex-
plode when fired.
The country we passed through is
of unsurpassed natural richness, and
the soil is of such a nature that ii
must be of remarkable fertility. Ba-
nanas, oranges, pineapples, mangoes,
ass, dates, and all kinds of topical
fruits grow here in abundance, rice
and sugar cane as well as tobacco
and corn all thrive here. Whereyer
the country is not kept clear by cult
walton there is a dense growth OF
timber. The agricultural implements
In use here are of the crudest kind,
the ground is merely scratched be
fore planting. with an implement
which has one handle and al iron
point. and is drawn by a caribou OF
water buffalo To take the place Of
a harrow, they have a sort Of a thing
made of bamboo, which merely rakes
the surface of the ground. l have moi
iyet seen anything that looked like d
hoe. All the harvesting is done by
hand, and with a short knife OF
sickle. The threshing floor and mil
OF Biblical history is in use here. The
rice is first tramped out by ponies
or cattle and then 1t Is hulled b.
pounding 1t with a pestle in d hollow
rock, and 1t is ground into rice floul
the same way. Nearly all the wori
is done by ha adj in fact | cannot thinl
Of any machinery that the natives Hst
except d kind of mill for grinding
sugar cane. The people in the coun
try have no education,
| have often been puzzled al t
Where AguinaIdo got his money I;
/ tN1aZ.-N~.G Z. ~. !. .lM 49, III. 4 49,.