CAPTAIN KELLY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



121 



struction of the birds is working great in- 

 jury to the agricultural community. It has 

 become a matter of serious concern to the 

 farmer. The curculio and other destruc- 

 tive insects have their sweet will in his 

 orchard, and all insects detrimental to plant 

 life are increasing in number because of this 

 cruel, wanton and vicious destruction of 

 bird life.. (Applause.) It does seem to 

 me, Mr. Chairman, that it should be 

 stopped, promptly and forever. 



I have recently seen an advertisement in 

 a Philadelphia newspaper advertising pro- 

 posals for the skins of 30,000 birds. Con- 

 tracts have been made with men in the little 

 State of Delaware to procure these skins. 

 If these contracts are carried out I venture 

 to say that Delaware peaches will be 

 scarcer than ever during the coming sea- 

 son. Years ago Delaware peaches were in 

 every American market at low prices. Year 

 by year they become more scarce, until last 



summer it was almost impossible in the 

 New York market to buy a single basket 

 of the fruit. One cause for the dearth was 

 the destruction of the insect feeding birds 

 of that State. 



Mr. Chairman, I pay taxes on about 7 

 acres of land. It was formerly covered 

 with birds of various species. Nothing that 

 can fly has been seen on it for the last 2 

 years except English sparrows. They are 

 as thick as flies in a butcher shop and far 

 more destructive and annoying. They have 

 killed or driven away every American bird. 

 I understand that the bill of my friend 

 from Iowa affords protection from this 

 nuisance. This is gratifying to every lover 

 of American birds. I shall vote for the 

 bill as it stands ; but if it contained a pro- 

 vision meting out punishment to any hunter 

 who fails to kill an English sparrow on 

 sight, I would vote for his bill with greater 

 alacrity. (Applause.) 



CAPTAIN KELLY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



Daet, Philippine Islands, March 10, 1900. 

 Editor Recreation: — 



We have had 2 glorious fights, and I 

 must tell you and the Camp Fire boys 

 about them. Our battalion landed at Bar- 

 celonette, on San Miguel bay, Feb. 20th, 

 my company in the lead. I formed a skir- 

 mish line through the village ; then 

 took 10 men and established an out- 

 post, driving an outpost of the in- 

 surgents and bolo men ahead of us. We 

 then made a hard march over a bad road to 

 Libmanan, where the insurgents formed 

 a skirmish line in the rice fields, posting 

 their riflemen and sharpshooters behind 

 fences and stone walls. They gave us a 

 hot volley from their Mausers. Com- 

 panies A and B advanced in line, keeping 

 up a hot fire on the natives. I went ahead 

 of the line whenever I could stop the fir- 

 ing for a few minutes, with my hat on a 

 cane, holding it just above the stone walls 

 or other cover which I occasionally en- 

 countered. This frequently drew the ene- 

 my's fire, so we could locate them and get 

 in a few telling shots. The concealed bow- 

 men and bolo fighters slashed away at my 

 men as they came on, but retreated when- 

 ever we got within effective reach of them. 

 One bowman sent a shower of arrows at 

 me. I snatched a rifle and fired at the 

 spot whence they came, and as we ad- 

 vanced to that point we found this fellow 

 with 2 holes through him. I took his 



bow and arrows. The latter are over 4 

 feet long and some of them are poisoned. 

 I now have them stored with my collection 

 of weapons. I was the first man over the 

 fence and into the village, but my men 

 followed closely. By that time it was too 

 dark to see to shoot, and recall was sound- 

 ed. I finally got my men together, and 

 we marched for a church, where we 

 bivouacked for the night The next morn- 

 ing we buried 64 insurgents on the ground 

 over which we had fought. We also cap- 

 tured a lot of wounded men who were un- 

 able to get away. 



The official Philippino report gave the 

 number of killed and wounded as 130. 

 They stood up against us with great firm- 

 ness. We lost our adjutant and 9 men 

 wounded. I captured a sword, a flag, some 

 bolos, a number of bows, arrows, etc. I oc- 

 cupied the insurgent colonel's quarters and 

 entertained Major Fredericks and other 

 officers of the First battalion, and a num- 

 ber of infantry who came looking for us 

 on February 21. 



We then marched to New Caceres. Com- 

 panies A and B were ordered to march 35 

 miles around Mount Isarog to San Jose. 

 This is in the South end of the Philip- 

 pines, and is new territory that the Ameri- 

 cans had not heretofore entered. My com- 

 pany A, with Kendricks' B, numbered 

 about 130 men. We started on the 26th, 

 and our road lay through several towns. 



