Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-20
OUTLOOK IN PORTO RICO
Badly Scared by Late Storm, but People
Hopeful.
Schools to BE Established and Roads
Built-What the People
Need Most.


| Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
SAN JUAN. September II. 1899.
Though little disfgured by the late
| storm we are still alive and kicking.
Two hundred thousand people are home
| less and the end is not yet. generous
| hand, though. has been extended to the
afflicted island. Could Hood have seen the
ship loads of provisions arriving here, he
would never have written Alas! for the
rarity of Christian charity under the
SUM-" But it will not do to be weary in
well doing. The terrible "borrasca,'' as the
natives call the cyclone. made wounds deep
and deadly that will not heal in many
months.
In the meantime, efforts of all kinds are
| being made for the more permanent well
| fare of the island. More roads and better
| schools seems to be the watchword of the
| hour and vigorous efforts are being made
| to supply both deficiencies. The road to
| Ponce, gashed and guttered by the storm.
| is to be repaired and other roads are to be
| constructed rapidly over marsh and noun
/ tain, giving work to many of the unem-
| ployed An electric automobile road from
San Juan to Ponce is among the early prob
abilities. More important, perhaps, even
than roads schools. and great projects
| are on foot for the building up of a school
system on American lines. This work. I'M
der the charge of DR.. Victor S. Clark, pres
| ident of the insular board of education, is
already well advanced. A summer school
| for teachers. with as many pupils as the
present limited accommodations will per-
init, has been in progress for some time.
Applicants Turned Away.
Many applicants have been turned away.
1t is a pathetic, and at the same time an
| inspiring sight to see gray-haired men
struggling with the mysteries of new
| language that they may give their chill
dren the advantages of education which
Spanish rule denied them.
General Davis has sanctioned the dona-
ton of tract of land between San Juan
and Santurce where an emnence over
looking the sea will be the first American
school that is to be the pattern for all
schools to follow. This will be a two-story
frame structure of ten OF twelve rooms, in
which instruction in all departments of
school work, from kindergarten to high
school, will be naugurated. 1t is hoped to
get the work under way by the last of Oc-
tober or first of November
Native teachers will be employed through
out the island far as practicable, but,
| for the present at least, the higher edu-
cation will be in the hands and heads of
American teachers, many of whom have al
| ready Won their spurs as teachers in Mex
| leo and other Spanish-speaking countries.
The departments of chemistry and physics,
closely allied to which will be a school of
| pharmacy, will be under the charge of
Phi. d. of the Johns Hopkins University,
and efforts are being made to secure Pm.
D. of some American university to take
| charge of the school of biology. A Porto
Rican university is already a matter of
discussion. and it is hoped that this cap
stone of the educational edifice may soon
| be put in place.
To Have Naval Station.
Another matter of vast importance to
Porto Rico is the naval station soon to be
established here. 1t will occupy about
eighty acres, and will be to the north of
the school.
So far L have been able to learn, the
greater part of the Porto Ricans are most
kindly disposed toward the older members
of Uncle Sans family, but 1t is hard to
learn how the upper classes feel toward the
stranger within their gates. There is al
ways the outward and visible sign of cor
diality at least.
Unquestionably there is a great opportu-
nifty for a most beneficent work among
these people. Old. and yet young, they
need to be trained in the veriest rudiments
of a practical education. They need to be
waters under the earth and less of the
heavens above. They want to learn that
their fields are more suitable places in
which to learn farming than nice little
bricked-in, checker-board-like plats of
ground. They need to study things more
and theories less. They want more facts
and fewer fancies. There can be Ques-
ton that, whatever may be true to the
benefit the United States will derive from
the acquisition of this island, for these
people. when Moro Castle fell, a brighter
day dawned for Porto Rico.
ENsENANzA.