USA > Nebraska > The first Nebraska in camp and field, by first Nebraska boys > Part 2
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was standing in the company street expiating ou the value of his goods when he was suddenly canght from behind by two soldiers and held in- til four others came with a blanket, and then they tossed him, spilling his money and other property ont of his pockets. By this time the whole com- pany had gathered around and were having lots of fun at his expense. He wanted to fight but soon changed his mind. The boys picked up his property and told him that he had better get out of camp, which he did without any hesitation. That afternoon one conld stand by the fence and see fakirs going into the air all over the camp. After that they did not bother us any more.
From the 11th until we left we did little drilling. The time was given to us to make prep- arations for departure. On the 13th we re- ceived orders to break camp the next day. That night we paid a farewelt visit to the city. The next morning we broke camp and part of the great white city disappeared as if by magic. Soon we fell in and were on our way to the docks, marching through a cheering throng which filled the streets, windows and housetops. On Market street the crowd was so dense, and crowded ns so much that those on the outside wore compelled to throw their rifles into the hollows of their arms with the muzzle pointing outward to fore . their way through. The day was oppressively hot and the pavement very rough. and that, combined with the crushing crowd shutting out all the air, made that march of four miles one to be long remem- bered. When we arrived at the docks, hot and tired, we were compelled to stand for about three- quarters of an hour with a cold damp ocean breeze blowing over us, the result of which was that
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many went on board with bad colds. Then we were marched back three or four blocks and given supper by the Red Cross. That society treated us royally and even time can never erase the grati- tude for it from our hearts. From there we went directly to the ship, the Senator, and marched on board after about an hour of tedious waiting.
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CHAPTER III. THE VOYAGE
The Senator was a comparatively new ship, but small and not intended for long voyages. She was a coaster built for Klondike trade and was in- tended to carry not over 600 passengers. She now had on board one regiment and six months supplies for the regiment, besides the crew and their supplies. To make room for all, the second hold had been cleared out and patent berths put in, as were in the first hold, or steerage. The whole ship had been disinfected with chloride of lime and smelled so badly that one could not go below without getting sick. The second hold was dark and there was no means of admitting air except by two chimney shaped ventilators which were very inefficient. The place was only for the men, the officers rooms being in the cabins on deck.
The next day, June 15, we started on our long voyage, attended by cheering crowds on ings and excursion boats. There were for ships in the fleet, the China, Zealandia, Colon and Senator. Just as we crossed the bar the boys began to get seasick. I know that many will laugh at this, but we can assure you that it is no laughing matto. The crowds of sick, the over-crowded, ill as Hling ship and the cold, gloomy weather mads that voyage to Honolulu a veritable night- marc. Seven days out from San Francisco Serg. Geo T. Geddes ot Co. C died of spinal meningitis,
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the only death in the regiment during the voyage. He was buried with the beautiful and impressive military services of a burial at sea. After eight dreary, almost unbearable days we reached Hono- Imin. We arrived in the roads about 10 o'clock at night, and anchored there till morning. There we were met by many by boats and serenaded by the government band. In the morning there burst upon our eyes a sight that filled our hearts with joy.' In front lay the city with the green shores stretching away on either side of it, while over the tops of the houses conld be seen the brown hills. Never before bad green grass and trees looked so beautiful. That day we spent on shore. In the forenoon we viewed the city and at noon went to the government grounds where a banquet had been prepared for the whole expedition. It was fine, and the only regret was that so many of the boys had not recovered from their seasick- ness sufficiently to do justice to it.
After giving three cheers for the ladies of Honulnin, we again visited the city, until five o'clock when we went on board ship.
