The record-union., 1898-12-25

TIC o11iCEIS anu lISA VI Jul T$oaAA
mands put their names down for
sums of money which, at last accounts,
aggregated 81, 200, for the purpose of
paying telegraphic tolls on news items
from America and Europe for THE
American" That is supporting home
paper with a cordiality and spirit that
try.
But the thirst for fresh news is an
abiding one with Americans. They were
born with it. 1t was bred into them
They can no more do without the news
than without the staff of life. Their
hunger for news amazes the Spanish
and amuses the Filipinos, neither of
whom were ever disturbed if they did
not hear from the outer world for year
or so. They cannot understand why
Americans care SO much to read of what
is going on abroad. With the Spaniard
and the Filipino, sufficient unto the day
are the evil and the good Of the pres
ent moment,
In one number of 1.-The American" be-
fore US appears a copy of a document
printed shortly after the victory
of Dewey, and scattered broadcast
through the city of Manila and its en-
virons. This document emanates from
the Society of Jesus, and is the story OF
one Of their priests who had resided in
America in the earlier days. 1t re-
counts our cruelties, treachery and
abuses in management of the Indian
tribes of this continent, and proves to
the satisfaction of it's writer that the
Yankees would treat the Filipinos no
better. It closes with an appeal: Take
warning, oh, ye people of the Philip
pines!" though in words more extended
than we have quoted.
We ascertain from the columns CT
''The American" also that the pioneer of
American civilization, the saloon, is well
to the front in Manila, and that these
agencies for evil understand the art of
advertising, only they do it with less
grace and more abandon than among
US. They way they boast Of American
drinks, gin phiz and cocktails, the
brandy smash and whisky toddy, the
cooling cobbler, the fragrant Scotch and
other head-twisters would paralyze a
knight of the bar in our own land.
We learn from this first American
paper in Manila much about the detail
of local government; how the Provost
Marshal and his Captains run the Po-
lice Courts, and the penitentiary with
759 inmates; regulate the hack and
cab men, enforce port charges, insist
upon health ordinances, and keep the
peace between the "Chinos" and the
Fflipinos, who break one another's
heads much as the gangs on American
water fronts do.
There is an interesting official an
nouncement from army headquarters,
warning our men against excesses, and
against the use of the hydrant water,
and imploring and commanding them
to rigidly observe certain rules of
Habit, in order to avoid fevers and
worse ills. The same order deplores
the fact that so many soldiers refuse
to comply with the ordinary sanitary
regulations issued for their good.
Admiral Dewey is an advertiser in
the American" and announces to the
public that having raised and fitted out
a certain Spanish ship, he has no spe-
cial use for her, and that on a given
day and hour she will be sold to the
highest best bidder who puts in a
sealed offer. The Admiral details the
good points of the craft, and suggests
that somebody can drop onto good
thing by purchasing this edition of the
late enemy.
One of the American regiments, hav-
ing an eye to business, advertises that
as time hangs heavy on its hands, its
men have Clipped in" purchased,
stocked and opened store, where
pretty much everything in the Yankee
notion line can be purchased.
A good bit of work on the part of
the American is translation and
printing of the expressions of the
Spanish papers of Manila. Thus, what
they are saying to their people and to
the natives is laid bare TO American
readers. These extracts disclose that
the claim is persistently and pug
naciously made that the Americans
have possession of no part of the Phil
ippines except the port and city of
Manila and the immediate environ
ment Of the city. One of these Span
ish papers begins a leader: "Oh Godt
who appears to have forgotten this
country, perform a miracle, or this
land Of Luzon must become the theater
of bloody conflicts. as the whole affair
is so entangled that only by arms can
order be imposed and public affairs be
properly conducted"
Further on it insists that whatever
United States, war must ensue III
Luzon between the natives and the
Americans Yet in the same paper it
is frankly conceded that if local gov
ernment is given over to the Flipinos,
the revolutionists,' it would mean
Everlasting fighting" as every day
some pretext or other would arise un-
der which the different nations would
claim a piece of the country, dispelling
at once the ideal of those who long for
the union and. solidity of its inhabi-