CAMPAIGNING WITH TWENTY-SIXTHBoston_Journal_1900-05-06_3
"Lawrence's" Vivid Pictures Of Campaigning in the Philippines --- Rebels Look to Bryan
"Lawrence," one of the Boston Journal's correspondents with New England's regiment, the Twenty-Sixth, brings out in his letter printed today some very interesting points in the situation that obtains there now. He says that while the insurrection in the Island of Panay shows symptoms of reviving to a considerable extent, yet its resumption of activity is due to the wild stories spread among the natives, such as that Bryan has already been elected President, that the American troops are to be immediately withdrawn, that America is at war with Russia and similar canards. He points out the influence which the name of Aguinaldo still exerts, and makes plain that this is likely to last until the capture or final disposition of this native leader.
Speaking of the Twenty-Sixth itself, he calls attention to the increase of sickness caused largely by the difficulty of getting pure water and the sufferings which the hot season, at its height at the time he wrote, caused.
TO BAFFLE EFFECTS OF HEAT
(By "Lawrence.")
Iloilo, Island of Panay, March 26, 1900. - With the terrific increase of the heat here (the temperature in the shade today remained at 98 degrees) the activity of the military operations is much lessened. Thin clothing has been issued, and the men urged to remain in the shade at noonday. Frequent bathing is compulsory where water is available, and every means exhausted to keep the men well. The sick list is increasing, however, and from the number being sent home for discharge the regimental enrollment will be considerably smaller at the end of two years of service. Among the natives the death rate is showing a marked increase, and the round of the band which invariably plays at Filipino funerals fills the greater part of the day.
So far as the water supply of the companies in the interior towns is concerned, we shall be fortunate indeed if we escape an epidemic before the rainy season. The sole dependence and source of drinking water in those places is the rivers running near the towns. In the rainy season these are raging torrents. Now they are hardly more than brooklets - not knee deep, and almost lost in immense river bottoms of the Western type.
Scene of Pollution
I had to cross one of these a few and as far as the eye could the stream was thronged with forms of life. Within a dis- two miles were, at the very of the great unwieldy caraboo and water buffalo, wallowing in the bed of the stream. It is essential to their preservation that they shall spend a considerable part of each day in the water, but a glance at the normal condition of their hides is enough to show the pollution they must engender. Right in among them and at various points along the bank were hundreds of natives, old and young, men, women, and children, all having their daily bath.
This completed, they begin work on the spot with the daily family laundry and such a pounding and wringing occasions all sorts of visions of dirt galore. And this is not a misconception, from a health point of view either. I approached one man who seemed to have an especially large display of garments, and asked him some questions about the Filipino laundry customs.
I found that he had six children at home, all down with small-pox, and he had come down to wash their clothes. This river was the sole source from which the drinking water of 150 men had to be obtained.
The Spectre That Haunts
Is it a wonder that the company officers are constantly haunted by the spectre of various native diseases? Every effort is made to prevent it surely, for the water is boiled and filtered and then stored in carefully cleansed jars. If the men could be made to drink only this, all might be well - but in every command there are always men who cannot be taught anything, and who at every opportunity would rather drink the filthy water directly from the river. It is from this class that the larger part of the men now dying and being invalided home is drank. A great burden of every company officer when the rainy season enables fresh rain water to be substituted for the present supply.
The "Tuba" Drink
Another source of much trouble is a native intoxicating drink called "tuba." This, unfortunately, is obtained in great abundance from the new shoots at the top of every cocoanut tree, and can be had at any time for the asking. Two glasses are sufficient to make an ordinary American crazy and utterly unable
to control himself. On the November expedition a member of the Nineteenth Infantry, while under its influence, shot and killed his chum at Leon, and is now serving a long sentence in consequence. In the Twenty-sixth many desertions and crimes can also be laid to its door, and it can truly be said that if it were not for its presence here the summary court record would be reduced by more than one-half. Among the natives it is universally used, and no Filipino soldier or guide will go into the presence of danger without fortifying his courage with a liberal allowance of the stuff. The soldiers are under orders not to drink it, and natives found selling it to them are severely dealt with at most of the posts.
The band of the Twenty-sixth is taking a circuit of the various posts with a view to breaking the monotony of the life of the soldiers garrisoned there. Iloilo has for months been hearing the band daily, and now it is proposed to give the men who have been making night marches to have a day or two of music from home.
Death of Private Cook
On Friday the 23d Private Allan Cook of Company L died in the hospital at Iloilo after a short sickness. No other death in the regiment has been so generally regretted. Private Cook was known throughout the command, his position in the Adjutant's office having brought him into personal contact with all. By everyone he was liked, and by officers and men shown as a faithful and conscientious worker. He was a Harvard man, a brother of "Ben" Cook, who played on the winning Harvard base ball team of 1893. With a fine home in Fall River, Mass. His service in the navy in the Spanish War, where he was an electrician on the Prairie, imbued in him the uncontrollable fire of patriotism and with a desire to further serve his country he seized an early opportunity to enlist in the Twenty-sixth. He was a member of the Fall River Naval Brigade. He took part in the November expedition with the regimental headquarters, and displayed great coolness at the battle of San Blas. His funeral took place the same afternoon, and he was buried alongside of the seventy other heroes in the little Iloilo cemetery, with the touching ceremonies which mark the interment of an American soldier.
Boston_Journal_1900-05-06_3