The city of Honolulu, the capital of the Hawaiian group is on the island of Oahu, the second in size of the group. It is a lovely city sitnated on a gentle slope between the hills and the bay. It is laid out as an American city and has all the modern conveniences, such as electric lights, street cars, waterworks and even bicycles and base ball goods. The houses, instead of being crowded are set back from the road amid a garden of trees, tropical ferns and flowers, making the whole resident portion of the city a veritable gar- den. It is practically an American city, American residents predominating, though there are some
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English. The white people all have some money and do the business while the natives do the man- nal labor. The country around is devoted to raising sugar cane and coffee. The government grounds are especially beautiful. The capital building is rather a large building, in front of which was the large lawn, so thickly covered with trees as to make it always shady. The most interesting thing to us was to stand on the ship and watch the natives swim. As soon as we an- chored the water around was full of them, white a row or others sat along the wharf occasionally dropping into the water like mnd turtles. They are the most expert swimmers in the world. We would throw pennies into the water from the dock of the ship and instantly a swimmer would go under, emerging in a few seconds with the penny in his fingers and then pop it into his mouth and wait for another. The natives are rather above medium size, well formed and cleanly, learning this possibly from the white residents.
On the voyage over many had freely ex- pressed the opinion that we would never get any further than Honolulu, saying that it was impos- sible that the goverment would think of sending us all the way crowded as we were. Others were of the opinion that we would go to Manila, but that part of the regiment would be put onto an- other ship at Honolulu. Today was to decide it and we waited anxiously. About 10 o'clock the ships weighed anchor and with sinking hearts we started out, but when we found that there was no longer any hope we made the best of it. After a few days we became more acenstomed to our crowded condition and began to look around for some way to employ our time. We read, played
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cards and told stories. But it was almost impos- sible to read on account of the noise and the dif- fieulty of finding a place on deck to sit down, below it was to hot and the air too unwholesome. It was bad enough to have to stay there at night, nevertheless some had to, because there was not room enough for all on deck, though as many slept there as possible. Then we played pranks on each other, some of them pretty rough too, but under the circumstances they were to be forgiven because they afforded amusement, and that was the only way to keep alive. Sometimes a number of the boys woold line np and make somebody run the gauntlet, then they wonld all get into a scuffle and pile np on the deck like a lot of foot ball players. Stealing water was one of the prevalent and unpardonable crimes .. Water, I must say, was very scarce. The condensing machine either had a limited capacity or the ship's officers could not afford the steam necessary for operating. Whatever the reason water was scarce. We were . issned half a canteen full twice a day and many times we were so thirsty that we would drink it ah immediately. Some of the boys who had a stand-in with the firemen would go into the engine room and fill their canteens, which they would either hide or hang out a port hole to cool. If they left the place ten minutes they would have no water when they returned. The fellow who lost it would then get oven by taking somebody's else. The soldier spirit was illustrated very well by a fellow who said one evening. "Somebody
has stolen my blanket. Well I am sorry, for some . other poor fellow has to lose one." And in a few
minutes he had one. Stealing! yon say, well probably it is. If it is there is no worse gang of
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theives outside of the penitentiary (or in it) than soldiers. It is simply the survival of the fittest and is not considered stealing in the army. When a man needs something he gets it at the nearest place and thinks nothing of it. We have seen a fel- low go to another's trunk and get a clean white uniform to wear at parade or gnard mount and the owner did not care. It simply shows a degree of friendship and comradship that exists no place but in the army.
One evening just after dark a friend of the writer's came to him and said "I have found a can - teen full of cold water. Do you want a drink?" Of course he did and eagerly asked where the can- teen was. "Hanging on the other side of the mast," was the reply. The writer slipped around quietly, took the canteen and put it to his lips and took a big swallow. It was salt water. As he spit the stuff ont there was a roar of laughter be- hind him and turning he threw the water on the jokers. If anybody got angry at these pranks or did not enter into the spirit of the thing it was worse for him, the others tormented him ail the more.
