The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-26
Discoveries on the Isle
of Negros.
WEALTH OF The COUNTRY
American Investors Overdue ON That
and Other Parts of the
Philippine Group.
CFrom the New York Sun,

(From the New York Sun,
BINALBAGAN, Negros. p. L.. June L.
This pueblo has a fairly good harbor. A.
little dredging and 'jettying' would
make it a fine one. AS it is, lorchas and
all sorts of sailing vessels engaged in
island trade come over the bar without
difficulty, and at high tide steamers come
in. Twelve miles up the country, at the
skirts of the foothills, is the pueblo of
Ysabela. The Binalbagan river connects
the two pueblos. During the dry season
the river is navigable by native small
boats only. but during the rainy season
a finer rafting stream or waterway for
running logs could not be asked.
Up the country, above Ysabela, the riv-
er winds in and out along the edge OF
the foothills and occasionally makes a
sharp look up ravine and for short
distance skirts right along the foot of a
mountain. whose sides are thickly tim
bered with the most valuable hardwoods
in the world. At every few miles a trib-
utary mountain stream that would serve
for running logs in the rainy season. emp
ties into the river. Thus it is for fifty
miles until the Rio Binalbagan finds its
source in the Canoan Falls on the Volca-
no Canloan. The wealth of the motn-
tains of Negros stands ready at the
swing of the choppers axe to fall into
the channel of the Binalbagan river and
take free ride to a goou har5or on the
. coast.
When / was a boy there was "lum-
ber millionaire in our town. That was
m ha hq uls nf he n &C StcSi nj q
townfolxs used to tell anecdotes about
the days before he had his millions
{ There was hardware retailer In town.
whose assets and liabilities had just
/ about balanced for the past forty years.
In summer weather this authority on af-
fairs commercial and financial used to
tilt back his chair, on the shady side of
his store and tell yarns about the ium-
/. ber millionaire. There was a brown,
8 greasy streak on the white paint of the
\ weather boarding, where the retailer had
g rubbed the back of his head for forty
years
Yes, SIR he would say to the travel
ling man from Chicago. I've known old
p Chawncey for forty-one years. (Old
e CLANCY, of course, was the lumber mill
: lionaire.) / knew him, dang him, when
8 his sawmill was nothing but a pile of
: rusty scrap iron without even shed
over II. Yes, sir. The scrap iron en-
gines would break down every five min
:, utes. Then he got some fool foundry
II man to trust him for lot of new ma
: chinery. And, of course, he wanted a
d roof over IL. or it would soon be as bad
n as the old scrap iron outfit. He had plen-
a ty of lumber of his own to build 1t, but
. nary nail or dollar to his name. Well
- sir. he came to an said he: Fudge
e smith. I want a kaig of tenpenny nails
Is on credit An. said /, skinning up my
% right eyelid with my finger. said I
'Chawncey, do you see anything greer
70 in there? You tote out the cash an yol
- get the nails
- "But say, dang him, somehow eruther
No he went ahead an built that shed owe
or those mortgaged engines. 1 wouldn't pu
Of 1t by him that he stole kaig of nail
TT some place. An then, dang him, he go
le a contract from the Government to mari
70 tho section lines of the new Government
survey of Wisconsin by cutting a stri
of timber along it, Yes, sir an got hi
pine timber for nothing an was paid TO
cutting 1t, into the bargain. An dan,
him, he was millionaire In a minute
Say. did you ever hear of the dern Gov
IN erEment givin away hardware? No. sir
I've been setting right here for fort.
years, but no Government never gave m
no kaigs Of nails. No, Stree"
e What beats me Is that i don't see an
e. ''Old Chawnceys' coming over here an
ne getting in on the sub-cellar floor. w
de don't want "Old Fudgesmith" here. Ther
sys. six million natives aIreaOy ana ever
-, one of them Ia a natural born "Old Fudge
- smith," only worse. But We want "Ol
US Chawncey" badly. There's millions
m the mountains for him, waiting to
ed foated down the river and sawed up an
81. made into the finest cabinet work an
~ furniture in the world And many OF Tn
"a natives are clever woodcarvers. In fac
- they are apt but lazy mechanics in an
line. The labor wage Is moderate, 10 sa
'e, the least. And the hardwoods are no
r. euualled in the wide world. There ar
n fifty different varieties. every one o
or which will take polish like burnishe
- steel There Is acle, more beautiful tha
either mahogany or rosewood. There
81 ebony And there Is alintatao, smiia
ed and equal TO ebony. And there are ais
soft woods and woods of medium hard
mess In inexhaustible quantities. The fir
est shipbuild.ng timber in the worl
grows right on these Islands. Uncle SaI
should arrange with some "Old Chawr
icey'' to mark out the section lines on tn
~, mountains of Negros. And incidental
is tie woodchoppers would drive Papa Isl
ur and Rufo Hugo, the Buguitnon bandit
,,r out of their last roosting pace. boil
a. in the hands of a puny native wouldn
~ be one, two, sixty in Il with an axe
III the hands of Wisconsin lumberman.
X would take American muscle for tina
'rs work.
he Every summer my landlady back 0
/, West S'teenthy-s' teenth street used
; rip up the rag carpet in my third-stor
"