The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-06-09
FROH THE PHILIPPINES.
Continued from last week.

Editor OF the Sea Coast Echo:
1t is only the well-to-do elias
here that can afford to be trans
ported all the way to their destina
ton of the future life of eternity
as lumber is. very scarce and al
sawed by hand. The corpse /;
taken to the cemetery in coffil
and then taken out and wrapped
in mating and placed in. the grave
and the sod shovelled in on them.
and the coffin is returned to the
undertaken to whom they pay q
few copper pieces for its use
Many of the poorer class are wrap
ped in a mating and are carried
to the cemetery on a board or a
bamboo stretcher, aud some take
their little pickaninnies on their
heads, all wrapped up like a little
mummy and place them in grave
only two feet deep and heap up
the sod over them. A small bam-
boo cross is placed at the head of
the grave, and after a rainy sea-
son has passed, the little mound
has been washed down to a level
and the little cross swept away.
The Chinaman is more particu-
lar as to the manner in which he
buries his dead countryman and
turns him over to joss. They
seem to have a fraternal order
which presides over the burying
of their dead, for they have a
cemetery of their own and all of
the graves are made exactly alike.
1t appears that Il certain sum is
allowed for the interment, which
is to be done according to speci-
fcations. After the earth that
was heaped over the corpse had
settled it is shaped in particular
manner and then plastered over
with a good quality of cement and
given the desired uniform shape,
and then the name, date, etc. is
marked in the soft cement at the
head of the grave on the end of
the tomb-like structure, which ap-
pear to be very lasting and they
have the appearance of being care
fully kept in repair. The richer
classes are placed IN very fine
tombs, according to their wealth
and the amount of money they
care to spend in that way. There
are hundreds of tombs here that
must have cost thousands Of dol
lars apiece.
All the Filipino cemeteries are
owned by the Church. A certain
sum is charged for space for q
grave, the vaults are rented. The
vaults are arranged in rows in a
great wall of masonry, and when
the relatives of the dead man or
woman fail to pay rent for the
vault ,;they have to move the corpse
or the good friar will proceed to
have their bones removed to a
place where rent is free and the
vault re-rented, consequently the
grave has not even afforded a
resting place whete his bones
would rest in security. There
seems to have been no rest for
the poor Filipino, either dead or
alive. Even his grave is robbed
of its bones that are thrown out
in the sunshine and rain until
they are scattered by the four
winds.
But the Filipino is entering for
the first time a new era that is to
be hailed with joy, for this time
they are to be lifted from the
dust that the serpent feeds upon
in which they have so long revel-
led. But Amoral has been the
great iconoclast that shattered
their idols and threw down the
unhoIy affairs where their hopes
for four long years had been sac,
rificed and no reward whatever fol
the mighty tribute exacted OF
them has reduced them to power
ty and confined them to the dark.
ness of ignorance. Under The
American system they will have ;
more wholesome religion that viii
not prove to be Upas tree tt
reason that has so long and eff
fectually petrified them in thei,
resources and precludes every ide;
and tendency toward progression
There has never been any educa
tional facilities calculated TO ben
eft the masses. Those who have
been lifted above his neighbor b,
a little education was not long re
alizing the advantage that it WoulC
afford in taking undue advantage
in his business dealings with bis
nonsuspecting and illiterate fellow
citizens and consequently instead
of being an advantage to his com
munity became a malignant can
Ger on the back of industry, anC
it is only necessary to inauguratt
our American systems which viii.
check this abnormal condition anc
bring about a more healthful anc
edifying and prosperous condition
of affairs, and in a decade the
Filipino would be in the lead OF
all the native races of the tro,
pics. for we have sufficient proof
that he is capable of high culture
and it is not at all probable that
the Filipinos will remain an enc,
my to the United States. 1t i;
easy to the realize that the time
has come for his development in-
to a worthy and self-respecting
member of civilization.
The aboriginal inhabitants Of tht
Philippine Islands are of a race
called Negritos by the Spaniard:
and Aetos by the civilized natives
They are supposed to have origi-