The Friar's Daughter: A Story of the American Occupation of the PhilippinesPhifer, Charles Lincoln
History
The Friar's Daughter: A Story of the American Occupation of the Philippines
Phifer, Charles Lincoln
Philippines -- History -- 1898-1946 -- Fiction; Philippines -- Politics and government -- 1898-1935 -- Fiction
The day following the Americans undertook by daylight the thing which
they had before tried at night. But they began in a little different
way. They were seen to dump some rafts into the river over a high
bank, and then two men, stripped to the skin, dived into the stream
and began to swim across. The insurgents peppered at them, while the
Americans from the other shore shot at every head among the Filipinos
that showed itself. Bullets splashed on all sides of the swimmers,
but none took effect. As they drew to shore they were protected by
the bank, the Filipinos being unable to fire at them because of thus
exposing themselves. Then it was seen that they had borne a cable
across the stream. It became apparent that the intention was to hitch
it so some object on the Filipino side of the river and thus form a
means of propelling the rafts across the stream. But the two naked,
unarmed white men, alone on the Filipino side of the Rio Grande,
were unable to find a place to which to hitch. Daubed with dirt and
glistening with the water, they raced back and forth under protection
of the bank, looking for stump or tree, but in vain.
"There is a stump in the rifle pit, up there," remarked one.
"We must hitch to that," said the other. "Make you some mud balls."
They scooped up mud from the river and hugged to their breasts the
balls of filth as they started to climb the banks directly ahead of
them. Meantime the American soldiers fired over their heads. As they
arose over the bank and stood erect looking into the rifle pits, they
began throwing the mud balls. The first one struck Agonoy full in the
face, and the young commander, with eyes and mouth full of dirt, began
clawing at the mud and retreating. The natives, seeing this, and not
knowing the nature of the new weapon, broke into a run and retreated.
Meantime a raft had started across the stream, with two men and
the clothing and guns of the men who were now tying the cable to
the stump. When midstream the rope slipped and the raft upset,
precipitating all in the water. The two men reached shore, but the
clothing of the men who had swum the river was lost. Other rafts were
on the way. Before Agonoy could rally the natives, a small force of
Americans had crossed over.
Then began an opera bouffe charge; naked and begrimed Americans and
men in khaki against naked and half-clothed representatives of a half
a dozen races! And as the Americans came on a run they broke into a
college yell:
Rock chalk,
Jay hawk,
Chicken hawk,
Tommy hawk,
K. U.!
There was a peculiar laughable twist on the "U." that added to the
grotesqueness of the incident.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account