There came an episode of homesickness. It was about time in a soldier's life to contrast it with the farms and the villages, the shops, mines and manufactories. They were kept busy on guard and in caring for themselves, in activities as the masters of a strange community, but the novelties of the tropics lost their flavor. What did a man want with oranges when there were apples? What was a rice swamp compared with a corn field? Think of the immeasurable superiority, as a steady thing, of an Irish potato to a banana, or a peach to a pineapple! What was a Chinese pony alongside a Kentucky horse, or a water buffalo with the belly of a hippopotamus and horns crooked as a saber and long as your arm to one who had seen old-fashioned cows, and bulls whose bellowing was as the roaring of lions? The miserable but mighty buffaloes were slower than oxen and, horns and all, tame as sheep—the slaves of serfs!
As for the Chinese, if there were no other objection, they should be condemned because too numerous—faithful, perhaps, in a way, but appearing with too much frequency in the swarming streets. And the women, with hair hanging down their backs, one shoulder only sticking out of their dresses, the skin shining like a scoured copper kettle; a skirt tight around the hips and divided to show a petticoat of another tint, a jacket offering further contrasts in colors, slippers flapping under naked heels, faces solemn as masks of death heads—oh, for the rosy and jolly girls we left behind us in tears! How beautiful were the dear golden-haired and blue-eyed blondes of other days! The boys wanted at least tobacco and aerated waters to soothe themselves with, and if there was not to be any more fighting, what was the matter with going home?
They also serve, however, who only stand and wait—there are no soldiers or sailors in the world who are in a position of greater interest and usefulness than those of the American army and navy who hold fast with arms the capital city of the Philippines. The army, though much exposed, has not suffered severely from sickness. There has been an intense and protracted strain upon the men of the ships, but they have recovered from the amiable weakness for home, and they are not merely well; they are more than plain healthy—they are hearty and happy! There is the light of good times in their faces. One thing in their favor is they have not been allowed to eat unwholesome food, and the floors of the warboats and every piece of metal or wood that is in sight is polished and glistening with cleanliness. The soldiers will feel better when the postoffice is in working order and they will do better by their organs of digestion when they are not deluged with fizz—that is, pop, and beer made without malt, and the strange, sweetish fruits that at first were irresistible temptations.
"Come with me and see the men of the Olympia," said Admiral Dewey, "and see how happy they are, though they have been shut up here four months." And the men did look jolly and bright, and proud of the Admiral as he of them, and they were pleased when he noticed, kindly, the hostile little monkey, who is the mascot, and the other day bit the Captain.
The health of the boys was preserved at sea by systematic exercise. Not a transport crossed the Pacific that was not converted into a military school, and each floating schoolhouse had about 1,000 pupils. They were put through gymnastics and calisthenics when, as a rule, they were barefooted and wore no clothes but their undershirts and trousers. There was even a scarcity of suspenders. The drill-masters were in dead earnest, and their voices rang out until the manifestation of vocal capacity excited admiration. The boys had to reach suddenly for heaven with both hands and then bring their arms to their sides with swinging energy. Then they had to strike out right and left to the order "Right!" "Left!" until the sergeant was satisfied. Next each foot had to be lifted and put down quickly at the word of command; then it was needful that the legs should he widely separated in a jump and closed up with vigor; then the spinal columns swayed forward and back and all the joints and muscles had something to do. This was no laughing matter to any one, though it was funny enough from the ordinary standpoint of civil life. This medicine was taken day after day, and seemed to vindicate itself.
It was esteemed a good thing for the boys to perspire from exercise. There was no trouble, though, when south and west of Honolulu, in having substantially Turkish baths in the bunks at night, and there were queer scenes on deck—men by hundreds scantily clothed and sleeping in attitudes that artists might have chosen to advantage for life studies. It was necessary for those who walked about, during the hours thus given to repose, where the enlisted men took their rest with their undershirts and drawers around them, to be careful not to tramp on the extended limbs. Once I feared I had hit a soldier's nose with my heavy foot when stepping over him in a low light, and was gratified that my heel had merely collided with a big boy's thumb. He had gone to sleep with his head protected by his hand. I paused long enough to note that the sheltering hand if clinched would have been a mighty and smiting fist; and I was doubly pleased that I had not tramped on his big nose.
Not infrequently, when we were steaming along the 20th parallel of north latitude—that is to say, well in the torrid zone—and were wafted by the trade winds that were after us at about our own speed, heavy showers came up in the night and spoiled the luxurious content of those who were spread on the decks. The boys got in good form through the longest journey an army ever made—for the distance is greater from the United States to the Philippines than from Spain—and every week the skill of a soldier in acquiring the lessons of the climate and the best methods of taking care of himself will become more useful, and the tendency will be to settle down to the business of soldiering, make the best of it and accept it as educational—an experience having in it the elements of enduring enjoyments. "The days when I was in Manila, away down in the south seas, but a little way from the island from which came the wild man of Borneo," will be pleasant in remembrance, and there will be perpetually an honorable distinction in identification with an ambitious yet generous enterprise, one of the most remarkable a nation can undertake—not excepting the Roman conquests all around the Mediterranean, and that touched the northern sea, invading England.
In the later days of August there were in the prisons of Manila, which answer to the penitentiary and jail in the American States, 2,200 prisoners, one of whom was a Spaniard! The prisons are divided only by a high wall and contain many compartments to assist in classification. There are considerable spaces devoted to airing the prisoners, and one in which the privileged are permitted to amuse themselves with games. The guard consisted, when I visited the place, of sixty-three soldiers from Pennsylvania. There were many women imprisoned. One who had been shut up for more than a year was taken into custody because she had attempted rather informally to retake possession of a house of which she had been proprietor and out of which she had been fraudulently thrown. Her crime was a hysterical assertion of her rights and her uninvited tenants were Spaniards.
One of the buildings contained the criminals alleged to be desperate, and as they stood at the windows the chains on their right legs were in sight. It was plainly seen in several cases that the links of the chains used were about three inches long and that three or four turns were taken around the right ankle. In a group of prisoners waiting for supper to be handed them in pans in the open air a large number wore chains. Many of the prisoners were incarcerated as insurgents, having offended by refusing to espouse the Spanish cause or by some other capital criminality in that line of misconduct! A commission was investigating their cases and the Filipinos who had not satisfied the Spanish requirements were represented by an able lawyer who was well informed and disposed to do justice. Sixty-two of the inmates of the penitentiary held for discontent with the Spanish system of government were to be discharged as soon as the papers could be made out.
Many most interesting questions arise in connection with the capitulation of the Spanish army. It was agreed that the Spaniards, upon surrendering and giving up the public property, should be entitled to the honors of war. It was expressly understood that the arms the troops gave up were to be retained. In case the Americans abandoned the islands or the Spaniards departed the rifles should be given them, and usage would seem to determine that this return of weapons must include the Mausers in the hands of the troops now prisoners of war and the cartridges they would carry if they took the field.