The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-16


forced to witness these cruel whippings
during our stay. After the whip
pings they were shut into the Jail
and kept there until relatives or friends
paid their debts. II there was too
much delay, another whipping fol-
lowed. Men sometimes died from the
effects of these beatings, and women
were subjected to the same inhuman
treatment as men"
While staying at zamboanFa, Mr..
Worcester witnessed an incident which
he gives without comment. Indeed
the matter of-fact way In which he re-
lates these examples of Spanish man
ners lends them additional weight. The
victim was
"' e gray-headed old fellow
about the place, who did some work in
the stables. He one day chanced to pass
through room in which we were sit
ting, in company with several Spanish
officers, and one of the latter ordered
him to bring a drink. Although he
was not a waiter he set off on the err
rand; but he was old and slow, and
when he returned the officer flew into
a passion because he had been gone so
long, knocked him down. and kicked
his ribs in. We found him later, dy-
ing, in a horse-manger."
THE FRIARs.
The feud has ever been n bitter one
between the temporal and the spiritual
powers in the islands, and the latter in
the end have almost always prevailed.
Differences have often arisen over the
question of the treatment of the ma
tives, but any counsels of mercy have
H.. I,,t
the State; and General BlanCo's recall
was procured by the friars because he
proved to be too humane in his treat
ment of the insurgents. IT may he inn
agined, then, that the iniquities of the
clergy were not less conspicuous than
those of the officials. Andres de Ur-
daneta and his little body of Augustin-
ians found a race whose creduilty and
superstition were unbounded, and their
successors, playing on these weakness.
es, rendered the native little more than
an ignorant slave The clero, writes
Don Jose Aguilar, has believed that
ignorance is Indispensable for the COM
plete observance of religious princi-
pies" Far from European eve there
fore, alone in his parish, it is scarcely
to be wondered at that he should be
guilty of deeds which will not always
bear investigation. Mere lapses from
the strict path of sexual morality are
so frequent as to excite no remark.
my host" says Mr.. Foreman, speak
ing of an acquaintance in NegrOs, was
the son of a secular clergyman; his
wife and sster-in-law were the daugh-
ters Of a friar; the sster-in-law was
the mistress of a friar; my host had
son married to another friar's daugh-
ter" But it was not matters such as
these which caused the reVolted Tagals
to torture their priests; their debtor ac-
count recorded weightier items. A
pagan MangYan, whose conversion
was being attempted, replied that If he
became a Christian 1t would cost mon
ey to be born, money to be allowed to
live, money to marry, money to die,
and money to be buried, and that he
considered himself better off as he
was; and this represents with fair ac-
curacy the relations between the cleric
and his flock. I'm one way or an
other" to quote Mr. Foreman again,
"the native who possesses anything
worth having has either to yield to the
avarce lust, or insolence of the Span
ish priest. or to risk losing his liberty
and position in life" In Cebu, Profess
sor Worcester visited a village where
the priest demanded such extortionate
sums for funerals that the people We're
unable at once to raise the money. He
therefore caused the bodies to be eX-
posed on the trees in the village square
until the relatives or friends were able
to pay the fees. A still more horrible
story is told by the same author of a
friar who stopped the delivery of a
cargo of rice sent during a famine to
the relief of his starving parishioners
and was thus enabled to sell his own
store at high prices to such Of the sur
Vivors as were able to pay for it. And
these, it must be remembered, are no
isolated instances.
1t is not astonishing, therefore, to
find a hatred so bitter on the part of
the more enlightened native, a con-
dcmnation so general and SO sweeping
on that of all recent travellers. Mr..
Ramon Lala, himself a Roman Cath
olic, who sees here one of the hardest
problems of the future. thinks there is
but one way out of the dnlculty--to
eXpel the whole body of friars from
the islands by so doing, he says. much
bloodshed will in the end be avoided
The whole body of ecclesiastics is not
included in the indictment; on the con-
trary. the native clergy have been as
much oppressed as the laymen, whose
interests and sympathies they share.
As an instance illustrative both of this
ana of the methods Of tn friars, we
need only mentiol the case in which
Despujois the Captain-General, instl-
tuting an unexpected search, found
the various 9cIltious pamphlets,
which the friars accused the native
clergy OF dissainnGtm0, Wore in real
ity the products Of their own printing
presses! They had hoped tnus to shed
lustre on their Ow body ana Iuin their
opponents, 0uJ they failed. The action
was felt to he trop Cort. even for the
Philippines. Nevertheless, it was not
they who were ruined, but Despujols
THE JESUITS.
One other exception there is, and al
ways has been Against the Jesuits
no voice of accusation has been raised
Confined, SO far as spiritual work is
concerned. 10 the island of Mindanao
and always most jealously regarded by
the friars, they have not only done
their utmost as missionaries in the
face of much danger and hardship, but
with their accustomed energy and wis
dom have advanced the cause of sci
ence wherever they have been placed.
TO them is due what geographical
knowledge we have of this great south
ern island, and the grammars and vo-
cabularies OF its lareuages are their
work; but it is IN Manila itself that