Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-05-01
The Hopkins Letters
Fifteen Years Ago.

ten we put in at Cavite, where we had
"a good time, being allowed a good
many privileges, for tie reason We
were under the direct command of
Colonel Slower. As | nave written
you before Colonel Slower has the af-
lection and respect of this regiment,
and we would follow him to hell and
back again, while Colonel Frost, Cor
frosty is cordially despised because
of his tyranny and outrageous treat
ment of US. AT San Francisco he
denied us every liberty he could, and
on board the Rio Janeiro he reduced
the men to the point of mutiny. Since
our arrival here we have been penned
up in an enclosure 162 feet by ST
feet. Six hundred and forty men are
shut up in less than half an acre.
Our company has a room thirty by
twenty to sleep in. Think of this in
a tropical climate. This afternoon he
said mo passes whatever" and here
we are. | know now how to sympa-
thize with a bird in a cage.
Cavite is a fortified Spanish town,
situated on a small island connected
with the mainland by a cause-way of
about thirty rods in length. This is
land is surrounded by a wall about
twenty feet high and sixteen feet deep,
This wall fairly bristled with cannon
~ = II ,t,~1~ esnNrEarl divide t Cnnon
of the newer guns are about like the
cannons used during our civil war.
The older mes date back two hundred
years. Some of the guns mounted
were never fired, but simply spiked
and deserted.
The buildings on the island are of
a style in vogue before our revolu-
ton; queer, strange and a revelation
to us. Their walls are from three to
four feet thick, and each house is sur
rounded by a high wall topped by
broken glass, presumably to keep the
natives out.
The natives here are the puniest,
scrubbiest race of people l ever saw.
They are about five feet to inches
tall; are dirty, lousy, lazy, dishonest,
and no good generally. Besides they
are cruel and inhuman. l will illus
trate further on.
The climate here is tropical with a
vengeance. In the daytime we sweat
in streams every time we move. They
don't drill us much though, thank the
Lord. At night | lay down on the
bare mahogany floor to sleep, because
= it is cooler, and / sleep pretty we'll
NV health is AL. My digestion is
good, and my bowels are regular
lDiarrhoea is the worst thing soldiers
/ have to contend with here. | am the
heaviest and strongest man in thu
company; l weigh 1877 pounds. Franl
Munger only weighs n hundred an
seventy-ive pounds. This regimen
has been the healthiest regiment II
the corps. We have only lost eigh
men by death up to the present, Will
:, the other regiments have lost as man,
as fifty men.
The boys are collecting all sort
Of relics. have a sort of God bles
YOU medal worn by the Catholics
also a couple of altar ornaments tina
stole in a Cathedral. ! also haV
some shells and sea beans. ! am g
:. ing to have SOM more before com
III seq 10y ....
home. Part of our regiment wa
ouartered at a church at Cavite. Thes
%cathedrals were evidently fine place
. before they were plundered by tn
insurgents. There is not much le'
of their splendor now. The furnitur
is all gone, the statuary is smashe'
the windows are broken, the plaste
ing has been knocked of by Malay
!. and troops.
y At Cavite there is a native hospltf
filled with sick and wounded SPANS
soldiers. When / went and looked {
these poor devils, and heard the a.
counts the boys gave of the lnterie
n q did not go inside; the outside wa
enough lOT me- biuShSh '
and my blood boiled to think thf
q the u. s.. officials here would perm
~ such outrages on humanity. In tn
hospital 90 were a couple OF hundre
z human beings rotting and starving
~ death. The stencil that came fro
10 this place was worse than a decaye
~ corpse. We came over here to fgf
Spaniards, and instead we Q pa,
= OF our rations up and fed them
these poor boys for they were nothin
else. A well man would be sick
an hour in that hole.
From our quarters in Cayite y
"a could see the wrecks of six or seye
of the gunboats that had beer sur
by Dewey. If these Spaniards ha
he been able to shoot, Dewey would hay
IN had the eternal liver licked out
=, him.
40. the matar hpre is i'll moor. Has