Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-08-14

discipline his army and to spare his
cause from the shame of the eXcesse5
whom stained the flag of Spain. The
bandits whom the Spanish police had
never been able to subdue in the is
lands claim to owe allegiance to him,
and in this they deceive nobody. 1t
is known that Aguinaldo follows the
generous example of Menelek toward
his prisoners, and he has a horror of
reprisals. One of his first acts of au-
thority was to sentence a certain Boni-
facio to be shot for pillage and muir
der. He preserves carefully the relig-
ious beliefs in the hearts of his In
dians, thoroughly appreciating the fact
that his prestige would become lessened
by the diminution of faith. All hu-
man authority leans upon the super
natural, and that perhaps is the reason
why one man gains such ascendency
over others. The Tagals, fond of the
mysterious, attribute to their young
hero superhuman power. He lives un-
der their tents, participates in their la
bors, casts bullets, bakeS black bread,
and cooks maize Notwithstanding all
that, in their eyes he wears a halo. If
he should declare that he was invulner-
able his Indians would believe him.
Moreover, the reports that are seat
tered around and the orders that are
transmitted assume a legendary form
in this country. Before the insurrec-
tion it was reported in the neighbor-
hood of TOndO that at about 10 o'clock
at night the fiery form of a woman ap-
peared in the sky with a crown of liv-
lnS serpents. mat vas tne s.t,n Iol
the people that the hour for revolu-
ton was at hand. There was also an
other story that, at Biacnabato, a wo-
man gave birth to a child dressed in
the full uniform OF a General. That
was taken as the announcement of the
arrival of shiploads of arms for the in
surgents. These stories and appari-
tions excited the popular Imagination,
which ignored their hidden sense and
retained only the fantastic figure
1T has been said that the Spanish
conquest robbed the enslaved races of
their native poetry and that it dimmed
completely the lucidity of their minds
But a time always comes when the
spirit of a race is born again to grow
more luxuriantly than ever. Even the
soil gives to it a new sap. The Span
iards, therefore, have to-day not only
to struggle against men. but also to
overcome phantoms of the past nature
aroused from its sleep. legends that
have come down from the mountains
and the dead who have come up from
their graves. That is why the soldier,
overburdened by his task, tights with
out energy while the insurgents dis
play in battle the most furious cour-
age. In some cases they have rushed
upon the Spanish lines with nothing
but knives in their hands and have
come back to camp unwounded, but
covered with blood.
There is one good thing at least in
war 1t develops prodigious energy,
and when its cause is legitimate it
gives a moral courage to all. The
halfbreeds and the Indians in Manila
do not differ either in their nature or
in their education from Aguinaldo's
Tagals. Like the latter, they have fine
heads and graceful figures Like them
also, they have among them broad
faces, hydrocephalic foreheads and an
upper lip so far removed from the nose
that the whole physiognomy presents
painful and stupid expression. Never
theless, the foreign residents. especially
the Spaniards, judge them falsely
They insist that they are lazy, avaric.
ious and passionately fond Of gamb-
ling. They prostitute their wives tc
Europeans and the women consider
that it is an honor for them to bring
into the world child with a high
nose (alto nariz). They are STEPPED
in vice.