Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1902-08-14
PHILIPPINE CHILD LIFE.
picturesque Little Fagalpgs Who
Have in Them the Making of
American Citizens.

The first impression which l gained
Of child life in the Philippines was
when our launch was coming from
the steamer up the Pasig river to-
ward the custom house at Manila,
writes Rev. w. c. Clapp, in the Spirit
OF Missions. 4 Filipino woman was
washing her baby on the deck, if one
can call it that, of one of those long,
curious wicker covered barges, called
cascos, used as lighters to transfer
freight about the harbor.
And since then we have not been
obliged to seek for glimpses of Fill
pino child life. Here in Manila the
Tagalog (accent on the second syl-
liable, please) or Mestizo boy is every
where, and his sister is with him, or
just around the corner. And they
have very good times, too. Is 1t not
something to cause a sober thought
that one should so often see the art
less, smiling, dimpled, romping child
hood of people stiffeA into q grave
severe sphinXlike stolidity in mature
life? II Is q charge which cannot be
laid upon a single race; there is too
much of it, east and west. If we lose
our sympathy for children and our
likeness to them, what share can we
have in the joys of heaven? That IS
why one may be glad to find on land
ing in Americas new possessions
child eyes that attract one and child
voices that are musical. The mission
airy in a new field is looking for the
portions of the soil which are most
promising. The Filipino boys laugh
calls attention to the exact spot.
Rebuke not that laugh, even if it be
only about some childish sport, but
cherish it, prplong il, reflect il, trans,
pose 1t into the eternal praise around
the Throne.
1 have been looking at our cochero
and his family. He is not really ours,
but he lives downstairs. We can peep
through the lattice-like floor of our lit
tie dining-ropm and see them eating
their meal, all perched on one bamboo
bench There is ting cochero and his
good wife, then there are two eoehefos
who especially interest me. The
Younger one is but baby yet, and
some recurring physical ailment inter
rupts and postpones the full tide OF
childish glee, which, l trust, may be
his a little later on. The other is
study. / shall say that he is three
years old. His body is thin and brown.
His garment is one, simple, abbreyi-
ated diaphanous. He has queer way
of sitting down on his heels, not in
the excruciating manner OF his Jap
anese brother, who kneels; the Fill
ipino squats. 1t is an impossible atti-
tude for the normal Apglo7SaxoH, but
anv little coohero, like all the genera
lions of cocheros before him, does 1t
easily and by preference. hear this
little fellow at his boyish pranks in
and out among the banana trees, and
then see him in the attitude de-
scribed, with pursed lips and earnest
expression studying out some child
problem in mechanics with straps and
blocks. Little cochero will grow up to
be like his father, to regard cock fight
ing as an ideal pastime, or he may,
under better influences, prove what
many are denying that the Filpinos
are capable of, real progress.
Our view of child life in the Phil
ippines would indeed be but hasty,
superficial first impression, II we were
to be content with it's picturesqueness.
Little Jose and Manuel come rollick-
ing out OF school, with their yellow
covered American "First Readers" un-
/ der their arm. "Good morning." they
call to me, as If to experiment with
what they have just learned from the
New England teacher, who stands in
the doorway looking after them. I'm
mediately they lapse into Tagal to be
sure, but the solemn thought induced
( Is that here you have in embryo Amer
lean citizens, with all the possibilities
of success or failure connected with
so high a calling. In the schools which
our government is everywhere estab-
fishing throughout these islands Eng
lish will be taught, and by and by the
higher branches, sciences and arts, en-
bodied in a system Of high schools and
colleges. The question arises: What
relationship will this purely secular