Show MORE GILLMORE LETTERS Lieut Glllmore should certainly add lo his story of A Prisoner Among the Filipinos the chapter describing some of the events that happened In his wake Officers of the Third cavalry and of the Thirtythird volunteer Infantry In-fantry couM furnish him with enough material to mako another volume After we loft the ton of Namltfpa can on the west const of Luzon and marched north along the coast road on the double trail of Glllmore and Agul naldo we were always running Into letters and messages that Glllmore and hlq men had left behind or else sec their names scrawled on the walls of churches and Jails AVe came to expect a Glllmore letter In every town we entered The letters let-ters were much alike They Invariably Invari-ably asked the American troops who will In time come to this town to treat the person named In the letter with tIme most distinguished consideration considera-tion as he has given us food when wo were hungry and money out of his own pocket and showed us every kindness The cavalry troop In advance feelIng feel-Ing cautiously along to see whether or not ve would have to light to gain possession of the place would send back word thai a large force of natives na-tives scorned to be gathering In the road outside of the town hut there did not appear to be any arms among them and they were apparently peaceably peace-ably Inclined Then the column would keep on marching toward us with n letter stuck on a long bamboo flshpole and waved high In the air There comes the feller that fed Glll more when he was hungry and gave him money out of his own pocket some soldier would remark wonder 1C hes got any more money In his pocket for another poor man The pompous man with the letter would come toward us waving the letter let-ter on the flshpole and shouting Viva viva bravos Americanos lie would Invariably be followed by a largo retinue re-tinue of retainers and sometimes escorted es-corted by a band Back In obscure corners or hiding In the paddy fields there would bo another large gathering gather-Ing of native citizens who shivered with fright as we drew near We always called the people who attended the man with the hotter the Glllmoreltcs as they counted upon their relationship or friendship with the pompous man who bore the talismanic letter as a guarantee that no harm would be shown to them The miserable miser-able citizens In the rice fields were those who could not claim friendship with the pompous man and therefore did not come under the mjstlc guardianship guard-ianship of the mystic letter YVc called them the antlGIllmoreltea The pompous man would extend the flshpole to the commanding officer of the column who became so well acquainted ac-quainted with their contents that he would merely wave It aside and say O yes thats all right You were good to Lieut Glllmore All right Then he would shake hands with the pompous man and his retinue The strange power the letter had of making Its contents known to the American soldiers without being opened and read gave It an even greater great-er hold on the veneration of the Filipinos Fili-pinos and they would regard It with the most reverential awe After the usual exchange of greetings we would enter the town escorted by the Gill morcllcs bearing theletter before them while the antlGIllmoreltes would sneak cautiously along In the rear content If they could only figx their eyes now and then on the talisman swaying back and forth on the fishpole In the town the i man who had fed Lieut Glllmore i when he was hungry as he was sometimes some-times called although he waa usually known to the soldiers simply ns Gill more would take us to where Lieut Glllmore had slept while a prisoner In that particular town One man had the venerated spot marked off with a rope and no profane foot was permitted per-mitted to step In It The Glllmores ivuiu iiau i110v ua wnere tne lieutenant lieuten-ant had walked when he exorcised in the town where he had purchased rice or siitfar told us fo whom lie had talked and brought the people who had actually ac-tually spoken to las grande Amen cano go that we might know who they were and fittingly reward them 1C nw saw fit I regret to say that In only a few Instances did we see fit We were willing enough but there was hardly enough money In the whole outfit except ex-cept what the little General had to have paid the Lieutenants board a single sin-gle week at any of the houses where he had been kej > t during the time he had been a prisoner along thai coast road Still we urged the men who owned the Glllmore letters to hang on to them juj some day an American force might como along with more money than we happened to have and then they could be rewarded accord Ing to their deserts It was hardly necessary to urge any of the Filipinos to preserve the let ems given them by Senor Glllmore rimy trembled every moment the precious pre-cious letters wore out of their handn and when they received them back they would clutch them as eagerly asa as-a miser clutching his gold The only unpleasant feature of the Glllmore letters was that some of the soldiers In the relief expedition con ceived the idea of paying thou dtlts ten inou uccurca from the natives by baying similar letters to iho ones Gill more and hIs party had left and tnt suilng the Filipinos that when tho let ters were presented to the next body of American troops that came they would pay the bill three or four times over We followed In the wake of a scout ing party that had bcen sent out two or three days previously and wo turned up the following remarkable missive that wa carried out to us upon our approach aa proudly as the Glllmore letters were brought out or the bigger tOnmt TO ANY U1ERiCN TROOPS WI0 OMt THiS AGREETING This nmun here navo mo a dozen eggs two chickens and a peck of rice Pieso I rev nrd him suitably an L havent drawn any money from tht Government for no long that L tofSet what It looks like Truly timlume GEORGE WASHINGTON JIJRRY SiMPSON Another communication was signed by Teddy Roosevelt although tho candidate for the VicePresidency has not mentioned the particular occasion when he was In the Philippines One letter read TO U S TROOPS This fellow in this house fed me when T wns hungry and gave mo money out of his pjvu pocket under the erroneous chum ion that I was the HOII of the King of lie United States Plcaso do not toll him the truth when you come nlong as ho Ukcj to bellovo It and It dont Jo no harm HILLY For the credit of the service I will say that these stray bills of an Indebtedness In-debtedness which had been paid by an order drawn on the next troops to comely come-ly wore Invariably paid by the commanding com-manding officers of the various columns col-umns but steps were taken to die courago the men so Inclined from pay lag their debts In this manner Tho prisoners In GIllmoro party also had a habit of leaving notes behind them Some of these notes fell Into our hands and caused trouble A Filipino blushing blush-Ing as well au a gentleman of rich black walnut complexion could presented pre-sented us with a letter that he scorned ito i-to think was going to bring him moro good fortune than the Glllmore letters brought their owners A Captain took the letter opened It and read To the first American troops to come along this way The man that gives you this letter Perez Mannutto stole most of my clothes and what little money I had lie used to steal my Ice i from me and when I was Mick he made faces at mo and I think he swore at me although I do not opcak Spanish but anyway that Is what it sounded like Will you please have five good strong soldiers run him all the Way from the church to the river and back again for me9 lie thinks this letter says to glvo him money for being kind to me Please be good to him for my sake and doni O please dont drown himThe The letter was signed by one of the American prisoners The Captain merely read the letter and then handed hand-ed It over to three or four of his men and walked away Five minutes later a guard detail was sent In hot haste to the river on the strength of a rumor ru-mor that four soldiers were trying to drown a native The soldiers fled and the guard detail pulled the Filipino out of the water But as long ns we remained In that town there always seemed to be a stick or a club dropping out of the sky onto on-to the head of one Perez Mannctto Philippine letter In Chicago Tribune |