ell, because they found their half dollars
dollars--the Mexican fifty-cent piece, bigger and with more silver
in it than the American standard dollar, was a bird. A dollar goes
further if it is gold in Manila than in an American city, and if our
soldiers are not paid in actual gold they get its equivalent, and the
only money question unsettled is whether the Mexican silver dollar
is worth in American money fifty cents or less. One of the sources of
anxieties and disappointment and depression of the American soldiers
in Manila has been the irregularity and infrequency with which they get
letters. If one got a letter or newspaper from home of a date not more
than six weeks old he had reason to be congratulated. The transports
trusted with the mails were slow, and communications through the old
lines between Hongkong and San Francisco, Yokohama and Vancouver,
were not reliably organized. There were painful cases of masses of
mail on matter precious beyond all valuation waiting at Hongkong for
a boat, and an issue whether the shorter road home was not by way of
Europe. This is all in course of rapid reformation. There will be no
more mystery as to routes or failures to connect. The soldiers, some of
whom are ten thousand miles from home, should have shiploads of letters
and papers. They need reading matter almost as much as they do tobacco,
and the charming enthusiasm of the ladies who entertained the soldier
boys when they were going away with feasting and flattery, praise and
glorification, should take up the good work of sending them letters,
papers, magazines and books. There is no reason why soldiers should be
more subject to homesickness than sailors, except that they are not so
well or ill accustomed to absence. The fact that the soldiers are fond
of their homes and long for them can have ways of expression other
than going home. A few days after the news of peace reached Manila,
the transports were inspected for closing up the contracts with them
under which they were detained, and soon they began to move. When
the China was ordered to San Francisco, I improved the opportunity to
return to the great republic. There was no chance to explore the many
islands of the group of which Manila is the Spanish Capital. General
Merritt changed the course of this fine ship and added to the variety
of the voyage by taking her to Hongkong to sail thence by way of the
China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Su