The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-10
VISIT TO THE SULTAN
How the Sultan of SuIu Puts
in His Time.
BIG POLITICAL QUESTION
United States Control in the
Philippine Island.

Letter to The New York Evening Post }
Sulu, Philippine Islands, Jan. s.-Ori-
entail seaports in general are, In COM
parison with Occidental, proverbially cit
les Of violent and picturesque contrasts OF
civilization, and what eastern seaports in
general are in this regard to those Of the
west, Jolo. successfully the Sultans, the
Spanish. and the merican headquarters
for the Sulu Archipelago, is TO other tide
water towns Of the East. 1 do not know
Of any town whose material aspect more
perfectly corresponds to its spiritual sig
nihcance, Of any city countenance more
translucent to the soul within, than this
The boat ON which 1 was a passenger,
the chartered transport Borneo. had
churned Into the harbor while the passel-
gers were still sleeping that cool, delicious
sleep which IN the tropics comes to the
white man in the snaan hours Of the
morning, % that the island and city, in
stead Of swelling slowly into defniteness
from the rim of the sea, flashed all at
once. complete and vivid, on our eyes,
new-waslaed BY sleep. The day and the
prospect gave the true sensation Of Ma
laysia. We were floating at the bottom Of
an ocean Of light, on sea whose fncred-
ible clearness was like another sky From
our right sounded, mingled sometimes
with the sharper shaping OF a loose sail,
the low wooden tapping Of the pearl-fsh-
ing boats against the Chinese pier that,
warted all over with ridiculously small
shops, extended like long brown arm in
to the blue water. On our left stalked far
into the water on their log stills ragged
brown regiment of shacks, where the Ma
lay, from his cheerfully naked childhood
to his thousandth-w rinkled age, could live
and move and sleep-mostly sieep-to the
waves sibilant swishing through the
sands of the Sulu Sea. In the back
ground swelled, in low, round breasts,
the vivid hills. And over all, browsing
the intelligence with excess of sensation,
blazed the royal equatorial sun.
Perhaps the Malay temperament has
nowhere found an environment more per-
fectly fitted to the exercise Of its two
most salient peculiarities than this island
garden of the sun. That feline tempera-
ment is at once the most violent and the
most apathetic it supplies our dictionar
les with an expression for seeing red,
running amok," and our travellers with
a standard of impassiveness Now, Sulu,
and the small dependent islands that
crowd the blue Of the sea, to the eye OF 4
gull, with green points as far as the vast
green bulk Of Borneo, lie at the southern
entrance Of the Philippine Mediterranean.
the Mindoro Sea. From this position of
vantage the Suluanos, as far back as the
records reach, were in the habit of max
ing piratical raids on all the Christianized
islands; and fiamink villages and beleag-
uered towns of refuge from the great
green mountains of Mindanao to the very
suburbs of Manila were the Moro's an
swer to the nailed-fsted Spanish Chris
tianity that hoped to bring him within the
sound of the church bells. The blow hav-
ing been struck, Sulu regained, and the
captives divided up by sultan or datto
granting his decisions under the gorgeous
umbrella of state or in that hypertrophied
shack his palace, the cat-like fury was
spent, the claws sank back, cushioned in
the suavity of the Malay's habitual man
ner, and the warrior subsidized into those
depths of apathy, deeper than ever plum
met sounded, that form the Oriental con-
ception Of happiness.
Little work was done by freemen. Ev-
cry well-born man was a warrior, and at
about sixteen years Of age assumed his
wavy-b laded krismuch as a Roman boy
his toga virilis-in the service of the chief
tain of his clan. The booty and captives
Of his campaign sufficed for his needs: the
fury of few days gave the means Of in
dulging the apathy Of months. and this
happy alienation of storm and deep-sea
calm formed the whole of life. Nobody
ever heard OF a Suluano poet or architect I
or even artisan. but the records of cen
turtles show that the Suluano was an art !
list in piracy and dignified idiing.
But one day the Spaniards, who, since /
the superceding of sailing meD-of-war by |
steam gunboats. were at last getting out
Of their campaigns against the Moros /
more satisfactory than promo /
tons and decorations obtained from the /
pathetic innocence of the colonial office.
pretexts for burning wax candles in Ma +
Mia cathedral. and long reminders in 4
the form of hopeless deficits in the treas /
ury, were strong enough TO raise the 4
walls of Jolo in the heart of the enc |
my's country. and it is precisely the glar- .
ing white surfaces, suggestively loop
holed for rifle fire, and fanxed by the .
Malay shacks just mentioned that mark 4
Jolo with that striking air of contrast and 4
irrepressible conflict which gives the little i
town its neutrality-suspicious. The walls 4
enclose about 20 acres There, are 20 acres
Of America in an archipelago Of Cathay.
They form The -entrenched camp of ciyili-
cation on the march They tell even 10
the passing stranger who hlinks NJ them
from the deck OF a ship the long and
bloody story OF the conflict Of progress
and order with Moro lawlessness and I
apathy, and they also tell him that at I
last progress and order nave the guns.
The victorious outcome Of this struggle
whether destined to he rushed forward !
on American bayonets. a. Gen. Davis
fears in his mastery report for the year
lssa. or To creep into the defenses of the ,
Did barbarism through the Sill channels .
of trade and education. is 50 certain IS TO +
cast about the person OF The present Sui
ian something OF that imaginative inter
est which attaches itself 10 dcwngoins
DYNASTY ] wished very much 10 see him.
and unusually favorable circumstances On
/ bied me 10 CRAFTY the wish. Ordinarily Z
The Sultan resides az Maibung. a dozen
miles away through the jungle. Few
Americans care 10 traverse alone these
lozcn miles through d country where ev-
sl-y man must be his own policeman and
where fun cartridge beIt is often nine