One night a fellow got a canteen of water from the engine room and to keep it and also have it cool he tied it to the railing and let it hang over the side just by where he was sleeping on some sacks of onions and coffee piled along the rail. Two other boys waited until he got asleep, thon drank his water and tied the empty canteen to his toe. He soon felt it and woke up. We will not re- cord what followed except that he was so mad that he laid in the rain until he was soaked while the other two laughed at him. Another time three boys had been scuffling and slapping each other
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with boards. When they were tired one went be- low and the other two went to bed on the deck. In a few minutes the first one came tiptoeing hack, got a cup of dirty brine and creeping quietly around the mast threw it at the others, but they had been looking and dodged. It splashed into the faces of some others who were sleeping just beyond and for a short while the on lookers thought that there would be trouble, but every- body fanghed so heartily that they finalty took it as a joke. Many a time a fellow would get to sleep only to be wakened by a twist of his toe or other equally pleasant operation. Sometimes a whole company would get to yelling, rat calling and beating fin plates or cups after taps. At such times they could not be stopped either by guards or officers.
The evenings were the pleasantest times. When the heat of the day had given away to the cool ocean breezes and the bright moon was shin- ing in a perfectly clear sky, it was very pleasant to sit. by the rail (if you contd get a seat) and talk, or. listen to the swish of the waves against the side of the boat. Then there was singing and perhaps the sound of a guitar, but over all there would be the incessant hnm of voices in conver- sation. White one would be listening and won- dering at the quietuess of so many people a yell would burst upon the silence and then the scamp- er of feet mingled with the sound of langhter, then silence again save for a muttered "I'll get even with yon." This would proceed for awhile, alternating silence and tumntt, untilsuddenly from the upper deck would come the slow sweet notes of "taps, " now swelling. now sinking, glancing from wave top to wave top, till they reached the
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distant ships of fleet, from which would soon come back the answer, mellowed and sweetened by the distance. If one has never heard "taps" he can never appreciate its beauty. One wonders that such a sweet sound can come from a brass bugle. Camp visitors at San Francisco would stop on hearing it and say "Hark, how lovely." It is indeed most fitting as the final service of the soldiers burial. Then we would sleep (if we could).
.
We had not been out from Honolulu many days before the officers discovered that we needed exercise, so we drilled, and such drilling! The corporals would take a few men off into a corner some place where there was room and make them go through a few motions-how many, depended on the corporal. Sometimes we used rifles and sometimes we didn't, but one can imagine how men could drill where there was not space enough to move, and the floor heaving underneath his feet, but our health must not suffer.
Then we had inspection. How that did de- light us! We would dress in white uniforms, taking care all the time to touch nothing for everything was dirty and greasy, put on all our equipments, crowd and push and fight our way up to the hurricane deck and stand crowded to- gether between the heat of the sun above and the heat of the engine room below, and have an officer come along with a note book in his hand and ask us what equipments we needed. What they did it for we never knew. They went through that performance many times but we have never yet received the things we then lacked.
A great deal of our time was employed in keeping our rifles clean, or rather trying too, for
-
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they would rust abont every fifteen minutes. The most of them were pretty hard looking instru- ments when we landed
Our way of washing our clothing was ingen- ions and simple. We simply tied them to a rope and let them drag in the water, but when they were taken in the loose end was generally very hand- somely fringed. We had often read about the ben- eflis of salt water bathing and we now had a chance to try it, 'as we were obliged to take a shower bath every morning. They may be very helpful bat they are far from pleasant. A very good substi- Inte for salt water bathing for those who are igno- rant of it, is to rub thin syrup into their flesh., Yon may not get the benefit but you will get the feeling. For washing dishes it is equally good. It would take as long to get the grease off a tin plate with sea water as it will for Niagara falls to cut its way back to Lake Erie.
If we say that we were not well fed we would be called "kickers" who wanted. . pies and cakes and feather beds," so we will just give a sample of some of the meals we had. For breakfast a boiled potato with the jacket on, some hard tack and a cup of coffee that tasted as though it was made of soot, sometimes some canned salmon and abont twice or three times a week we had biscuits, and such bisenits! We could take the inside out, throw it on the floor and it would bounce as high as a man's head. . We had to be very careful of them; they were more dangerous than bullets. For dinner we had abont the same with perhaps some canned beef and that was the stuff we liked. . Whenever the ships came within hailing distance the boys would call across, "Have you got any canned beef?"
