The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-03
Express Prepaid.

ering from an earthquake; not that these vsitations are at all unusual in the is- | land. but i'll the latter part of September one occurred of unexampled severity, de- stroying buildings that had stood for two centuries. Among these were the cathe- dral and the principal schools. There are many school buildings, but they are. | at present out of use for the most part, owing to lack of funds. In the principal town, Agana. there were four schools teaching in the English language. All are now closed. There are two in Su- mar. also closed for the same reason. There are others distributed round the island, those teaching in the Spanish lan- guage being open still. These schools have support which is wanting in the newer schools, and those children who wish to learn English are using the Pro testant Sunday school as means of learning the English language.
 The teachers of the newer schools, while teaching in English used Spanish as a makeshift to explain the lessons to the beginners; although Spanish is not spok- en to any great extent in their homes the people have sufficient knowledge of it to enable Spanish-speaking person to teach them.
 The land is not cultivated to any great extent. the people depending greatly on the cocoanut, banana and orange trees that grow without any care. A little rice is grown by Japanese labor, which is the only available labor for field work.
 The natives are anxious to learn Eng fish and to adopt some American ways. but not sufficiently so to induce them to work for money to pay teachers; they want the United States to pay the bin. While there Is large part of the popu-
 
 enough to become Americanized, their in- veterate idleness is an almost insuper- able barrier to their improv 2ment.
 When a transport is expected to ar rive in Guam it is necessary for the po- lice to make a raid and corral all the native help needed to unload the ship; if they did not do so the men would take 70 the woods till the transport left The government pays them l peso (40 cents) per day; under the Spanish rule they were bald about one-third of this price, Mfr. Logan, the Congregational missionary. in- formed me that he was una he to secure the labor to build or repair his church. not that there are no laborers but that they did not want to work at anything until they were forced by their uecesst- ties to do so. If one of them wanted any thing that he could secure only by pay ing hard cash he would work till he earned the money to buy the desired ar ticle; then he would leave the job. It was impossible to secure as many as eight men all in the mind to work at the same time.
 There is no opposition to American sov- ereignty on the other hand. we were re- peatedly told to help ourselves to what ever fruit we saw and were told that this courtesy was extended to "Ameri- canos. nadie mas" No intoxicating ifauors are sold In the island, although enc can get the native tuba in the near est hut There is no newspaper and very little news. The field for commerce is al present non existent; after the people have been taught to work and increase their wants there might be a small field For American goods. The land is hsw- ever. or great richness, almost unculti- vated, and to a man fresh from the cat tie ranges of Arizona and New Mexico 1t is very miracle of fertility.
 There is a general opinion among all nationalities in the island that only by the introduction of Chinese labor can the island be made productive. The people now in the island are so contented. @ at peace with themselves and all the world, and so happily. hopelessly idle tha: it seems q shame to disturb such a lazy mans paradise.