Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
A MODERN BALKAN +.
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and oppression" The Filipino republic
which we should establish would be COM
posed not of patriots but of robbers and as
sassins ready to sacrifice everything to
their own selfish ambition" who had con-
taminated and depraved all their country
men and brought them a race into an
unholy carnival of miitarism, despotism,
brigandage and cruelty
General Chaffee indirectly asserts that the
whole people" have practically turned
war traitors" Schurman says that he tes-
titles that the natives ''ah have their hearts
set independence" The two statements
are as wide apart a s the poles.
Chaffee speaks for himself on the point of
insurgent patriotism" In another trial by
military commission it was confessed that
IF man did not pay his contribution to
the insurgent collector he was ordered to be
killed" Reviewing case in which Fill
pino was buried alive. and two native wo-
men were burned at the stake, Chaffee de-
nounced the insurgents in arms as 1.-The So
called guerrilla, but now degenerate, bands,
whose chief occupation Is robbery, enforced
by murder and assassination of their own
people,"
Patriotism he says, '1ong since ceased
to be the guiding motive of these bands
The number of men and women who have
been destroyed by their own countrymen
under guise of making war upon the Ameri-
can forces now reaches high into the thou
sands, and the work of these cowardly as
sassins, now misnamed insurrectoes, still
goes on in few districts where they pro-
Tess to be making war on the United States
but where, in fact, they engage only in
terrorizing the people into the surrender
OF enough property to enrich the leaders
ana support their ignorant and vicious fol-
lowers. The laws of war, having in view
the ultimate return of peace with complete
protection for the lives and property of the
people, denounce upon all such bandtti the
penalty of death No matter under what
name or society they may seek to disguise
their true character banded ASA ssins
the work of their determination will go on
until chlef and follower shall cease their
inhuman trade
The truth concerning the Filipino condi-
ton Is that good and evil are still in con-
fiict there, that the bandits have not uni
versally depraved their fellow -countrymen.
nor have the amgoes yet completely alb
sorbed the armed bands
We are invited to decide in favor of a do
mestic victory for the F'npinos in arms
over those whose voice has been for peace,
and. conceding that the formers hostilities
have created nation. to turn over the
archipelago to their control If history
were searched for parallels of the govern
ment which would be thus established
based upon the terrorism of secret murder
closer analogies would be discovered than
that furnished by George Washington's re-
public, which according to Schurman the
Filipinos are to emulate.
Historic Instances of Domination by
Murder.
The printed reports of the trials of Fill
pinos for murder and torture Of their
countrymen, and of stragglers among
American soldiers, present a horrible pic
ture, repetition on a large scale of the
case at Tay-Tay, to which reference has
been made Small bands of robbers and
assassins dominated whole provinces. The
murder conspiracy at Tay-Tay numbered
twenty-five, with only a few concealed
rifles They were not uniformed at any
time, but appeared in Tay-Tay as ordinary
citizens going about their peaceful pursuits
They were enabled to dominate the mass of
Filipinos by assuming the functions and
powers of the native chiefs. Chaffee says:
THE native surrenders his will unreserved-
ly to one standing in relation to him as
chief. The law of the land is and to him
always has been the law of terror His
chief holds in his hands the power of life
and death. So governed, the native sur
renders his service and conscience to his
chief and looks to him to assume any and
all responsibility for any crime he is told
to commit.
The Thugs in India were a religious fra
ternity of professional assassins and rob-
bers, which professedly in honor of the
goddess Kali is addicted to the committai Of
murders and chiefly lives upon the plumber
obtained from its victims" In southern In
dia the Thugs lived under the protection of
the native chieftains. They were divided
into organized bands, some of them large
in numbers, each with its leader, its teach
er, it's entrappers, it's strangers and it's
gravediggers. Part of the plumber went to
Kali and after every murder the Thugs
performed religious ceremony.
The Assassins Qashishim) of Persia were
military and religious order founded by
Hassan ben Sabab about 1890 and remark
able for their secret murders committed in
blind obedience to the will of their chief.
The order was thoroughly organized. First
as supreme and absolute ruler came the
Prince or Old Man of the Mountain. Then
his vice regents In Jebal. Kuhistan and
Syria, the three grand priors of the order.
Next the Dais and Reflks and then the I'm
initiated, first among whom were the
Fedais the devoted, a band of resolute
youths. the ever-ready and blindly obedient
executiOners of the Old Man of the Noun
tain. 1T Is easy to conceive the terror
which INSCRIPTIONS a sect must have
inspired. Several princes secretly paid
tribute to the Old Man of the Mountain"
Possession was obtained of many hill cas-
ties and for nearly two hundred years the
Assassins intimidated and dominated the
entire region. In time of the Crusades they
numbered $4,000 When under the sixth
successor to Hassan they were subdued,
hundred hill forts held by them were cap
tured.
Thugs and Assassins of India, Persia
and the Philippines.
The treachery and powers of dissimula-
ton ascribed by Chaffee to the rebellious
Filipinos were characteristic of the Thugs
Of India and the Assassins of Persia. The
| former systematically planned ''to insin-
uate themselves into the confidence" of
their victims. The latter's catechism pre-
pared by the Old Man of the Mountain
treated in one section "of the art of worm
ing themselves into the confidence of men,"