The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-09-26
"SUMMER ISLES OF EDEN."

have visited the Southern Philip
pines. It was during the first week in
July that I made a visit to our latest &C.
QUESTIONS south. On the Spanish ship
were Spanish folk, S. auish customs and
Spanish hospitality. It is a good thing
to have a change. / found the Span
iards different from the English and
Americans and in some respects ] en-
joyed their boat better than among
mine own kin. On the journey there
was not the rush and crowd and trou-
BILE that you have with our folk. You
do as you think best. Get up at 6
o'clock or IL or not at all. No signs of
keep eff the paint" deck hands not
allowed here" or breakfast from 6 80
to s: 80, " as you have on the great trans
Atlantic grey houns. Everybody goes
everywhere; in short you are welcome
TO the ship.
The sail down Manila Bay towards
the sunset has wonderful charms If we
do justice to it. The mighty ships in
the ofing, the mountains Of Mariveles,
pale in the ~atterglow, like the face of
the unhappy nun who gave them their
name; green Corregidor, and the soft
glory of sea and sky.
America owns ITO, 900 square miles
of real estate down here, but as yet she
has been content to occupy only a few
acres tringing the ave AS u boat
gIides out Of the bay and our PROV is
glided by the setting sun we discern on
far horizons the deep green of Mindoro,
island of misery and hope. The cap
tain says he used to sail into it's deep
rivers and shovel coal for his craft off
the natural strata of the bank. El
Captain has sailed these seas before; is
Drowned by the seas and suns of full
ten years in the archipelago. "Ah,
una buena vista; tambien mucho di-
nero, Senior Americana" he says to
me IS I look with great interest on
Mindoro. You Americans do not
know the prize you have. The Amer
lean Government all right; Ike knows
much rich Islands here; American PEG
pie not know. Spanish Government
they do not know how rich this place
is; Spanish citiz ms do" A clear head
has the Basque captain. No moons of
green cheese for him.
Wherever we sailed it was green
islands green horizon, Bohol, green
Mird0ro and greener yet Cebu. Cebu,
described by the old Spanish roman
GERS as "a little basket of flowers
anchored amid the waves"
Lieut. Colonel Bayless, OF the Ten.
nessee, Wes in command Of the sol
diers Zone battalion OF T~snnessees and
battalion of the 23:d Infantry He
said that there was little organic d op
position to American occupation of
Oebu-150 rifles and 1000 bolos. The
insurgents are at Ludlon, in q place
four miles from Cebu, surrounded by
hills.
There is a unique state OF eff airs at
Cebu. Colonel Hamer, of tie Idahos,
is American governor Of the island,
Senior Lcrente is Filipino president.
They live together as brethren in unity.
Col, Hamer told me Lorente was per
haps the best man in the island to rule
it. He has been appointed by General
OTIS n of the ass )ciate judges of TIE
supreme court at Manila. l intsr
viewed President L rate and found
him q charming gentleman-Mestizo
Spaniard and Bisayan. He said the
best classes favored American occuDa
ton. Some who tave neither princi-
pie nor p o2erty want a fight. In wild
places If Ct bu are mountaineers who
seldom visit the large towns Ambi
ticus leaders tell them false tales OF
American cruelty, and horriolenees.
An English family at Cebu assured me
that their servants besought them to
protect their children on the approach
OF the dread Americans, who they un
derstood were black and ate bab;ee.
In that strange maz of contradic
lions, which we call humanity, 10
tneory seems to be so false and FOOLS b
nat It will not fnd devotees. Thus,
as we sailed still further south. past