The Holly chieftain., 1902-08-22
FILIPINO CHARACTER
oSsca,ssp " AN AHMy OFFICER

tU1v- NeV1Ss - SSS SUVSV fTt0
Ress-Wlil Requtrs. vsars to Rsael,
Our standard u civlIizatlon-con-
ditions In Luxon improving.
Denver, Aug. 19.-The Republican
this morning prints an interview with
Lieut. g. W. Gordon OF the Eighteenth
infantry, who has served three years
with the Sixteenth infantry in the
Philippine Islands. and who arrived in
Denver yesterday. To-day be will as
sumo his position as first lieutenant of
the company at Fort Logan. He had
many thrilling experiences in the
islands and says he Is thankful he was
able to get away from the far East
alive.
Yesterday he came in from San Fran
cisco, whore be has been confined In
the hospital for the last month or more.
He left the island of Luzon about the
middle. of June and has been busy
travelling up to the time of his arrival
In San Francisco.
II went to the. Philippine islands In
the spring Of 1899 with the Sixteenth
Infantry" he said, land l have been
stationed In the province of Cagayan,
in the northern part gof the island Of
Luzon. We were to a large extent cut
OF from the rest OF the island and did
not know much as to what was going
on in any part Of the country.
1.-THE Filipino, I presume, is getting
to be better known in the United
States since SO many soldiers have re-
turned to tell Of him., But Il do no.
think that one cam know him thor
oughly until he has met him in his
native land. can sny one thing about
him, and that is he can Ike ones friend
and enemy at the same time and per-
form both functions the most graceful
ly Of any Individual that ever knew.
There is no question that the Filipinos
are hospitable, and while you are un-
der the shelter Of his roof you are per-
fectly safe, but after that 1t is we'll to
l. look out.
"They are peculiar, and 1t will take
many years to bring them up to the
standards Of civilization that prevail in
this. country. At present the Fillpinos
do not have an adequate conception of
the rights and privileges of an An,eri-
can citizen, and do not know wlltt it
means to enjoy the liberty that be-
longs To the average citizen of the
United States
but taking 1t all In all conditions on
the island are Improving. This is espe-
cially 30 In the matter of garrisons for
the army. 1t is getting SO now that the
barracks are being made so that they
| there we had to endure many hardships
rxyIHi oil ri ri, t,1 +hA knll
ing, but at the time were anything but
interesting.
"The Fillpinos speak all sorts of Ian
| guages, and they are of all kinds of orr
| gin. suppose there are nearly 100 Ian
guages used In the archipelago. In the
section where l was stationed there
were at least four. The better class,
of course, speak Spanish, and most of
them can understand 1t. Their own
languages are mixtures mostly found
ed on the Malay roots and .intermix-
lures of Spanish and Chinese. To
communicate with the people is one Of
the difficulties that have to he encoun-
tered at first They once had an Alpha
bet of their own. but those that are
able to read and write now use tho
Spanish alphabet. In fact, there are
very few that can write, much less
read. E-ils
i was stationed seventy miles from
where General Funston captured
Aguinaldo, and the detachment under
my command has made several expedi-
tions after the willy Filipino. On one
expedition there We're four men
drowned out Of seventy-flve, so 1t was
a rather perilous task to 20 after the
man in his own country where he could
easily intrench himself In the woods.
Funston's way was the only way, I be-
lieye, that the man could have been
captured, and think he deserves all
the credit for It,
s'Three weeks before Agulnaldo was
captured the detachment under my
command was considering making an
expedition to capture him, but for some
retson we did not go. We were at the
time the nearest troops to the scene.
Zone Of the difficult things that the
authorities in the Philippine islands
have to contend with is the cholera
and smallpox. The people hide the VIC
Tins of the disease. and II some OF those
afflicted die they are thrown Into the
river or are secretly buried. This
makes 1t most difficult to fight the dis
ease. While there never was a great
amount Of cholera In the islands, still
1t was spreading rapidly Mt the time
left. Most of the cases were Isolated
ones.
with the gradual introduction Of
new ideas. believe some day the Fill
pinos will be able to hold their own
with the civilized nations Of the earth.
At Nny rate t1ny will boanmo a /. ,,,,,c1,