The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-30
CARAVANS FULL GOLFERS.
Going to Manila with Two Hundred
Dollars, He soon Was Worth Near
Million.


Albert c. Allen in Army and Navy Jour
nal.
l have noticed an account of the arrest
of one Carman, merchant
in Manila, who was suspect
ed of having unlawful dealings
with the insurgents in the Philippines.
happened to meet Mr.. Carman in the Phil
ippines and became pretty well acquaint-
ed with him. His career in the archipela-
go is an interesting one though short,
and shows how quickly a man can Sc
cure wealth in that country if he is
bright and active. The Philippines are to-
day among the richest in the world ana
the Island of Luzon alone abounds in nat
ural resources the richness of which is
almost inconceiVa BILE. The opportunities
which constantly present themselves are
many, and to one who has the right
business instinct and understands the peo-
pie and the peculiar conditions existing
there are many chances of securing
wealth.
Carman was one of those men who sees
an opportunity to make money where the
average man would see nothing, He is
a typical New England Yankee, some
what past middle age-if one were to
judge by his looks-and is shrewd and
not over scrupulous. He went to Manila
about the time the first volunteers went
there, with a couple of hundred dollars,
but he intended to turn those few into
many.
Doubled His Money on Coolies.
The first thing which attracted his at
tention was the fact that the army was
hiring Chinese coolies for different kinds
of labor Around the streets of Manila
there are thousands of idle Cinnamon,
who were only too willing to work for
about 10 cents a day. They were afraid
to go outside of Manila to work, as when
caught the insurgents invariably cut off
their heads, and there was not nearly
enough work for them in Manila. Accord
ingly Mr. Carman made a contract with
the leaders of this' outfit by which adj
of the Chinese coolies in Manila were to
work for him at price which we all
understood from the coolies to be Z pesos
($3 so a month each. He then went to the
officials in Manila and offered to let his
coolies for 10 pesos $3.50 per month per
head.
The soldiers were needed for duty in
the trenches and could not well be spared
to do the loading and unloading of ships
and cascoes and for the many other
things of the kind. The Filipinos them
such work satisfactorily, and besides they
were not as strong as the Chinese, who
are almost indispensable to the govern
nIent They unloaded the transports and
loaded the cargoes on the cascoes (hat-
bottomed boats like punt) and unloaded
them into the storehouses. They acted
as litter bearers in the field, and drove
the bull teams. In fact, they did every
thing except fighting.
AS Carman had contracted with every
coolie in the place it was impossible to
get any except from Carman, and of
course he made a profit of about SO. Is per
head-the government paying him, and
he paying the coolies. There were about
fifty regiments in the Philippines and per-
haps thirty of these were on the Island
of Luzon. Each company was entitled to
three coolies to be used as litter bearers
and general utility men. In all 1850 COO
lies were hired by the army in Luzon,
besides those working in the Hospital
Corps, the quartermaster department, the
ordnance department. etc. Altogether Car
mans revenue from the coolies must have
been something in the neighborhood of
IS, 600 per month.
$4,000 a MONTH More.
But Carman did not stop here oh, no!
He was entirely too smart for that. He
hustled around and coralled all of the bull
carts in the place and offered them to the
army a contract rates. The army had in
use something in the neighborhood of 800
bull carts and Carman made about 81, 100
per month profit.
While contracting for bull teams the
thought struck him that the army would
need something in the way OF water trans
portation. The transports were too large
to go up the Pasig river, and as there
were no docks all of the soldiers their
supplies and the cargoes from the ships
had to be reloaded on cascoes and lowed
up the Pasig to the landing place. Car
man was on hand and contracted with the
owners for the use of their boats at a
very low figure and made about 50 per day
profit upon each one. He probably had
about 100 of them, II not more, which
brought him $4,000 per month. These
three deals alone figure up to about $780,
400 per month.
Carman did not rest with this, however.
He kept casting around for other things.
He engaged in trade with the natives and
became associated with a number of
wealthy Filipinos. lie purchased a launch
and some cascoes and sent them up the
Pasig river into Laguna de Bay and
bought loads of cocoanuts, upon which
he made a profit of about 500 per load
He also traded for oranges, rice, hemp,
"tEAAh'ffNfA'f
many other things which he bought for
very little ana realized great profits upon.
Time went on and money rolled into his
ha..ds.
After the taking Of Los Banos a small
town on the shore OF the Laguna de Bay
(Bay Lake.. he made several trips 70
that place on trading expeditions. and II
was here that 1 first met him. Not long
after that he began hauling RATS OF ma
hogany down 10 Manila where he sold
the lumber at "A ploilt OF about 81 per log
This lumber. found out afterward. had
been cut by the Bpaniards and aban-
d0ucd by them. Caunan saw a. and sold
the lumber the only cost 10 him being
the putting ID into rafts and hauling IL
down 10 Manila protest Wnf made but
! never heafd flat q came 10 anything.
80 also obtained ihs United states
bonded warehouse lu Manila ana ran bic
business ln many other iines. De also
fffHlIienf4 fnf fret Hnl. m fhaf time,
Only Tanrfer company in nanla ie
Transferred NnFNaEf frufu fhf Hilna 0uf
lr flf lHnDf fY fhf rff. en1 bad wa
5000 nfff iq hau n' rNn A. iff dfsN-
ua nn hl ~ fhfsa fnIuFf hfluFHI iu
....| f..r0. d. ftsrar.I... .nffaH. NE..