Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-05-16
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5 NEWS FROM
! OUR COLONIES.

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Senator Albert J. Beseridge Of In.
diana. who made a tour Of the Philip
mes last year while the first volunteer
regiments were camping on the trail of
the Insurgents pays very Mandatory
tribute to the character Of the men com
posing the invading army. Writing in the
Philadelphia Post, he says: The Ameri
can soldier lools the master; bis face is
the face cf nobility: his stride is the
stride of q prince In the Philippines, in
China, in Japan re looks the lord of the
land He has a fine holiness of con-
duct He goes every place. All doors
open before him. lie absorbs everything.
He has the spirit of aequisitiye inauis-
fiyenesS In Japan, every street Of every
port al which he touches is full of him.
The shops are infested by him. He in
speets the palaces with the curiosity of
intelligence. He wanders among the
temples Of the ancient gods. modern
Omar meditatins a new Rubaiyat. Al
the giant tombs Of the dethrcaed Sh0-
gpds he sits and muses. on the ceaseiess
;ide of time which changes all and hnaily
submerees ALL He is a learner al first
hand, No printed books or papers for
him when the book Of The world is be-
fore him No painted map for him when
the chart Of the earth itself is beneath
his feet Ne dry nor faneful account for
him Of the strange peoples Of humanity 5
first homes when he may see and know
and absorb the spirit OF those peoples
themselves
A belated war story comes from Ponce,
Porto Rico, and is told by Lieut. Juan
Arato OF the Spanish engineers When
the war broke out, said the lieutenant,
1--WE found that our supply Of ammunition
of all sorts was very low. Some was new
and some old; some was black and some
brown; some was old-fashioned and so
was smokeless and mysterious. Thee
was one lot of brown smokeless powder
which was marked, Use with care. Very
powerful. Keep cool and dry! and TO II
was attached a legend that it had burst a
Krupp field gun. | determined to try IT.
| employed a small charge in gun, and
to my surprise it refused to go OF. My
gunners were very much Disguised, and
one of them said: Bah, this is no good
for war III use it for cooking our sup
per- We all jumped as he threw a dou-
BILE handful into a small camp tire Judge
of our feelings when we saw the hre go
out. / afterward learned that powder
Of this sort detsriorates with age, and
that long before mis- case was opened it
was as harmless as wet sand
The plant which - being erected in
Manila by the United States Government
for refrigerating and ice making Is an
enormous affair with capacity for cool
ing at one time no less than 1000 beef
earcasses. 1900 sheep, 100 tons of salted
meats. as well as for the storage of inn
mense quantities of eggs, vegetables. but
ter and other articles, enough TO supply
the army in the Philippines for months at
a time. In addition it will be capable of
producing fifty tons of ice per day and
5000 gallons of distilled water The ice
will be manufactured by the ammonia
process. The building will be nearly 300
feet square and about fifty feet in height
-
In Porto Rico the laboring classes are
on the verge of starvation; there is work
for them to do. but the planters who
need their services are without funds
Win WHICH 10 euipiuN them. A@Nth AhS
| Porto Rican people do not know, nor do
| they realize, the condition into which the
islands people as a whole have been
| thrown. The distribution of relief sup
| plies was discontinued temporarily some
| weeks ago. AS a result many people be
| gan to drift in from the country districts
| to the larger towns, where some ratlons
were distributed Recently more than
sixty ragged, starving women walked to
Ponce from Nannjito, twenty miles away,
to present a petition to the Governor
General.
The Cuban company. of which Sir VIII
liam Van Horne is president. has secur-
ed options upon al of the railways in
Cuba. Gen. Samuel Thomas of New
York, who is one OF the directors, made a
hasty trip TO London where the roads
are owned. and returned yesterday with
| The options in his pocket The Sagua
railroad will cost the syndicate $1,000
| 900. the Caibarien railroad S2,000.OuO,
| the Saviniala road S5,eO0.000, the Cicn-
fuegos S2,50O,000 aud the Jucaro line
| SS.000,00 Ii is the intention of the
| syndicate to purchase. consolidate and eX-
| tend these railroads over Inc entire isl
| and
The div; on of customs and iusular
/ affairs of ne War Department has given
| out a ~ arative statement of receipts
at the cn- oms port of Manila during the
years 1898 to 1897. inclusive, with the re-
ceipts of the port in 1899. Also receipts
named comprised tonnage, taxes import
duties, export duties. fines, seizures, etc.
| The receipts oy years wee: In 1898. 81,
100. $40; 1894. s.. 49,. 269; 1895. s. ,3GS.-
234 1896 81. 421 .332: 1897, S2.916,ST0;
1879, S3,S25.15
| 1t is stated that in three months un-
der the American plan the school attend
ance in Cuba has been raised from 1000
to $4,000 pupils, with 200 teachers. Al
| though English is taught. the teachers
| employed are Cubans. No local school
| taxes are raised The school expenses,
which it is expected will this year reach
| 100000 are paid from the island
| treasury The teachers wages are high
or than those paid in he United States.
A correspondent asserts that as a place
| for a permanent investment Guam has