Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-04-27

erchief. Their embroidery is something
wonderful; they prize it highly and value
it accordingly. Oft-times a single piece
represents the labor Of two or more years,
and is perfect in its execution.
The men are in most cases the family
supporters Their education is, naturally,
meagra, most of the boys time being spent
in attending cock fights and playing games
of chance, for they, as a race, are gam
blers. One of their games is to pick out
few cocoanuts and standing off some dis
lance throw them together, the owner of
the one that cracks or breaks FORGETTING the
"naegei."
| am in perfect health and | have begun
to believe that except on the march the
only way to keep so is to follow the Span
ish custom of coffee and crackers on rising,
breakfast at 10 A. NJ. and dinner at 6 p. NJ
abstaining entirely from food during the
heated portion of the day, and taking the
heartiest meal just at eve. We have eaten
when we could get anything to eat, and as
we have had no pack animals or wagon
trains for rations we have lived on every
thing from sweet potatoes, which will grow
anywhere, TO caribou or native buffalo,
which are very plentiful, if not always
tender.
There is a vast field for capital here.
Hemp grows wild and rice needs little en-
couragement. A portable saw mill here
now would bring to the owner a shower of
dollars. All timber is hewed and sawed
by hand. We have bridges almost num-
berless to build and there will soon be a
demand for lumber of all kinds The re-
sources of these islands are unlimited and
labor is cheap.
The natives are capable of becoming
law abiding, intelligent citizens, WITH of
course, a sprinkling of outlaws in the
mountains, who will soon have to give up.
The politicians who are so fond of the
sound of their own discordant voices that
they continually harp upon subjects of
which they know practically nothing, had
far better attune their vocal organs to the
pitch of reason and common sense and sup
port the administration in a work which,
in spite of all the croaking, is adding to
the realms of the United States country
which is bound to become a self-supporting
and in time a self-governed colony under
| the protection of a government like our
| now.
| have met officers who have been here
! year, who are earnest students of the peo-
| pie as well as deep broad minded men, and
these say with confidence that the proper
ton of Filipinos on the islands actively en-
gagged in war with the United States is not
more than one-fourth of the entire popula-
ton and of that number at least one-third
are warriors y from the fact that thev are
not permitted to return to their homes, and
in order to live must do as they are bid.
1t is a wrong idea that these people are
fighting for their liberty. IL sounds well
but full well they know that the advent of
the American means for them a prosperity
they had never dreamed of under the des-
potic rule of the Don, or the still more afro
cious barbarities perpetrated by the min
ions of Don Amelio" as "Aggy" haughtily
terms himself
The struggle is being continued by a few
unprincipled, though unquestionably smart
men, who are fghtingwith their impressed
soldiers for greed of gain-not love of
country-and for what they can wiring and
torture out of the inhabitants. From the
fact that they know full well that the
American will put stop to this highland.
ed pilfering they are hanging on with q
death grip TO fill their purse before leaving.
How utterly fiat and stupid the senseles:
rawlings of certain, to put it mildly, igno.
rant ones-better, politicians seem to the
men who are here where the veil of the
native and the crack of his Mauser or Rem
ington as he makes his usual night run VI
to the outpost and back are real things
can perhaps be partially imagined Their,
is little kicking among either men or officers
but you may rest assured that the United
States doesn't pay the real fighting army
cent that it doesn't earn. There may b,
some play in the game later, but thus fal
it has been all work. That is what we are
here for, and what we expect; but the PEG
pie who imagine that winter in the "sun
ny south sea islands" under these circum
stances is "long dream of pleasure" hav,
at least one more guess due.
Well, today is the 9th and tomorrow
start on my pleasure trip down through
the mountains, and long before this reache
you we shall have had another hit a
them, and if they don't dodge US again il
, the mountains, we shall succeed in keeping
them busy in the neighborhood of La Pass
Mails are irregular and uncertain. You
/ letters written Dec. "a and 81 reached M
Feb. 20. The average temperature her
for February has been about 20 f
The thermometers in use here are all cent?
grade. This place did have a population
of about $4,000, several large modern
! houses, and the rest huts. There are nj
, horses on the island but lots of ponies
Have IA in our corral here in Dagami now
and some of them are corkers None o
! them have ever been shod, but some vii
be within month. There were trenche
enough here to hold a small army, but n
sand in the occupants. J. L. +.