Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-02-17
Second Scene In the Philippine Drama.

Much of significance attaches to the
success of American arms in capturing
1loi.o and Jaro pronounced Harrow)
in the island of Panay. Iloilo is second
| with which the Americans captured it
when the time to act arrived confirms
several things; one, the suspicion that
the Spanish We're not compelled to sur
render the town to the insurgents but
did so to emDarrass the Americans, an
other the belief that the insurgents are
not so formidable as has been repre-
sented. for General Otis did not wait
for reinforcements but sent from his
| meagre forces at Manila handful of
| men that We're equal to the emergency
of driving the insurgents from their
Undoubtedly the Filipinos are best
suited to guerrilla warfare,in prosecut-
ing which they will for considerable
time, probably, cause us annoyance.
But with their hasty retreat from all
principal points short of the wilderness
behind them their power as a force
representing the inhabitants of the is
lands is broken and the moral effect
upon them as well as upon their stand
ing as combatants in the opinion of
other nations is of very great import
ance. SO long as they held Iloilo in
had some show of foundation, which
now has been proved to have had
no real existence.
This new theatre Of our military
operations in the Philippines is thus
described:
The three large towns of the island
of Papay are IloiIo. Molo and Jaro. all
of which are punched together down
at the southeastern corner. The first
named is the big commercial centre.
where all the Europeans live. and it
ranks even as great as Manila in the
extent of some of it's shipping. Along
the river and the quay there are I'M
ItltIiSt 6OtloWUS 1iI1cu WIFI ue'1ftB, SuSal
and copra, and in time of peace there
are lines of steamers and sailing
schooners constantly running between
the town and the great sugar and hemp
districts of Negroes. Mindanao. Leyte
and the coasts of the island of Panay
itself. just now there are only Occa-
sional steamers plying back and forth,
and they fly some flag other than the
Spanish flag.
The town of Iloilo is not especially
interesting, the most attractive thing
about it being that it is a little cooler
than Manila. The official residence Of
the present governor general of the
Philippines overlooks the plaza and is
not particularly imposing. On the other
side of the plaza are the cathedral and
the big building occupied by the priests.
The chief business houses are on the
Gale Real, or chief street of the town.
! and with only two exceptions are
| owned by Englishmen OF Chinese. The
Spanish population is usually con-
| nected with the government or army
| in some way. or else work for the Eng
lish. There are three newspapers and
| nearly all the Britons in Iloilo happen
pretensions could be found, and that is
| purely a Spanish cafe. where dashing
| Castilian officers sit ten or twelve
hours a day telling how Sagasta ought
| to have run things. About five miles
out from Iloilo is Jaro. The road out is
beautiful with tropical splendor. but
| the bridge is broken down and one has
good walk in the blazing sunshine
| before one reaches Jaro. And after a
short residence in HOilo a person ac-
| Quires a wholesale fear of the midday
| sun. Jaro is where the natives live. 1t
has population of about ten thou
| sand, and there are no Europeans ex-
cept the Spanish soldiers occupying it.
| Molo-which. strange as it may seem,
is pronounced as it is spelled-lies off
from Iloilo in another direction. This
| is where the mestizOs, or half-castes,
live. Chinese who have married In
dian girls make Molo their home. 1t
| is. like Jaro, a large settlement and a
great number of wealthy Chinese have
built it up to quite respectable and
substantial appearance. There are a
number Of factories there where differ
| ent native fabrics are woven, but the
Philippines idea of a factory Is not
ours. Three or four looms are in q
residence, and the women members of
the household go out and weave piece
of cloth whenever the mood possesses
+! them.