The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-14

L -6A SoHupeIeQ some or the Onlcers
TO appear in uniforms which had seen
much service in the field
was deeply touched by the sponta.
lheous manifestations of Americanism in
1 every walk of life, from wealthy families
at their quintas, who feted us and Sc
cured all sorts of books to help them
learn the English language down
through all the grades to ,.ie very poor
II, In matter of business there were
delays, and / mentioned that the Amer
lean way was to do thing and not to
put II off until tomorrow, judges and
| lawyers and merchants FASTENED to say,
/ All right and went at it at once.
| They want teachers and books and pa
pers in order to learn our ways. They
want more than this-they want US to
come and run the government down to
the smallest officials
| Ladies, mothers of families. have beg
ged me to say that they wished President
Mckinley to send them American police
I men even. They do not know all about
| US as yet, and their confidence is very
/ touching. 1t is SO profound that we must
live up to standard which they have set
for u.s.
| One of the most interesting, and at the
same time most difficult, problems in
| Porto Rico is that of the destiny of the
very poor people. These are almost en-
| tirely of Spanish blood, usually by
some indirect immigration from other
Spanish-American countries. believe
the Spaniards took care to exterminate
the original race entirely, but there are
many evidences of Indian origin among
these poor people. They may be divided
into two classes. those of the towns and
those of the hills and valleys in the
| country. In the interior these people
| hou q no of NTH hot
ter food and houses can easily improve.
Those in and around the towns, however,
are so far reduced in blood and morals
| that it will-Sbe a slow, difficult and IN
certain task to elevate them. Those OF
the interior among the best laborers
of the world. When General Stone was
cutting that marvellous road along the
| brow of the mountain range, he employ
| ed twelve to fifteen hundred of them
| They worked for seventy-hve cents a
! day Porto Rican money, walked five
miles to their work and back and put in
| nine hours of severe labor daily. They
| did this on an insufficient Diet. Rice they
have three times a day il they can get
| it, Goldfish as often as it can be obtained;
occasionally they get tasajo, or jerked
meat; while they eat fruits and drink
water at all times to fill up. If they
can change this food-which seems a
hard thing to do-get more meat and po-
tatoes and bread, and less fruit, they
can improve not only their physical but
their Intellectual condition
For a day or two after the arrival of
the American army, many of the ladies
| of the best families lived behind closed
doors, but as soon as they were con-
yinced by the display of power that our
army had come to stay, and had brought
with it law and order they opened doors
and windows and mingled with the
crowds, delighted at the change of ma
tionality. Barbados were removed In
quintas, and people came and went with
perfect freedom anywhere within our
lines.
Their loyalty was very touching. had
a few buttons with the flag painted on
them. The daughters of the President OF
the Court of Appeals took one of these
and an old picture. as guides In making
''bandera Americana. When their
arduous labor was finished and the flag
was displayed over the balcony, some
| Of our soldiers began examining it criti-
cally; but on learning how it had been
made. they gathered crowd of their
men and cheered the ladies, cheered Por-
| to Rico, and took off their hats to the
| improvised emblem of liberty.
| The American furore was at its flood.
| To be an American was the only Gre
Dental you needed, and the highest one
| you could have. We who were of the
United States had the pass everywhere.
1t was immaterial whether we were in
uniform or not; if we couldn't talk Span
| ish, we were graded high up along with
sergeants, colonies and generals. Even
! the poor little dyspeptic news-sheet SO
| long depressed under Spanish rule. had
risen to the very foam of the wave, and
| tempered with the 'idioma Mckinley" In
ways that were fearful and celebrating:
| One enthusiastic editor closed all his ac-
counts and ceased publication OF his pa
per the day we arrived, sponged out the
| bitter past, and began new issue, with
new name and volume one, number one,
the day after.
There was not much real war in the
Porto Rican campaign. ] believe our to-
| tai losses in killed were three men, two
| at Coamo and one at Mayaguez, with
| some fifteen wounded. The Spanish lost
probably twenty-five killed, one hundred
/ wounded, and about 1900 prisoners The
sharpest battle was that at Coamo on
August 9Th. The great highway OF the
island is the Canine Real, from Ponce
/. to San Juan over the mountain ranges,
distance of eighty miles. About thirty
miles from Ponce, near Aibonlto ana
| Coamo the road winds through noun
tain passes ana aTOuIiu TIE SiucS VI vel >
i high hills. Along here the Spaniards had
strongly intrenched themselves to dis
pute our passage. 1t was here that the
Sixteenth Pennsylvania made the sharp
attack which resulted in lne utter defeat
I of the Spanish forces. A few days be-
fore the battle, the Lieutenant Colonel
commanding, PUG, had committed sui
| eide because of comments on his retreat
from Ponce The command thus devolv-
ed on Major Rafael NJ. Yllesca Captain
Hall of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania, who
wss-in command of our advance told me
that he had never seen or heard of bra
iver fighting than that of this officer The
Spanish troop did not have very much
Iheart for the conflict. and were kept up
only by the inspiration of their COM
mander. They were behind the breast
works. but Yllesca, as the only man or
horseback, was in full view of our sol
diers, almost every one of whom took
deliberate aim at him. Three times he
rode up and down his line, waving his
lsword and inspiriting his men. As Cap
tain Hall said. he seemed to bear 9
charmed life. Finally. however, as ne
turned on the fourth lap, he fell, pierced
by five balls, while his horse had a.
many more with his death the END