The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-05-08

Mestigo class, the foreign blood in thei
! veins being responsible for their super
lorlty. Were there a number of thOusand
| or these, instead of Il mere handful, there
might be more hope of a satisfactory eff
fort ut self-gOverIment on the part of tn,
tllIplnos during the present generation.
AguinaldC Is II small. slight man, prob
ably not over five feet three inches il
| hight and weighing about 115 pounds. Id
is very clean and neat, Jeyen natty, in hi
personal appearances and always wore /
full and reshly-laundered and pressed
| uniform. AT that time the uniform OF
! such of the insurgents as had any at all
which was in the main only the officer:
of the general staff, was the same as thai
of the Spaniards, and consisted Of &
medium weight cotton cloth of yertica
stripes of white and light blue about al
eighth of an inch wide, thus giving the
suit general appearance of very ligh
! blue. Because of the stripes and cOlol
we called it 1.-THE bedtick uniform to dis
| tinguish it later from the khaki, which
the Filipino officers adopted after the
Americans introduced it. With hi;
freshly-laundered "bedtick' uniform, 9
clean white collar and cuffs, fine straw
hat, high riding boots. a long and clank'
ing saber, belt with revolver, a field
glass hanging from a black silk cord, and
the famous gold whistle depending from
dnOtutT, lie wis II brave anu SdlldHI SlSnL
The officer who was with me was what
the Filipinos called ''grande Ameri,
cano." He was over six feet high
straight as an arrow, and weighed 2O0
pounds. He lowered above this little
popinjay in uniform like sturdy tree
above a rose bush.
| could not help contrasting this big,
brawny, intellectual, fearless American
officer with this little, conceited, shallow
a Gln srfn nft In ~
the serious disadvantage of the latter.
said to myself, we are Nation of TO-
100000 of people, millions of whom are
the equal or superior of this splendid
American officer, while the Filipinos are
but 100000, most of them almost saw
ages, and but a mere handful with even
the superficial development and civiliZa-
ton of this little man in uniform who iS
making himself a dictator among them
and endeayOring to set up Government
representing the will and interests of him
self and a few others associated with him
and contrary to the welfare and best in
terests of the ignorant masses whom he
would govern.
After talking a few minutes on gen.
eral topics we took our leave, both of us
firmly convinced that this little mans
ambition would not be satisfied with his
country freed from the dominion and
bondage of Spain ard held in the kindly
and paternal restraint of the United
States, while being taught the lesson of
civil liberty and selfgovernment, but that
he wanted to be dictator, and the final
outcome would be n clash between him
and his army and the soldiers of the
United States
Col. Alejandrino accompanied us TO the
hall and invited us to come again. and
to visit his headquarters when Manila
had been taken, his idea apparently being
that those headquarters would be estab
lshed in the city.
He was one of the most polite and
agreeable of the high-class Mestizos |
had the pleasure of meeting at any time.
He was of very light color, and was prob
ably more than half Spanish. Both in
intellect and education he was far super
ior to Aguinaldo, but he lacked his force
and reserve.
l do not believe there is any Spanish
blood in Aguinado's veins, though there
has been going on for generations such a
process of mixture of races as would defy
the most learned anthropOlogist to deter
mine the ancestry of any Filipino other
than the most pronounced Tagalog.
cOuntenance suggests that he
has n strain of japanese blood, possibly
also some Chinese, which is by far the
most common adulterant The native
Malay, however, appears to predominant.
He is a specimen of the class usually cali
ed Indian MestiZos.
The population is usually divided into
four grades: The Spanish Mestizo, where
the Spanish blood predOminates, or is
very apparent; the Chinese Mestizo, where
the mixture is strongly ChineSe-and by
the way this is the best mixture of all so
far as practical accomplishment is con-
the Indian Mestizo where the mix
ture is uncertain and of minor strength,
grading off to a small percentage scarcely
from the full-bloOd Tagal,
or Indian, who constitutes the fourth
class and by far the most numerous. This
applies to the Tagal tribe living in Cen
trial LuZOn, and only in a less degree to
the others, there being less of mixed
blood among the more remote tribes, al
most none at all in some of them.
In the Insurgent army, both at this
time and when better organized to fight
the Americans. the offices We're held al
most exclusively by MeStizOs, either Span
ish. Chinese or Indian. Let any person
pick up one of the numerous photographs
Of lnsurgent companies and battaliOns,
and he can not fail to note the decided
difference in color and general appear
ance between the men III the ranks and
the officers. | do not remember seeing
but one Filipino officer whom | did not
think Mt least an Indian Mestizo. and that
was Gen. Garcia, who was in command
Of the troops at CaloOcan that were so
badly defeated by the Kansas and Mon
tana boys. He was almost as black as
a Congo negro. and probably had some OF
the blood of the aboriginal negro tribe in
his veins. These Mestizes form an oil
garchy of brains and wealth and would
be the real governors of the country
should there be native Government at
all, yet they constitute less than ten per
If leila 10 Il
are chiefly concentrated in the few popu-
lOus commercial districts
ITO be cOntinued)