The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-04


An occasional recreation consisted of OBJ
tanning pass from Jaro TO Iloilo. While
the road between the two towns was in
American control no person could enter or
leave the lines without permission. noilo
was at best but dreary change from
Jaro. The principal attraction was the life
along the mole, or shipping front, but fire.
quent typhoons in the rainy season pre-
vented much activity here. and there was
one season of six weeks when boats neither
entered nor left the moorings at the mole,
stone wall built up even with the ground
along the river channel into the bay for a
mile, along which runs a wide road sepa-
rating it from the huge storehouses filed
with black, strong-smelling sugar, rice, to-
hacco and similar products destined for
shipment by and by. After a time Molo.
town as far to the west of Iloilo Jaro
was TO the north, was invested and then
there was little more novelty. as the ma
tives remained when it was garrisoned and
our men came into direct contact with the
Bisayan as he really is-a shrewd, good
tempered. rollicking creature, anxious for
appreciation and sullen under rebuff Men
who had come here expecting to find race
of half-clad barbarians, unlettered, I'M
clothed and living in huts like bird nests,
soon had their eyes opened by encountering
people scantily clothed, on account Of the
climate. it is true, but living in fine homes
and many of them well educated-that is,
as education goes in Latin countries-an
ability to read and write But they were
found to be most eager to learn. 1t was no
infrequent occurrence to have natives with
tow hoo tn y,osr
ton in English. To them it was most diff
ficult to pick UP our spoken language, SO
different from the written, as far as VOW
els go. Vowels in the Spanish have but
one value-"a" is always pronounced "ah,"
sc" like broad "a in English. 'i'' and ''y''
like broad 'e." and so on.
LANGUAGE AND POLITICS.
1t was comparatively easy for the Amer
leans to pick up enough of their language
to make themselves understood, but il
seemed almost impossible for a Bisayan to
learn to say anything more than low doc
700 doc" and "Gude mawning" Hence
while large number of the soldiers can
converse with the natives, 1t is in their own
tongue or in Spanish instead of English
The Bisayan has the Spanish character
istic of vowel pronunciation. Aside from
some Of the cultural, Chino-Malay ejacula-
| tions, which are seldom acquired by Anglo
Saxons In their purity, obscurity, 1t is
comparatively easy to acquire, although
some words are equivalent to a line or two
Of English words. they are so deliberately
| and long-drawn out. One hundred, for in
| stance. is lisa gatus'' in Bisayan, but
| one hundred and twenty-five becomes pro-
fn lisa fms d,,I,
ca lima
The Bisayans are very diminutive peo-
pie. but are as the sands of the sea- The
roads between towns along the coast are
| lined with the less pretentious nipa-covered
houses, and all day the little barefooted
| men and women pass up and down them,
| like nothing so much as little brown ants
| swarming in a rapid column from one hill
| to another. 1 have never been able to
| figure out yet just how they all manage to
| get living, but they exist somehow, and
| their wants are not very extravaganza
| pint of rice and a few bits of dried fish
| supplying "sou-sou' for a whole family
| And yet many OF them manage to save
enough money to get started in business
in a small way. Those who are provident
| enough for this and have a smattering of
| Spanish education manage to build up i'm
| mense fortunes and live on a scale of
grandeur that would discount that of many
| fashionable centers in the United States
| And with wealth comes a thirst for power
"a desire to emulate the rulers of the
world. This leads them into intrigues and
political whirlpools. Once given foothold,
| the universal testimony of those who have
not driftee into the rings of the politicians
is that the native demagogues become
worse task masters than the old Spanish
regime, from whom they learned all their
| practical politics"
| Organizations like Tammany Hall might
come to the Philippines for some useful
hints on How it is DONE" Bulldozing,
threats and ofttimes actual murder and
| crime are the weapons used to suppress
those who dare to whisper words of revolt
| against the bitter oppression that is in
| flicted upon the poor and ignorant masses.
The masses do not know what real liberty
| is, nor would they know how to obtain it
and keep it, were they acquainted with its
significance. The coming generation. after
receiving an American free-school educa-
| ton, will doubtless be as capable as any
| other nation tinctured with centuries of
| Spanish influence, say the South American
| Republics, or Cuba, of exercising the 'in-
| alienable rights of man." Eight months
observation of the Bisayans, as we'll edu-
Gated as any other of the various peoples
of these islands, and far ahead of most of
them in natural aptitude, prompts the dec
| laration that the time is not now This is
| not one-man view. 1t is the opinion ex-
pressed by scores of observant men-those
who have the inquisitiveness to pry into
the why and wherefore of the palpable,
| obvious things about them. 1t is an opinion
that was pretty well developed when OBJ
servations were confined to some ten thou
sand Bisayans in the three towns at the
extreme southern end of the island and
which has grown stronger as the troops
| advanced into the interior of the island
and afterwards to this point on the far
northern end. The same sort of people,
living in the same manner, with the same
kind of advancement, and with the same
ambitions. have been found from one end
of the island to the other, and the testi-
| mony Of many men, who have spent as
much time on Negros and Cebu, comedies
with that of those who have observed the
Panay island portion Of the Bisayans.
READY TO ADVANCE.
The advance from Jaro and uoilo did not
begin until the 9Th and 10th OF November
| For several weeks 1t had seemed that the