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The 4th of July 1898 we spent on the water. It was our first holiday and of course we had a celebration. For dinfier they gave us a piece of peach pie, some canned roast beef, hard tack and coffee ( the same kind.) That coffee we seldom drank raw. We generally put it in our cantoons with the water and then it was bearable. We would have thrown it over-board, but were afraid that it would kill the fish, and besides it would not do to waste anything that was liquid, because it was to scarce. Some of the companies which had funds bought fruit and other provisions at Hon- olun and lived fairly well.
It was on this voyage that Col. Bratt got the name of Cocoannt Johnnie. He bought some coco- anuts and bananas at Honolulu which were stored on the poop deck of the ship. which was also used as a guard house, This fruit was to be issued to us, a cocoanut to every three men and two bananas to each man, a green one and a ripe one, that is, one not as green as the other. For these the captain of each company paid at the rate of 10) cents per man and it was taken out of our next months pay. But few of them were ever issued to us. The prisoners in the guard honse and the guards would oat bananas every night, and Coco- aunt Johnnie could not catch them either. An- other bill that was taken out of our pay was for stolen ships goods. One night the ship's store room was broken into by the soldiers and some provisions taken. The ship was searched but a very small proportion was recovered, and as the guilty ones could not be detected all had to pay equally. By this time we began to disenss how many more days would pass before we saw land and we bothered the ship crew much with ques-
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tions. On July 16th we saw land first and on the next morning. July 17th, at daylight, we entered the bay of Manila made famous by the valor of Dewey and his men. O! memorable day. It was a mile stone in our lives, but little did we realize its importance then; the future was to teach us, however. As we passed through the narrow pas- sage between Corregidor island and the main land we wondered how Admiral Dewey ever entered there with those guns and signal stations on either hand. Our enthusiam was awakened anew as we came to the American fleet. Our ship passed be- tween the sunken Spanish flagship, the Reina Cristina and the Olympia, on the deck of which the marines were drawn at present arms, and Dewey himself was standing on the bridge. The cheers which we gave as we saw him must have been heard in Manila, many miles away across the bay. We passed a short distance beyond the Olympia and dropped anchor. Never will we for- get that sight. We wish that we could describe our feelings, but such things have never yet been on paper. Around us were the sunken wrecks of the Spanish fleet, some with part of their hulks above water, some with only the masts, and some run ashore and burned On our right, and near by, were the white barracks of Cavite, and beside them old Fort Cavite, whose side looked like a pepper box-the effect of the American shells. Stretch- ing away from the barracks and fort in a semi- circle was the low green coast line of the bay, ending in the distance in a white sneck-Manila, the now famous, the romantic, the doomed city of Manila. The coast was in some places open, in others covered with what appeared a heavy growth of timber, and all along as far as the eye could
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reach was white smoke arising from the many na- tives fires, and far beyond arose the bare hills of the interior. How beautiful, how refreshing to our eyes grown tired of heaving, pitching, tossing lead colored water, were the green grass and trees. This then was the end of our journey. For this time we had looked forward through thirty three long dreary days and nights. For this we had en- dured the hardships of a crowded transport ship, and our hearts lightened with joy.
