General MacArthur established himself in the temporarily abandoned residence of Mr. Higgins, general manager of the Manila-Dagupan railway, this building being located in a very exposed position just west of the railroad track and less than a hundred yards behind the trench of my regiment. The brigade commander, General H. G. Otis, was camped in the open in the rear of the centre of his command. As headquarters for my own regiment, I took the Caloocan church, and rather think that I had the better of my superiors.

On the previous evening, just after bringing the regiment back from the ridge overlooking the Tuliajan, I had entered the building for the first time, and had had a small adventure that was to rise up and plague me months later. I had found there, rummaging about among the few articles that had been left in the building, an ironvisaged American woman, somewhat past middle age. I had seen her on several occasions, and knew her to be one of those selfappointed, so-called nurses, but really meddlesome busybodies, who are so apt to be found in the wake of armies in the field. This person had two names, or at least went by two different ones. Women of her type should not for a moment be confused with the members of that splendid and efficient body who go to make up the Army Nurse Corps, who remained on duty in the hospitals where they belonged, and who never made nuisances of themselves. I watched the woman for a few moments, and seeing her roll into a bundle a few articles of really no intrinsic value, told a sergeant to inform her quietly that she would not be permitted to take anything from the building. She replied to the effect that she would do as she pleased, and that it was nobody's business what she took. This courteous message having been delivered to me, I walked over to her, made her drop the bundle, and received a most artistic tongue-lashing in return. I closed the scene by telling her that if she did not at once leave the building I would send her under guard to Manila, even if I had to tie her up. She flounced out of the building in high dudgeon, vowing she would have me dismissed from the service. As a matter of fact, the things that she had attempted to take were of no intrinsic value, being merely an old and much torn priest's robe and some VOL. L.-6

sheet music, there being nothing else left in the church, but our orders to prevent looting, and especially to protect the churches, were so strict that I did not feel justified in permitting her to remove anything.

The rapidly moving incidents of the campaign made me all but forget this affair, but on my return to the United States, this woman, having preceded me to San Francisco, made and furnished to the newspapers an affidavit to the effect that she had entered the Caloocan church immediately after the battle and had seen me kick open a glass case containing a statue of the Virgin, from which I had stripped a goldembroidered robe worth more than a thousand dollars, sending it to my wife in Manila. I made indignant denial, but a day later a man named Fitzgerald came out with another affidavit stating that he had been a witness to the occurrence. That of course settled it. This man was a fireman who had deserted from one of the transports, weeks after the taking of Caloocan, and had followed the army as a hanger-on during the campaign that had ended in the taking of Malolos, nearly two months later. One day shortly after the taking of Malolos I had caught him coming out of an abandoned residence with his arms full of clothing, and had sent him before the provostmarshal, who had punished him severely.

The allegations of this sweet-scented pair of perjurers all but ruined me. It almost destroyed my faith in the fairmindedness of my countrymen that except among my friends my denials went for absolutely nothing. The whole pack, from high dignitaries of the church down, were after me in full cry, and the only thing that saved me at all was the vigorous defence of me by my excellent friend, Chaplain McKinnon of the First California, himself a Catholic priest, who stated that having come out to see the fight as a spectator, he had entered the church before I did and that there was in it no statue of the Virgin, or for that matter anything else of the slightest value from either a sacred or any other stand-point. The idea that nothing of value would have been left in a building in which services had not been held for nearly a year, and which during all of this time had been an insurgent fort and barrack, never seems to have occurred to my detractors. But to this day not one of the

men who took the matter up through the press and in public addresses has had the decency to express regret for his action. There never was a grosser slander against an army than the stories of church-looting in the Philippines. That there may have been isolated instances I am not prepared to deny, but such articles as the soldiers brought home were usually purchased from Chinese or Filipinos who had themselves stolen them from the churches when these were abandoned by their priests, which was long before the outbreak of the insurrection against the authority of the United States, and in most cases the purchasers knew nothing of any sacred character that these articles may have had. So far as the incident recounted has had any effect on myself, I feel that there is one thing mighty certain, and that is that if Uncle Sam should ever in a moment of confidence intrust me with the command of an army in the field, no campfollower, male or female, will ever get within sight of it.

We now settled down to a by no means humdrum existence, waiting for the arrival of troops from the United States, who were to hold the "north line" of Manila while our division advanced against the insurgent capital. In the Twentieth Kansas was a large number of railroad men, and we soon had the tramway to Manila in operation hauling out to the front ammunition and subsistence supplies. On the wheezy engine at our disposal the men painted such legends as "Kansas and Utah Short Line," "Freddy's Fast Express," and such other bits of soldier humor as occurred to them. The insurgents were heavily intrenched within two hundred yards of the left of our line, having taken advantage of the cover afforded to dig themselves into the ground. We could have chased them out by an attack, but it was contrary to the plans of the division commander to bring on a general engagement before he was prepared to follow it up. So we had to bide our time. In spite of all precautions bullets from the trenches on our front or from Malabon kept taking their toll. If a man moved about by daylight for a bit of exercise he was liable to become the target for a hundred rifles and have to dive for cover. Fortunately a Filipino seldom hit anything that he shot at, so that the greatest danger arose from the longrange dropping fire from Malabon.

