Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1899-11-11
FROM THE PHILIPPINES.
BAcoLoD. P.I., Sent. 20. 1893


Your letter Of August tn was re-
ceived Sept. cath. That gives you
some idea Of our distance apart when il
takes a letter six weeks to 60 from one
to the other. am quite well and much
more comfortable than expected to be.
The temperature here in the rainy sea
son is ideal In the shade during the
day the thermometer never rises above
SIS and at night a blanket is necessary to
keep YOU from being chilled 1t rains
to be sure, a regular Sam Jones food
every week, but one soon gets accus.
toned to the rain and does not think Of
il am not sure whether l have wit.
ten a letter since have been here or not
If ! have I will probably say many
things in this one that said in the other
for am going to assume that | have
not. ! have written so many since |
came that | have lost track of them,
Now, as to my impressions Of the
country and people, | have had little
opportunity to see the country. have
been in Manila, on Panay and Negroes
The latter is considered the finest agri-
cultural island Of the group, The lands
are very fertile and produce very fine
qualities of sugar cane, rice, tobacco
and hemp, besides, Of course corn, pc.
tatoes, etc, and tropical fruits. There
are many large sugar plantations and
their owners come nearer being 'lords
Of creation than any class Of farmers
] have ever seen The average net pro-
ft | am told, is 81, 50 to the acre. The
price paid for labor is peso week and
q quantity of rice, A peso is equal to
our SOC. Their methods Of cultivating
The soil are primitive-sn OK to an old
fashioned wooden plow, There mills
are also crude and the sugar as they
send it to market, is a black stuff unfit
for use. at least we would consider it
so These people had sense enough to
see our war would ruin them, so they
very wisely raised the stars and stripes,
and 7kad for our troops to come over
and garrison the island and protect
their haciendos against such insulrectos
as might arise in the island or come over
from other islands. Here, as in every
laud, suppose, horde Of guerrillas or
bandits took advantage of the disturbed
state Of affairs to raid and pluuder their
more fortunate neighbors. They as.
sembled several thousand strong, in
the mountains, aud led by one, Papa
lsi0. an ex priest, who claims now to be
a Mohamedan they made incursions on
the plantations and if the owners would
net pun chase immunity by large guam
titles of provisions they were burned out
and in some instances murdered. These
are the mer we have had to deal with
on this island, but they are getting very
tired now. The Sixth has teen go &C.
tive that they have been unable to have
much peace, Every time they would
get a good, safe place and accumulate a
lot of provisions our men would drop in
on them some morning about daylight
and before they could get their eyes
open our men would kill lot Of them,
burn their houses and carry away or
destroy their stores.
The lower Claas Of Filipinos, | believe,
are above our negroes in some respects.
More Of them can read and write and
they are more yirtuOus. True, they do
many things that would shock the mod.
esty of our people but they think moth
far when an American or any foreigner
is concerned, but 80 far as | can learn,
they are very honest among themselves.
We could not expect much from a p6o.
pie who have known foreigners only in
the person Of the Spaniards, who OBJ,
pressed and oftentimes robbed them.
The better class are not what we
would expect. They are very much
like SO many children. They make
large sums from their crops but they
seldom save any Of it. Almost without
exception they have to borrow money to
handle the next crop. They spend their
money on their homes and for all sorts
OftfoOlish thing One man has $40,
900 telescope for which he has about as
much use as have for a gold thimble
The only use to which he ever puts it,
think, is to watch the boats cross the
channel. Jewelry, cut glass, fine
clothes, shrines and images are some Of
the things for which their money goes.
They all gamble, from the least to the
greatest, male and female. You will
see little fellows with few cents, which
they put in ring and it seems they play
something like our boys play marbles
fer keeps That is if they can knock
cent out or the ring with another cent,
1t goes to the one who knocks it out, or
something like that,
The Filipinos are not given to litera
ture or art In the true sense Of these
terms. Dr., Rival, Of Manila, who was
put to death by the Spanards a few
years ago, was by far their greatest
poet, and he would rank very low, even
in our country. They have no paint.
ings worth the name though there are
any number of daubs. They seem to
be musical people but their efforts in this
line are limited. Ipresume it is true of
people in most tropical countries that
their minda, while quite bright in early
youth seem to reach the limit of capac-
lty or of application quite early-too
early to become profound in anything,
] do not believe they could govern
Themselves, mainly because no one be.
lieves there is man or set of men
among them capable Of running GOV.
eminent, They have no confidence in
each other. They would have the is.
lands in a chronic state Of revC luton in
five years. They have known no policy
but force and any government that can.
not keep strong hand upon them cam
not hold them. If the hand is strong
and they know it is strong it may not be
necessary to use it, but IL 1t is weak, or
they believe it is weak there will be
trouble. think they could be educated
out of this but it will take time, should
we keep the islands. Very few men in
the army want us to keep. They real.
ize that it means for them to spend
much of their lives here, and they do
not care to do that, although it is not so
bad as we expected. There are many
difficulties here that can be remedied.s
Now, you are liable to meet case of
small pox or leprosy any day you go out,
especiallo if you go to the market, Seq
regation and vaccination will, of course,
remedy these evils. The plague has
never taken hold here. Cholera and
yellow fever would, but it is possible
there are conditions here that would
prevent the spread of the latter, Where
proper care is taken it seems to be quite
healthy here. No one, OF course, feels
so vigorous as in the temperate zone but
] have been surprised to find so little
sickness among the troops that were not
exposed. AT Manila they have many
sick because of the hard campaigning,
where the men are out in the rain, wad
inc gfraQma marnhi1u fhrn,,oh ,,o,,d