The Norfolk weekly news. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1888-1900, 1900-03-29
NEGROS A PARADISE.
There is no Instruction on the
Island.
SOLDIER WRITES INTERESTINGLY,

htoNNbulS bOlttFS- tseN'tig VIZ W NN'uh'
tain Bandits, and Bect soldiers are Wig
orous and Healthy Oners to Bot.
\ correspondent to the Chicago Inter
Ocean writing from the island of
Negros, i'll the Philippine archipelago,
gives some most interesting facts in
regard to the island. The following is
quoted from his communication
THE Sixth United States infantry
arrived on the island last June, right in
the middle of the rainy season. Any
anti i%mperialist who thinks it is n regi.
ment of sick men had better steer clear
of the invalids along about sunset, when
the natives tap the c%ocoanut trees for
tuba, I've got five months pay coming
to me that says there isn't an athletic
club in America that can match them,
man for man, for robust health aud n
good, healthy desire to hammer thunder
out of somebody at least once every
twenty. -four hours.
October / last, eight recruits, fresh from
the states, came with me. Every man
of them has put on flesh since joining
the regiment. The good health of the
men Is not due to the easy time they've
been having. The men of the Sixth
would shy at n dry bed just ms a farm
horse does at an electric car. For five
months they slept in the mud and rain.
IN nd &c la,nf =, ,.-, 80 .l.... H. .-.'.
sore. footed from marching day and
night the sergeant major doesn't know
his name. But they can average eight
pounds of mountain beef a day and
whip their weight i'll ~catamounts. We
don't know what a sick man looks like.
AWAY back | proudly referred to the
fact that | had five months pay due to
me. That is SIS American. | expect
to get the money shortly. I'd like to
bet $50 of it on the following PROPOSE.
tions: Take a thousand picked men
and let them undergo five months of the
same exposure and hardships in any
state in the union hat the Sixth infantry
has undergone here and I'll bet that 10
per cent of them will be dead and 40 per
cent of them in the hospital. We've
had practically no sickness here. I'll
pick 1000 men from this regiment and
bet that there isn't a community of
$4,000 i'll the United States from which
a physician can pick 1000 equally
healthy men.
Now, about the Instruction There
isn't any on this island. | can't find
any evidence that there ever was one.
There used to be a Jesse James gang
and a Geronimo band back in the states.
They've got the same thing here. 1t
isn't something new that came in with
American rule. There have been Pa
piecio robber bands in the mountains of
Negros ever since God made Boston.
They live in the mountain businesses
and levy tribute on the plantation
owners. If the planter fails to put up,
his sugar mill goes up in flames. Incl
IDENTIFY, they attack women and kill a
few old men and babes. There is Just
one cure for them, and that is the Old
Testament recipe: determination root
and branch. We are prescribing that
treatment at present with fattering
results, and the peaceful inhabitants of
the island are delighted to find how
truly good a thoroughly dead Papiecio
can be.
If the present landholders on this
island were Americans of the type who
settled the frontier west Uncle Sam
could withdraw every American soldier
from the island tomorrow, with conf
dence that after a couple of squally
years all would be well. There would
ensue a little preliminary Winchester
rule and lynch law, and shortly people
would begin to ask, "What has become
OF the Papiecios?" / suppose that "Lo!-
the Poor Indian, Esq" of Boston would
make a great cutlery, just rs he does
now about the brutal soldiers. If Mrs.
$50 !-the-P Poor Indian" would only
condescend to rock the cradle and do
the homework, so that Mr.. Lo could
spend a couple of months over here with
us, we think we could convince him
that it is hardly fair to class Jesse James
and Aguinaldo with George Washing
ton.
1.-THE Negros Papiecios have been run
ming their tax collection agency and
numbering amigos on the side for so
long that the Spanish landowners here
come to take it as a matter OF course.
The Spanish soldiers appeared to take
the same view of the situation. The
history of Negros fails to show a single
instance in which the Spanish soldiers
chased a Papieco band further than the
foothills. And they would have as soon
thought of embarking for the moon
as of venturing into the mountains,
Now il is 6iffarant o.