The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-30
TAUGHT BY
SOLDIERS
How Negros Children
Learn.
ODD CHAPTER OF THE WAR
One Teacher Who Had to Construct
Grammar and a Blackboard
Incidental Gossip.

! ISABELLA, Negros, P. l., March 49,
/ This soldier game beats draw poker
| Talk about ups and downsi Only a few
weeks ago 1 was wading through muddy
rice fields, climbing mountains on my
hands and knees, swimming mountain
torrents on the back of carabao and
shooting Papaicios and being shot at in
return. was living on mud-crusted
hafdtack and bacon, drinking water from
caranao wallows and sleeping in any old
place. 1 looked like tramp and felt like
devil My feet were covered with mud
I sores and l was black and blue all over.
And now 1 put on fresh white duck
uniform every morning. wear tan
shoes, starched white shirts and col
lars, carry a silver headed cane and INV
buttons are so bright that even the Chi
nos take them for gold. l eat eight and
ten-course dinners, drink wine, beer and
cognac, and sleep in four-poster. 1 ay-
erage three balls to week and wear the
Papaicios colors, red and black, on my
straw hat.
You see, am now one of the advance
guards of civilization. About five weeks
ago 1 was relieved from duty as a SOL
teacher of English in the Isabella public
schools The men amuse themselves by
calling me the superintendent of public
instruction. The natives salute me with
hats off and address me as the maestro
About five weeks ago Gen. Smith, Mill
tary Governor of the island, issued an
order that competent soldier should be
detailed in each pueblo to teach English
10 the native children. A New iork
man named Driscol, who filibustered in
Cuba and understands Spanish, was de-
tailed as teacher at Binalbogau and 1
caught the JOB here; ! had made consid-
cradle progress with Spanish and some
headway with the native dialect. That
pulled the scales in my favor.
When l first tackled the job / figured
that L had snap. L had an English
spanish Ollendorf and expected to go at
a gallop. But | ran up against a snag
the flrst day. Out of nearly 80 pup Is,
no more than ten understood Spanish be-
yond the ordinary salutatons like Good
day and Good night" | discovered
this the first day ana went off by myself
ana figured some more | estimated that
there were about 600 Visayan words in
daily use and that l shoulo be abe to
master them in thirty days, especially as
had found that all the Visayan verbs
were regular L had no VIsayan books
and there was none in the pueblo. In
TACT, there are few in existence. So |
picked out few of the brightest boys,
some OF whom knew Little Spanish and
one a little Latin, and started in to con-
struct Il Visayan-knglish grammar. For
the fTst week l devoted all my time to
thiS select class and let the others go.
We made great headway. The Vlsayan
verb proved to be regular pie CO. was
<aCo haSa iaeat small go was
Acc maga lacat." Il went" was "Aco
nag lacat,' ard ''Wiu you 60" was "icao
naluJag mag lacat." 1t was easier than
shooting papaicios. Present time ''naga,'
future time ''maga," past time nag" the
imperative pag and the IL errogative
aiuJag mag, the verb itself never
changing. And every verb corrugated
alike. In week l was singing Visayan
cCmeth before long SWIM in the soup.
The first day that l opened up before
he school in general, l ran up against
the native schoolmaster. 1 haqn't spout
ed ten words of Visayan in explanation
of an English word when he began to
nudge me and whisper vehemently NAL
vim Fisayan," or Bad Visayan." Then
he explained to me that the kind of vi
sayan l had crammed myself with was
the kind the people talked all right
enough, but that it would be beneath the
dignity of a maestro to use it. He ex-
planned that all civilized languages, and
also Latin, which was especially entitled
to respect because it was dead. contain
ed many irregular verbs. Consequently
at some period in the past, the leading
school teachers of Negros had come to-
gather and constructed revised and i'm
proved Nisayan bristling with irregular
verbs. He admitted that if ! went into
a cocoanut grove and tried to bargain for
a smell OF tuna IN that language, the ma
tive wouldn't know what / was trying
to get at That, he said, was one of the
advantages of the revised Vsayan. 1t
was so intricate that no one but the macs
tros could understand it and that hoisted
the maeStroS away up on the ladder of
public esteem. The unrevised Visayan
was so simple that the children actually
learned Ii from their parents and school
masters had been at a discount.
This was a poser. But after due con-
siderauon announce q my determin-.+ t.ii
to go right ahead with the unrevisc, IL
sayan. The native maestro Us ir5
fed. 1t was evident thal ne cons. Gered
NE an anarchist and traitor to My
profession. He was so excited that he
actually talked everyday isayan He
hlally induced me to 20 with him for a
cor Sultation with another native macs
tro, the teacher of a select school.
went and took my brightest boy with me.
Ihe select teacher sided with the public
teacher. language that common peo-
was necessarily vulgar and not worth
teaching. I asserted that AGO naga la
cat was correct Nisayan for Il CO." be-
cause everybody but tine maestros said
and wrote it that way. The public
schoolmaster nearly had apoplexy. The
way to say II go" in Visayan. he said,
was Macadto ca At this. the select
eaoher fell upon him tooth and nail.
Nacadto ca" he asserted, was the rot
terest kind of Vfsayan and the correct
XTressicn was Sang IS a macadto."
tock my Nrif f'test Roy ard went back to
the school. The last / saw of the macs
tros t5ey looked like a pa It of windmills
granmer is rev IN the hands of all the
pul lie school pup IS. bus the maestros
@ross themselves ard say a little PRAYER
whenever they sight me- My little book