The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-07
Gen. WbeeIer On he Philippines.
Writes For the First Time His Conditions
Observations Priests Religious
SlandS-CondiiOnS People

true of the rural districts, and the per
centage Of iliteracy in the other is
lands is much greater than in LuZOn.
The appearance, mode Of life, and
method OF performing work is today
very much like that described in the
Bible Of the beginning Of the Christian
era.
Methods 1000 Years Old.
The people dress very much as they
did 1000 years ago. the means Of trans
pOrtati0n by carts drawn by carabOas
is about the same, and their methods
of Smelling and cleaning rice is as pTim-
tive as possible and no better than
they were 1000 years ago. During the
last few years sugar mills and rice
mills have been erected in some of the
large cities, and this has especially
been the case since the building Of the
Manila & Dagupan railroad, but in the
smaller cities and towns rice is husked
by pounding by hand, and is winnOwed
by throwing it up and thus separating
the chan Just as il was done in the
earliest times
Products of the New Islands.
oranges and bananas are not as good
as in other localities, the reason no
doubt being that they seem to give
them no cultivation whatever. If they
were cultivated believe they would
be as fine as the products of any other
country.
Tobacco is grown in the valley of
Cagayan, in the northeastern part of
LuzOn, which is said to be equal TO
any tobacco in the world. The coffee
grown is said to be superior 10 Mocha
Rice is the principal product, and
a failure of that crop viii cause a ter
rible famine, as the people depend al
most entirely upon it for food. Sugar
is the principal crop for export. The
greatest amount exported in any one
1893.
Corn grows very rapidly and the ears
reach their full growth about sixty
days from the time Of planting. The
provinces which are especially spoken
of as productive of corn or maize, are
Niscaya, Isabella, South Camarines,
Pampanga. Pangasinan, Neuva Ecija,
Bulacan, Batangas, Albay and ARRAY.
Wheat is grown in BatanSas and
around San IsidrO and Isabel and IlicOs
Sur
There is a great abundance Of very
valuable timber in these islands and
many varieties Of beautiful hard woods
under native names, such as mahogany,
black walnut and ebony. Gold, copper,
coal, iron, sulphur, lead, building stone
petroleum and guanO are found.
Condition of the People.
There are many different tribes living
{ in these islands, the only ones in ma
tive rebellion being the Tagaios. This
tribe occupies some eight provinces in
the neighbOThOOd of Manila, and their
( association with Europeans has made
them more civilized than other tribes
We are now seven or eight miles
from BOrac where an insurgent force
has been stationed for some time, but
around here and through this vast val
ley. the people are actively engaged in
planting rice. I have been riding
around the outskirts of this place, and
the fields are dotted with men, wO-
men and children planting rice. There
/ are some tribes. the PamDangan and
some others. that sympathize with and
aid the TagalOs.
am confident that a brigade Of cav
airy could easily travel through a
/ great part of the islands.
Monkeys are numerous, the flying
/ squirrel, which has a fine skin, is found,
and also the wild cat the Wild hog, and
the water buffalo. The lion, the tiger,