The age-herald., 1898-08-18

AGUINALDo's YOUTH.
From Student to Farmer, Then Chief of the
 Insurgents.

The young man-he is only twenty-seven years olG-who is at the head of thirty thousand Philippine insurgents, and who has caused the president of the United States some anxious hours, was born in the village of linus, in the province of Ca vite, and lived there until the rebellion. His family titled the soil-rice fields and sugar cane-the possession of which the order of the "Recollets,' the greatest - proprietors of the province, contested by incessant lawsuits. The father of Aguin- aldo, having little means endured great privations in order to enter his son in the College of St. Jean de Lateran then at the University of St. Thomas, at Manila. The cost of entering these establishments is high enough; it varies from 1,200 to 2,500 francs a year, according to the wealth of the family.
 In this school he studied Latin grammar and Spanish grammar. Although he passed easily from college to the university, the professors regarded him as stupid. '"The Dominicans," says a Manila writer in Le Temps, of Paris, "despairing of making Aguinaldo any credit to them, sent him back to his father advising the latter to embrace for his son a career quite other than that of the priest, of lettetrs of science-the profession of arms. Gener- al Acarraga. who was born in the Philip pines, who has been chief of state at Mad rid, minister of war and lately president of the council of ministers in Spain also made his first studies at the University of St Tomas, and was also sent back to his fam fly incapable student.
 'The father of Aguinaldo naturally did not share the general opinion of the in- telligence of his son, and entered him at the normal SC 4ool which the Jesuit athers directed at Manila; he was beginning there to be noticed by his professors, when his father died. He teturned to linus and de- voted himself eagerly to cultivating his patrimoHy, in spite of the persistence of the Recollets in not recognizing his rights.
 Thus matters went on until 1893. when Dr. Rizal created at aniiaM the Philip pine League It has other object, this league, than to unite politically the archipelago with the metropolis. It was of short duration, for, to belong to it, 1t was necessary to have an annual revenue of 2,000 francs Rizal was deported, and soon afterward was formed another secret society which in a short time counted more than 25O members. It called itself by the name of .Katipunan, which signifies .So- ciety of cooperation and of protection for rural socialists
 Tt was then that the government of the 1nllpplneS, tn6 iuemDerS Ol the 'Katipunan' with those of the Philip pine League and the Free Masons, under took against the natives the policy of re- precision, cruel and merciiess, which has been so fatal. An order was given to ar rest Aguinaldo, who was suspected of be- ing one of the most active chiefs of the Free Masons. The Spanish officer charged with this mission presented himself before the dwelling with a dozen native soldiers armed with bayonets. Aguinaldo, without an instants hesitation, knocked out the brains of the unhappy officer; then, haran- guing his escort, he shamed them at being in the service of a power which for so many centuries had oppressed the country. His appeal to rebellion was without doubt eloquent, for the little troop acclaimed him, and putting him at it's head, went out of linus. gaining the wooded heights which surround the village.
 This was the nucleus of the insurgent army, which now consists of not less than 3O,O0O combatants, having for its ,unques- tioned chief the blackbaled student of the University of St. Tomas