Immediately we began to wonder where we would land; we we were anxious to get our "feet dusty," to get where we could move around, but the day wore on with the same monotonous rou- tine of mid-ocean. So we turned our attention to the numerous small boats that surrounded the ship. There were canoes of all kinds, but the most pre- dominant were made of a hollowed log, some of which were so narrow that to keep them from tip- ping over two bamboo poles were tied across, to the ends of which were lashed twoother poles paral- lel to the boat. These crafts were loaded with fruit, cigars and cigarettes. Of course we wanted these things, and immediately proceeded to business. Business transactions were hindered considerably by mutual ignorance, on our part, of the value of the commodities, and on theirs, of the value of ont money. However, we managed to get along in a way The means of transportation was by a rope and a bucket, into which we would put a nickle or dime and lower it, and they would put something into the bucket, and we never saw a case of the na- tive getting the worst of the bargain. We never put into the bucket anything above a dime, for two reasons, first because we received no more for it than for a nickle, and secondly because not many
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of us had much money. the U. S. commissary had the most of it, by reason of which we had arrived there alive. A man with money was like a pros- pector in the Klondike-he could not eat his gold. The size and color of the money determined its value with these natives; a nickle was worth more than a dime, and they would not take a penny at all. However, we did not have a chance to go broke, for the officers, ever watchful of our wel- fare and fearing that all these Inxuries, combined with those daily issued to ns would cause gont, prohibited the buying of fruit. How good those officers were to us, how watchful of every step to see that we did not go wrong. They were men of age and experience, who had received their ap- pointments strictly because of merit and who were willing to give to us .the accumulated wisdom of years. They were graduates of institutions of learning, some of hardware stores and some of threshing machines, whose experience in feeding machines taught them how to feed men. How the poor ignorant private can live in civil life where there is "no officer to guide him" is truly a mira- cle. The officer was differently constituted from the private, too. There was constantly a force of cooks in the kitchen of the officers mess cook- ing things which would have killed a private, and yet they did not have gout nor indigestion. It is truly wonderful how a commission strengthens a man's stomach and protects him against those evils of over cating to which a man in a plain uniform is liable.
The next day we spent in loading supplies onto lighters and getting our equipments ready for disembarking, and yet we did not know when that would be.
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CHAPTER IV CAMP DEWEY, P. I.
The next morning we were ordered to get ready for another inspection, which we did gram- blingly, but after standing on the deck two or three hours with our loads on our backs we were ordered to fall in, and marched onto cascos before we knew it, almost. Theu for the first time we felt the burning sun of the tropics. As our string of loaded cascos passed the different ships we were received with cheers by the marines, and of course we responded. The cascos rau to the beach until grounded, and then we waded ashore. Some of the boys who did not care to get wet tried to get into a native round bottomed canoe, but as soon as their feet touched it, it immediately turned over, spilling them into the water. The native righted his boat, but the boys concluded 10 wade ashore. On the beach we fell in and marched back from the Shore about three hundred yards to a sandy peanut patch surrounded by trees. The first thing we did after stacking arms was to hnut for water, which we drank greedily, although prohibited by the officers, but when a man has been withont water for several hours in the burning snu he will drink almost anything he can find .. Then we pitched ogr "dog teuts," just large enough for two mien to lie in, and busied ourselves iu cntting bamboo poles ou which to dry our clothes. How pleasant. an afternoon we
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passed! We were like caged animals let loose, and it was so pleasant to walk without being jost- led. The weather, too. was lovely; the sunshine, the stillness, save for the humming of insects, re- called to us the summer days in the country in Nebraska. The uniformed soldiers, the military equipments, seemed out of place, and the rattle of arms jarred harshly on the peaceful calm.
The natives immediately crowded around us with fruit for sale. They regarded us with a mix- ture of admiration and awe. They had never be- fore seen such large men, and these were the peo- ple who had come to deliver them from a hateful bondage. We worked with a will, as we said, all . the afternoon, and at evening never did anything taste better than that little piece of bacon and hard tack. You may talk about banquets at $10 a plate, but they were never so much enjoyed as that one little piece of bacon and that one piece of hard tack; and then the sleep that night! it was worth going that far to enjoy. We rolled onr. selves in onr blankets and in spite of the strange- ness. the sand, the fleas and the mosquitos, slept like babies-but not all night. The guards around the camp, not knowing how near the enemy was, and realizing that they were in a strange country, were a little nervous, which was increased by the officers going from post to post in the darkness to test the sentries. But they did not catch any- body napping; from all around the camp could be heard "Corporal of the guard number 3 or 4 or 6," or whatever it happened to be, as a sentry captured an officer and turned him over to the corporal. One guard had the whole camp up by firing at a dog which darted in front of him from a thick, dark hedge, and many were the cases of
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