The evening times., 1898-10-03
A VALUABLE POSSESSION.
encouraging View of an American
Resident of the Philippines.

Philadelphia, and expressed his opinion
on the subject of the Philippines to
| representative of the Philadelphia In
| quirer He has2 been for many years
resident of the islands. and says of
| them:
When the throttlng grasp of mediae-
val Spain shall have been shaken from
the throat of the rich and fertile Philip
pines and the islands are placed under
the rule of free and enlightened America.
natives of this country will be given an
opportunity of acquiring riches such as
will dwarf into comparative insigniti-
canoe the alluring prospects of Califor-
mia in lS49 and the Klondike in 1897.
II will venture the statement that the
Philippines are the richest islands on the
face of the globe. today, and during the
next twenty years, thanks to Deweys
fleet and enlightened policy at Wash
| ington, fortunes of such prncely maSni-
| tude as would open the eyes OF a Monte
| Cristo will be made in the sugar, coffee.
| indigo and hemp trade there by the ma
| tives of this country.
THE opportunities for making money in
| trade are simply indefinite Energetic
| young men of pluck and a small capital
| able to accumulate enough to keep them
| in opulence the rest of their days. / have
| lived there many years, and know the
| chances for cnterprising and hard-Work-
! ing young Americans.
THE biggest fortunes will be made In
! the sugar industry Sugar cane grows
| almost wild in the five chief islands in
| the group The decomposed lava soil from
| the extinct volcanoes that run from north
! to south through the larger Islands. side
| by side with the active earthqu IKE max
| ing volcanoes has the requisite quantities
| for making sugar cane. Within one year
| the cane comes to seed The Plantations
of the Island of Samar hold the words
| record for the production OF rich cane to
! the acre.
Il have known Spanish planters on the
! islands of Samar and Luzon TO make
| clear profit of $3.50 per year from every
| acre The laborers are paid a Trivial
. sum. The colored people get on an aver
! age 30 cents week for cultlNallhg
the cane. Nature does the rest. With
| Yankee invention and energy many
| man will become millionaire from SD
gar-growing in the Philippines and IN ad-
| dition the price of sugar. owing TO COM
! petition. will be much reduced.
The Agricultural methods in the ISL
! an1s are about three hundred years out
/ of date Ox-carts are used for trarSpor-
tation and oxen for plowing. nave
! seen planters use a bent stick for prod
| with an iron point for p!ow. Think OF
/ of it, and think what Americans wlI do
! there in the nature OF Improvements. In
t crushing the cane and extracting the
! iuice methods in vogue in the time OF
/ Cortez. Pizarro and Columbus are still
( pursued.
But have not told you about the ISL
/ ands. their number and size. In all there
! are as many islands as there are in the
/ St. Lawrence River. l-uzon, whlch IL
larger than Indiana, has population OF
+ 100000 souls In Mindanao are 2.O9o.ooo
All told. the 1S50 islands have
oopuIation of S,O00000. Some islands
are only half an acre in extent. and have
! only a few families of savages living on
! them.
The climatic conditions of the Philip
pies will astonish Merritt's troops. rms
/ t-pical archipelago reaches within four
4 degrees of the equator, and Is In the same
latitude as Venezuela. About two hun
dred of the islands, varying in size from
/ fifty to six hundred square miles have
never been explored, and many are IN
habited by natives far more barbarous
! and intractable than our Sioux Indians.
Thirteen distinct and separate tongues
are spoken in the Philippines. Spain
J
! ands outside 9f Mindanao. Luzon. Sulu,
! Samar and Negros. This was for good
! reason-she could not. Think of the task
/ before our American people. but think
of the dazzling possibilities. 1t will be
! another case Of England in India.
in the islands 10000 Chinese, 5000
| Spaniards, SOC British and about $50 Amer
/ leans. The natives are OF Malay origin.
! and have the face. color and manner of
/ the Ma!ays They are handsome. brown,
! 1.-the and graceful with hair as black as
/ a ravens wing. and with flashing black
ewes. In all there hre about 100000 of
them In some Of the islands they are
| absolutely wild and eat human flesh On
! Pumolu Island the natives have prac-
! ticed human sacrifice for two hundred
/ years | was there once with several in
| digo buyers. and we saw the skulls of
! score of the natives stuck on bamboo
posts as a Precipitation 10 some spirit.
But enough of these narrowing details.
/ l was telling you about the future
chances for money-making. Aside from
sugar hemp is the greatest article of ex-
port in the Philippines, and about 40
| per cent of all grown is sent to this
country One firm in Boston paid on an
average of 3 cents a pound in Manila for
! So coo tons of hemp in the ten years pre-
vious to last January. For the last
| twelve years the expectation of hemp
| from the Philippines to this country has
/ been worth 81, 100000 a year. There arc
| immense possibilities for hemp culture.
now that the Spanish will soon be driven
| out
What the Americans have done in the
! fertile valleys of Hawaii during the last
generation will be duplicated in the Phil
! ippines in the next. Indigo plants grow
| in incredible luxuriance in the Philip
pines. The soil is so fertile that the least
labor gives surprising results. Indigo
plants yield double the capital used.
Think of that Many of the richest fami-
| lies in Manila-people who live in Paris
| and Madrid about one-third of the time
| and keep up royal establishments-have
made their princely fortunes in the indigo
! trade. The Alverado family owns an in
| digo plantation of some $4,000 acres, and
| derives from ii a revenue of fully 600
| a year. The least enterpriSing American
can see chances for limitleSS improve
ments there, and could double the profit.
"Cocoanut trees are sources of i'm
| mense revenue The nuts are demanded
| in the markets of the world, as much as
/ oranges and lemons. Profits of $3.50 an
acre from cocoanut farms are usual Ev-
| cry part of the tree is used-the juices
make oil and wine, the fiber of the leaves
are woven into cloth. and the husks of
| the nuts are shipped to England by the
| boatload to be manufactured into door
| mats To the native the cocoanut tree
is the staff of life. 1t will furnish food.
raiment drink, oil; vessels. vinegar,
| brushes, fish-lines. rope. fuel and water.
''It would take a whole page to tell
Sam has won. Think of the chances for
| lit in ha