Evening star., 1900-03-29

| torn up again and againcby the insurgents.
! Many Of the stations are in ruins, and there
| are eight locomotives lying near Banban in
| one of the rivers, which cross the track.
every few miles. and in some places the
! fortifications thrown up by our soldiers be-
| hind which they lay and shot at the enemy.
tine rahr9ad hch u 6gomgs 70 n nssn synd
make the Americans pay heafily for their
use of the road. 1t is a. question whether
| anything should be paid, for the road, am
| told, was operated by eFilipinos. and the
/ Filipino employees of the company were the
! men who did the most damage to the rail-
road, its depots and rolling stock.
The railroad is 100 miles long. 1t goes
through a country as fiat a floor and it's
construction must have been comparatively
easy and cheap. 1t has ffty-six.pound
rails, a gauge of forty inches and rolling
| repainted and labeled with the brand of the
United States government.
They are old, boX-like affairs uncomfort-
! able to an extreme. There is first. second
and third class, the first not being better
than that of our immigrant cars. The
roadbed is. 1 should judge, not over three
feet above the surrounding country, and it
seems to BE- enough to preserve 1t from the
floods of the rainy season.
This railroad has been in operation for
about eight years. 1t was originally built
on guarantee OF eight per cent from the
Spanish government. But the first coz
tractors failed and those who followed
claimed they had to pay so much to the
government in the way of bribery that they
could make no money. The original capital
was to be less than S., 900 OO0 but the road
is now bonded up to the neck, and what
will be done with it when peace permanent
ly comes is not known. 1t should be a very
valuable property, for 1t runs through one
of the richest parts of the islands and must
have in the neighborhood of 5000 square
miles Of rice and sugar lands along the
track. 1t has also other territory which it
taps, connecting the northern part of the
island with Manila.
Our Soldiers Run the Road.
AT present the road is run entirely by
the soldiers. They are the brakemen and
the engineers, the mail clerks and the sta
tion men. Every train has guards in uni
form upon it, and at every station there
is company or ready to defend any at
tack. Now and then some one shoots at
the cars they go flying along We had
one such shot on the way to Panique but
no one was hurt. Until recently none but
soldiers were allowed to travel on the road
without a pass, but 1t will soon be open to
both passengers and freight of all kinds
and 1t may be that it will be handed back
to its owners in a short time.
Panique.
Paniaue IS a typical country village At
least it is typical of this part of Luzon,
Nearly every section of these islands has
pecullarities of its own. The dialects are
SO different that it is said that the common
people of southern Luzon are unable 70
make themselves understood in the north
AT the same time, the Tagalo and Spanish
are enough to enable one to trade any-
where The common people are not trav-
elerS.
The ordinary man does not know any,
thlns about the country ten or fifteen miles
beyond him. Not long ago a priest was
asked If there were not some men in his
village VINO could guide one of the regi-
| ments over the mountains. He replied that
he supposed there was not a man in the
| town who had ever been to the mountains
Only the fewest of the F'ilipinos of northern
LuZon have ever visited Manila and as
rule the average man seldom goes five miles
away from home
, Outside the savage regions the houses Of
the people are much the same everywhere
Every village has a plaza open space in
the center with the church, the govern
ment offices and some of the best houses
facing it. Back of this, often running
for miles into the country, the roads
are lined with ;hatched huts, made of poles
OF bamboo and having walls of woven bam-
boz and roofs of nipa palm. These huts
are usually from three to six feet above
the ground in order to be out of the way of
me water during the rainy season. They
are so high up that the water buffalo and
otter live stock of the owner can be stabbed
under the hut.
This often forms a shelter for the farm
ing tools. carts and sleds. The houses of
the better class have first story of stone
and a second story of wood. There is no
plaster in any of the houses. The walls
are of boards and the windows, which are
very large. usually consist of a lattice work
filed with thin oyster shells. The best
houses of the country towns. as well as
Manila, use the ground floor for the stable.
do not know how the country stores
look in times of peace. Just now they are
very, very small. l should think $50 would
buy all the dry goods in Panique and leave
considerable change after the purchase was
made. The average store is a small hut
open to the street, the goods being spread
out on the floor for sale. The merchant
L. usually a woman, who squats down
among the goods as she waits for her
customers.
Gen. Joe Wheeler in the Philippines.
] have spent some time with General
Wheeler at his headquarters in the field.
His vitality is wonderful He is as active
at sixty-three as he was when he was at
the head of the cavalry forces of the con-
fed"racy, now more than thrty-tive years
ago. He spends a part of each day in ths
saddle, and has been in active service ever
teen different engagements and has done
remarkable service in his daShng military
way. At Porac last September he charged
over the enemyS breastWorks and took the
town, driving the insurrectos into the noun
tainS. He was in the thick of the fight at