The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-08-10
raE MODERN cBIvALRY.
American Conqussts VIII Make Hon
or and Virtue Safe in Span
ish Colonies.
New York afall I'D E.xpress.

New York Mail and Express-
Captain Frank wildes, Of the Amer
lean cruiser Boston, who bore distin-
guished part in Commodors Dewe5's
splendid vietoTy at Isnila, has written
A letter to one Of his friends in Fort
laud, Me. describing picturesque IN
cident that followed the Spanish defeat
II viii be remembered that before the
arrival of The invading fleet the Span
ish Captain General of the Philippines
issued addresses to the people denoune-
ing the American sailors as pigs and
monsters. who, If they succeeded in
entering the city would indulge in
wild carnival of violence and crime
against life and property. The more
ignorant classes ofthe inhabitants were
made to believe these frightful stories,
and even some Of the intelligent resi-
dents were seriously alarmed lest the
dreadful Americans should subject
them to indignity and suffering. AS
Captain Wildes tells the story, Span
ish lady Of great refinement and beauty,
who had heard these terrible reports,
went to the British consul and asked
whether he really believed that the
hated Yankees were as wicked as they
had been pictured in the Captain Gen
erals proclamation. The consul simply
replied
MADAM, honor and virtue are safer
in Manila to-day than they have betn for
800 years"
That truthful assurance contains n
hint of one of the most important and
far-reaching results which the present
war is destined to accomplish Social
conditions in Spain's colonial territory
have long been VIGOROUSLY corrupt and
vicious. The unprincipled officials
whom the Spanish government has
kept in control of her island possessions
have debauehed both society and
politics many Of them have grown
rich by levying blackmail ON vice and
crime, and their influence has been
constantly used to stifie the morals and
conscience of the people. In an atmOs-
phere thus polluted life and honor are
held at their lowest valuation. The law,
administered by corrupt officers, has
offered no redress for the wrongs of their
helpless victims, and in some Of the
cities of these Spanish colonies, Ha-
vana, for example, women and young
girls have been debased to the lowest
depths of degradation
Under providence, the present war
will abolish these revolving conditions
and open the way for social order and
progress. In every one Of the colonies
which the clash of arms wrests from
the dominion of Spain, the status Of
woman, socially, Intellectually and
morally, will undergo an immediate
and steady improvement. She will
acquire larger liberty, a higher respect
and purer influence than she has ever
enjoyed under the degrading misrule
of Spanish mOnarchism, and her ulti-
mate advance to the honOred position
now cheerfully assigned to her Anglo
American sisters will be the crown
ing achievement of the nineteenth CEN
tury ehivalry.
Beneath the extraordinary and help
full interest which the women Of Amer
lea have thus far taken in the struggle
with Spain there is a profound cOnvie-
ton that this is holy war for the res
cue of womanhoOd and childhood
from the clutches of their despoilers.
The blood of Weyler's innocent victims
cries from the Cuban soil for Vengeance
and vindieation. The specters of he
helpless mothers and babes whom that
relentless monster pat to death by the
exquisite tOrtures of starvation still
haunt the horizon Of our latter day
civilization, and they will not down
until the merciless power Of Spain is
forever destroyed in the islands which
she has shown herself unfit to govern.
To this heroic task in behalf of virtue
and honor, the sons and daughters Of
the great Republic have dedicated their
hands and fortunes. The god of battles
will affirm the righteousness of their
cause, and they may confidently af-
peal from kings to time for the approval
Of their deeds.