The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-06-12
Observations in the By Prof. ch'' E Hoys
Of Sang Run who spent
Philippine sIands.oA 'S: z s, :s, y,

and keep in good health if they do
not try to work too hard and avoid
exposure in the rain and noon day
sun, but lacking a vigorous climate
and exercise they will become weaker
the longer they stay. l really like
the steady warm climate there better
than our severe and sudden changes
here.
Rice is the farmers chief crop: he
also raises sugar cane and fruits such
as bananas, oranges, cocoanuts, man
goes, etc, and in some provinces
hemp and tobacco, which are the
most valuable exports. None of our
Garrett county fruits and grains. ex-
cept corn, are raised,
Cigar factories are the most impor-
tant factories. Lumber is sawed by
hand and is very expensive. The
large business houses are owned by
Spanish, English, German and CIV
American firms. Chinese do mos; Of
the retail business; every town has
one or more Chinese stores. They
are the Jews of the east and are dis
liked as much as Jews are here Most
of the native shops are kept by wo-
men, who are more industrious and
attend to business better than the
men. The men especially are lazy.
A farmer works very well during rice
planting and harvesting, but most of
the remaining time, about eight
months, is spent in idleness and
gambling. The laborer works until
he gets few dollars, then rests until
his money is gone, when he is obliged
to begin work again.
Nearly 400 years ago Magellan dis
covered and named the islands. Span
ish priests gathered the people into
towns, taught them Christianity,
built churches and sometimes schools;
so that before the first white man
built his cabin in this county these
islands were said to be civilized but
America has advanced very fast while
the Philippines have progressed very
slowly, until today we send them a
government and teachers.
The Filipinos are of the Malay
race; brown skins, long straight black
hair and are small and slender in
stature, a grown man being about as
large as an American boy of fourteen
or fifteen. They are entirely different
from the Negro race in physical APP
pearance, manners and customs. The
children and young women are de-
cidedly pretty. The young ladies
cannot compare with our white girls,
but, with perfect forms, long black
hair, black eyes, good features, round
faces and clear brown compilations,
they are very attractive. Perhaps
nowhere on earth is there a greater
confusion of tongues than in Manila.
The natives speak about twenty five
dialects. Formerly they were divided
into many tribes and each large tribe
had its own language. Only the edu-
Gated natives speak Spanish, though
many can read and write in their own
| dialect.
When the priests converted and
baptised the people they generally
gave them Spanish names. Some of
these are very pretty and rather
amusing to us. Angel de Paz (Angel
of Peace was one of my native teach
ers. Domingo Dikit Sunday Pretty,
Lorenzo de Jesus and Maria del Cruz
MARY of the Cross were my pupils.
When woman marries she does not
take her husbands family name and
their children usually take both the
fathers and mothers names.
The clothing worn is some thin cot
ton, for men usually white and for
women many colors, and is always
kept clean and neat. Children under
eleven years are not very particular
what they wear, often appearing on
the street in Natures garment-a
brown skin. The wild mountain
tribesmen only wear ''gee" string,
i. e., cloth, around the loins.
A natives ordinary food is always
rice, fish and fruit. A pot of cooked
rice, a few little fish and some bananas
are placed on the floor; the family
crowd around in a circle, sitting on
the floor, and all eat with their fin
gers from the same dish; after dining
the fingers are carefully washed, not
before.
Filipinos are temperate people.
They like their native wine, "beno,' y
but drink little except on holidays
and then rarely become intoxicated
Many of our soldiers, however, &C.
quired strong appetites for this liquor
and being cheap they drank it to ex.
cess. This habit brought on more
sickness in the army, especially in
sanity, than any other one cause.
Everybody smokes cigarettes and
smokes them at all places and upor
all occasions except in church. Chew
| ing tobacco is not knO Wn hut nerhan