The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-08
BAD IMPRESSION CREATED
BY THE CONDUCT OF SOLDIERS AND
PIONEERS OF TRADE.
Natives Built Too Rory Hopes, and
Now They Are ShattePed-An Edi-
tors Reply to Criticisms.
Correspondence Of tho Associated Press.

4GllOIlS III LILO past nave D6eQ largely with
old established and reliable European con-
Germs and to-day he is making comparisons
between the pioneers of American COM
merce" who, with baggage and sample
trunk, are daily landing upon the shores of
Lis island home, and the business men of
the continent whom he has known in the
past The result of this keen scrutiny and
comparison is not overwhelmingly favor
able to the American pioneer-it has in fact,
brought into life the old Spanish word bus
cones" "Buscar''-to hunt, to seek; ''bus-.
oones"-hunters, seekers adventurers and
some even say the term means cheats and.
piferers
The Porto Rican is hard to fool Be
cause his island is in a far away corner of
the West Indies, the location of which had
only lately become known to the majority of
Americans not in schools, and because he
had lived quietly at home and attended to
the business and pleasures of a community
of some 100000 people, he is none the less
pretty good judge of men and manners.
The Americans who are to-day in evidence
upon this island have been weighed and
found wanting. Commercially we are MAX
ing the same mistake here that we have al
ready made in another Latin-American
country and that has been to underestimate
the intelligence, the perception and the cul-
ture of the business men thereof.
As the Porto Rican is quick to detect the
roughness, the bad manners, the lack of
courtesy. the receptions and the guile of
some Of his recent visitors, so is he equally
quick to perceive contrary qualities in
others among them On the first points he
is, perhaps, oVersensitive, and may be said
to fail in appreciation of the rough diamond
On the other hand there are qualities pres
ent in the Anglo-Saxon gentleman of breed
ing that are as incomprehensible to the men
of this capital is the idea of cold and
snow to the ignorant laborer of this trop-
icaI island
THEIR ESTIMATES TOO HIGH.
In the beginning, the Porto Rican overes-
tlmated us, and part of the awakening he
is now experiencing is natural reaction
In the beginning the word American stood
for all that was best in the way of govern
ment, civilization, advancement education
manners and commerce. Our country and
its institutions were looked up to by the
masses in a way that is difficult to under
stand to-day. Americans fresh from the
States were regarded as almost superior
beings. When we landed here before the
war the islanders invested us with a
glamour Of the wonders in Washington and
New York that we had but recently ea1ed
| upon. Anything and everything American
was considered to be pre-eminently the best
of its kind In the beginning, our welcome
was based upon these conceptions L. was
thought that the passing of Spain and the
acceptance of the stars and stripes would
carry with it some magical influence from
the great country UP north, suIicislt in
itself to put an end to all that was unjust
and wrong, and to straighten out the af-
fairs of this unhappy island as with a
tairy's wand. From this unreal mental at
titude there has come the consequential
awakening, which has been furthered and
forced to the other extreme by the repre-
sentatives of the United States who are
now in evidence in Porto Rico
The misbehavior of the American troops
came first. 1t was disappointing to discover
| that the saviors of the country behaved
with unmistakable rowdyism This was
hardly in accordance with preconceived
ideas. But the misdemeanors seemed to
continue, and, although we found many
stanch defenders, men and women, too, who
said that it unfair to judge an army
by the actions of some few of its soldiers
and much more unjust to Judge a people
by volunteer soldiers, recruited from the
lower and worst classes; that soldiers on
a campaign were never known for their
gentle manners; that things would soon be
better, etc, talk of our undisciplined troops
prevailed in the local papers and examples
OF their misdoings We're printed and re-
peated by word of mouth. Some men rea-
soned that these actions were in truth, no
fair criterion of a people Such men could
perceive the self-respecting men in the
army. In way that was pathetic, because
of its ill-concealed disappointment, a we'll
known local paper argued for fair judg-
ment and the refraining from hasty and I'M
just general criticism. Some natives saw the
matter in this light, but the majority did
not The majority judged the army and the
country by the acts of the few, and the
mal-reputation of our soldiers grew apace.
The pendulum swung back too far in the
other direction-this is a country and Ian
guage of exaggerated words-and the army
got worse than it deserved. Still, there was
much truth in the many assertions.
AN OLD RESIDENTS COMPLAINT.
a gentleman of the writer's acquaintance.
a thirty years resident of Ponce and a mal,
of culture education and much knowledge
of our country and Europe, said that he had
lived in Porto Rico during many troubled
years and under many modes of adnninistra-
ton; that he had always avoided politics
and attended quietly to his profession of
doctor, and that during all his residence
here life mad not seemed impossible. But
that now it did. III the past his family had
always been able to attend mass, to walk
on the plaza of a Sunday evening and to
sit out on their porch, which is on the sec
ond floor, without molestation of any kind
from any one. But that now his daughters
could not even sit at their own windows
without being subjected TO insult much less
go on the streets. Consequently his family
We're as prisoners within the walls of their
own home and it was his firm intention to
remove himself and them TO a country
where such things did not prevail. Ponce
has been particularly unfortunate in this
respect.
The Porto Rican is no saint, far from it,
indeed; he has his full share of faults and
vices, but the rowdyism of uncontrolled
troops is particularly distasteful and Often
siye to a people who are at least gentle.