The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-02-13
GOLD FEVER IN MANILA.


FROM the New YORK EOSl-l
According to DIR. George R. White, E
surgeon attached to the general Held
hospital staff, and lately returned from
Manila, a rush for the gold fields IS pr ,
pairing in Manila, where crowd OF over
1000 miners, land spectators, dtScharg-
ed soldiers, and Adventures has assem-
bled, waiting for the establishment OF q
civil government and the assurance OF
protection of their lives and property
And when the race for the interior be-
gins it is bound to be one Of the most
picturesque episodes of history in the
new century, he added today.
1T has come to be taken as an as
sured fact that there is gold in large
quantities in the islands. One may hear
the subject discussed in the clubs, in the
cafes and in the saloons Prospectors
and soldiers have struck pay dirt along
the banks Of the Rio Grande and up
above San Isidro, which they claim are
deposits washed down from the noun
tains. Natives from the back country
have brought down ingots of pure gold,
winch they have bartered in trade with
the whites. They usually sell them for
half their real value, but they cunning
ly conceal the location of the places
whence they came. Besides the gold
there are known to be valuable deposits
of coal, iron ore, petroleum, copper. and
marble
Around the harbor Of Cebu there are
big deposits of coalsunder the first layer
of earth. So easily is it to be mined
that several army officers formed a
company and started to get it on the
market. I am told that they sold it for
$40 ton. Then Gen. Macarthur at Ma
Mia heard Of it and forbade further op-
erations by this company, as it was con-
trary to articles Of war for officers in the
army to profit by business enterprise in
a territory in which they were operat-
ing by force of arms.
.At the harbor Of Rombolon deposits
of white marble are to be seen In the
face Of the cliff that forms part Of the
harbor.
There is no doubt that, outside of the
army, prospecting is going on all the
time, and that the adventurous spirits
who have come to Manila with the gold
fever will be packed and ready to move
when they may do so with some degree
Of safety and with confidence in the fu-
ture.
In what say I do not want to i'm
ply that the islands are overrun with
immigrants
when I left a desultory warfare was
still being carried on by Filipino bands,
not large, it is true mostly of about a
dozen men who kept themselves busy
holding up towns and levying taxes on
the peaceful natives Those who are still
lighting are making their own cart
ridges by filling empty brass shells with
small pieces Of lead wadded in paper,
and when they raid a wagon train and
capture ammunition it is noticed that
they draw the leads from the captured
cartridges, cut them in halves, and
make one charge do for two It is the
general belief in army circles that
A guinaldo is dead, and that he was shot
last July by American soldiers. Papers,
which are apparently official, have been
brought IN bearing the name of differ
ent insurgent chiefs who have, in each
case, signed themselves commander-in-
chief of the insurgent army
My last station was on the island Of
Samar. where six companies of the
Twenty-sixth infantry were holding
three towns. Catbalogan, Calbayog, and
of from six TO ten thousand in
habitants each. The Forty third had oc-
cupied the whole island which is about
the size OF Massachusetts up to Janu-