The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-09

CORRESPONDENCE of the Associated Press.)
SAN JUAN porto Rico), Dec. H.
The Porto Rican business man is OF
keen intelligence and of quick percep-
tions His relations In the past nave
been largely with old-established and
reliable European concerns ana To-
day he is making comparisons between
the pioneers of American commerce,
who with baggage and sample trunk
are daily landing upon the shores OF
his 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 over
whelmingly favorable to the American
pioneer. 1t has, in fact, brought into
life the old Spanish word buscones.
hunters, seekers, Adventures, and some
even say the term means cheats and
pilferers.
The Porto Rican is hard to fool. Be-
cause his island is in a far away cor
ner of the West Indies the location OF
which had only lately become known
to the majority of Americans not in
schools and because he has lived quietly
at home and attended to the business
and pleasures of a community of some
eight hundred thousand people, he is
none the less a 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 making the
same mistake here that we have al
ready made in another Latin American
country, and that has been to under
estimate the intelligence, the perception
and the culture 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 con-
trary qualities in others among them.
On the first points he is perhaps over
sensitive and may be said to fail in ap-
probation of the rough diamond. On
the other hand there are qualities pres
ent in the Anglo-Saxon gentleman of
breeding that are as incomprehensble
to the men of this capital as is the idea
of cold and snow to the ignorant la
borer Of this tropical island.
In the beginning, the Porto Rican
overestimated US, and part of the awak-
ening he is now experiencing is ma
word American stood for all that was
best in the way of government, civil
lzation, advancement, education, man
ners and commerce. Our country and
its institutions was looked up to by the
masses in way that is difficult to
understand to-day. Americans fresh
from the States were regarded as al
most superior beings; when We landed
here before the war. the islanders in
vested us with a glamor of the wonders
In Washington and New York that we
had but recently gazed upon. Anything
and everything American was con-
sidered pre-eminently the best of its
Kind. In the beginning our welcome
was based upon these conceptions. 1t
was thought that the passing of Spain
and the acceptance of the Stars and
stripes would carry with it some mag
1cal influence from the great country
up north, sufficient in itself to put an
end to all that was unjust and wrong
and to straighten out the affairs of
this unhappy island as with fairy,s
wand. From this unreal mental at
titude there has come the conseuuential
awakening, which has been furthered
and forced to the other extreme by
the representatives Of the United States
who are now in evidence in Porto
Rico.
The misbehavior Of the American
troops came first. 1t was disappoint-
ing to discover that the Saviors of the
country behaved with unmistakable
rowdyism; this was hardly in accord
ance with preconceived ideas. But the
mlsdemeanors seemed to continue. and
although we found many staunch de-
tenders, men and women, too, who said
that 1t was unfair to judge an army
py the actions of some few of it's SOL
olers and much more unjust to Judge
a people by volunteer soldiers recruited
from the lower and worst classes: that
soldiers on 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
mlsdoings We're printed and repeated
by word of mouth. Some men reasoned
mat these actions Were in truth no
1alr criterion of the people; such men
could perceive the self-respectin- men
in the army
In a way that was pathetic because
OF its ill-concealed disappointment a