There would be days of comparative quiet, and then others in which the enemy would sweep us with a hot fire for half an hour or so. He seemed to have no end of ammunition, and was not lacking in a willingness to expend it. The field-guns in the redoubt sent occasional shells at our opponents, but they seemed so well sheltered that but little harm could be done them. But they had awaiting them a most unwelcome surprise, for in a few days a fieldmortar was installed among the other guns. A mortar, it should be said for the benefit of non-military readers, is a very short gun using a small charge of powder. Instead of sending its projectile a long distance on a comparatively flat trajectory it throws it up into the air, and it comes almost straight down, being especially useful against troops behind cover at short range. There was one big yellow trench opposite the left of my regiment that had peppered us persistently, and the mortar gave it attention first. When the odd little gun was fired we saw the projectile mount a couple of hundred feet into the air and then sweep down with a graceful curve. It was a shrapnel with time fuse, and burst about thirty feet above the trench, being an absolutely perfect shot. The Filipinos swarmed out of the work like bees and began to run for cover. Several companies of the regiment had been warned to be in readiness for the occasion, and at short range poured in a fire that littered the ground with them. An occasional mortar shell at those of the trenches that we could see served to keep the enemy out of them during daylight, forcing them to lie behind low and inconspicuous cover. The trenches opposite our right, distant about eight hundred yards, caused us some annoyance, but did not do harm to compare with the others.

Among the vessels lying in the bay was the great British cruiser, Powerful, commanded by Captain the Honorable Hedworth Lambton, who less than a year later with his officers and crew was to win worldwide renown for his work with the naval guns in the defence of Ladysmith. The officers of the cruiser frequently came out to our lines, and were much interested in the novel situation. Commander A. P. Ethelston and I had become great friends, and one day he visited us accompanied by about a dozen junior officers of the Powerful, saying that he would like to show them

I ordered the "Charge" blown, and all who could hear it sprang forward

the whole regiment breaking into yells as we closed.-Page 66.

about. I was very uneasy about having them visit the trenches, fearing that so large a party might draw fire, and some of them be hit, especially as they were quite conspicuous on account of the white uniforms worn by them. I, however, felt some delicacy about referring to the possible danger. We walked down from the church to the right of the regiment's line, and then slowly strolled toward its left. We had covered half the distance, and I was beginning to thank my stars that we were going to get through without mishap, when the trouble began. About twenty men in a trench some six hundred yards distant opened on us, and bullets whistled all about, several passing through the group without hitting any one. As soon as the fire began I quickened the pace to a fast walk, and Ethelston, looking around at the young men with him, saw one or two of them flinch to the slightest degree, and spoke out sharply, "Remember, gentlemen, no ducking," and they threw their heads back and went through it without batting an eyelash. But they were all soon to go through a war that must have made our Philippine affair seem like play, and poor Ethelston himself, only nine months later, was to die a hero's death in the desperate assault of the naval brigade at Gras Pan in South Africa.

The night of February 22d was the date set by the insurgent leaders for a grand coup, a demonstration against our north line to hold all our troops in it, while a large number passed our left flank, which it has already been explained did not reach to the bay shore, and entered the city, where they were to be joined by the so-called militia, a lot of riff-raff numbering several thousands, armed mostly with bolos. They were then to set fire to the city in numerous places and attack Americans wherever they could be found. Up to a certain point this admirable project was carried out according to programme. Just after nightfall a severe fire was opened along our whole front, the entire brigade at least being attacked, and this continued almost without cessation until daylight. At times it was so severe that we anticipated that it was the prelude to an assault. The regiment had a number of men hit, despite the fact that we kept the men well down and did not allow them to reply except by a few volleys fired under the direction of company commanders. Ma

jor Metcalf had a very neat hole punched through his right ear close up to the head by a Mauser bullet. It was as close a call as one could get and not be killed.

On this night occurred a very unique incident. Company L was firing a few volleys, and one of the men having just discharged his piece felt a second blow against his shoulder, it being almost as hard as the kick of the gun. Upon trying to reload it was found that the breech of the piece could not be opened, and it was laid aside to be examined by daylight, which was done in the presence of a number of us officers. Upon forcing the breech open it was found that the base of the copper shell of the cartridge that had been fired just before the weapon had been disabled had been shot away, while mixed all up in the breech mechanism we found the remains of the steel jacket and the lead filling of a Mauser bullet. There was a very pronounced dent on the muzzle of the piece. What had happened was that while the man had the gun extended in the firing position a bullet had gone down the muzzle. A man will go through a good many wars before he will encounter another such case. This weapon is now in the Army Ordnance Museum in Washington. While we were having all this furor on our front about a thousand of the best insurgent troops, taking advantage of low tide, crossed the estuaries between Malabon and the Tondo district of Manila, attacked and drove from the tramway car-barn the small guard of half a dozen men of the Twentieth Kansas, wounding one of them, and then swarmed through the Tondo and Binondo districts, setting scores of fires and attacking detachments of the provost guard. The street fighting came within a few blocks of the business centre, and the portions of the city burned aggregated probably a hundred acres, mostly the poorer class of nipa houses. From Caloocan we anxiously watched the glare of the great conflagration and listened to the continuous rattle of rifle-fire miles in the rear of our lines. It was a bad night for those of us who had their families in Manila, but it was out of the question to think of leaving our posts for the purpose of protecting them.

The whole regiment had, of course, been awake and on the alert the entire night, and shortly after five o'clock the next morning,