The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-10-05
Travellers Tell the Story of the
Brown Mans Graft.
Do Not Object TO the "CiviIiz-
Crafty and SkilIful Leader-Charms
Against Bullets. Sold for a Dollar
Each.
(By William Mowbray.)

come TO Shanghai, sooner or later, is
as true al that all roads lead TO Rome.
Here is the clearing house Of those
who know the Orient, and if you can
but wait for them here, they will all
come your way.
Tonight | met three men who know
of the Malay in his haunts than
all the rest of the. world. Only the
Malay was missing, which We all re-
GREETED. They We're a Dutch captain,
who had been invalided home from
Java, where he had spent seven years
in hunting the Malay in what is call
ed the Everlasting" Achinese war;
an Englishman who had served with
the British company in North Borneo
as commercial agent, and an American
major of infantry, whose talk dropped
into a jargOn of half Visayan and
Spanish when his thoughts ran back
to the Malays> in the southern parts
Of the Philippines. The Englishman
spoke never a word Of commerce.; his
work had been to keep raiding Maiays
within certain bounds. The subterfuga
Of Commerce. was shallow. The
Dutchman on the south, the English
man in the cent3r, and theAmericau
on the north had compared notes on
the steamer from Singapore to Shang-
hal, and to them the subject was old
and commentaries; still; Il wanted to
know" and the American told me.
THE INSTINCT OF PIRACY.
1--WE all know" said the major,
what the brown man loses and what
he gains when the white man takes
him and his country for his own
graft, plus strong-armed justice; and
forever. But your point is, Is he real
ly Directing to the process? No, he
is not; and the fighting We are doing
today in the Southern Philippines is
the same thing he luecOats are doing
in New York and the mounted police
of Canada-keeping order. The i'll
stinct Of piracy is as strong out there
as is the desire to get rich quick at
home. The object is the sam, only
the method is different. When a
Malay wants to graft, he gathers to-
gether two OF three restless spirits
and breaks for the brush. Soon there
is a leader, the band makes a good
haul, and applicants for membership
spring up like imitatOrs of new and sue
cessful graft games" at home. The
people complain, and that is where We
come along to put the matter straight.
We kill the band or the band kills Us,
and the papers at home carry six lines
of an engagement in Samar or Leyte.
Two days later some editorial writer,
looking through the files for something
to do, stirs up the old question of a
down-trodden race struggling for lib
erty, and people get a wrong impress
sion.
THE MALAY RAIDER.
Let me tell you a story Of a Malay
raider that will stand for the whole
question in the archipelago and as
long as you remember it you will al
ways understand what we are actually
engaged in doing. First of all, the
Malay, O other things, is crafty,
ignorant, credulOus. and ~superstitious.
and, therefore, excellent material for a
leader craftier than the led. Such a
leader was Tssio.
"In his earlier days Tssio shipped in
a Norwegian bark that drifted into
BacOlOd one day, and served or her
around the world. Three years later
he was back in his native land. the
island of Negroes, with a smatterinS Of
foreign tongues, a fairly good ability
in Sleight of hand tricks and ideas.
Otherwise he was a worthless o
lounger. He put his ideas to work,
however, in the direction Of local graft.
in other words, he took TO the brush.
His followers. a handful of village
l~oafers, were wonderfully impressed
with his slaight of hand tricks, and at
the end of two or three cattle-lifting
expeditions and three months time
TsSiO was a power. He played for good
stakes and he played well. When the
Sixth infantry came to NegrOs, back in
the early days out there, Tssio had
500 followers. The band lived in r
stockade village up in the mountains,
and the whole countryside was in such
fear of him that We could not move
twenty men without his at once being
informed through natives, who hoped
thus to earl his good will. He was
infallible. He was "Anting AntinS,'
or invulnerable TO bullets; he was the
pope of a new church and called Papa
Tssio; he levied tribute upon every
farmer in the island, and his mountain
storehouses were bursting with loot.
He held religious services, during which
he performed sleight of hand tricks, 10
the utter CONSERVATION of his ignorant
followers. His was a name to conJure
with in NegrOs. The young native
women did not have to be abiucted-
they came knocking at the doors Of his
stockade.
This was the situation whsn We
came along and began to break up
pana TSSio in his business We q
several engagements with his r1en,
and killed them by the score We also
took prisoners, who gave us details OF
his methods. These men We're fully
confident that they would soon drive
us nto the sea. Failure dis
couraged them. Death seemed to make
the rest more eager to fight us. The
graft was so good that they We're will
ing to fight hard for it. They had Ant
ing Anting,' and Papa Tssio said they
would win.
CHARMS AGAINST BULLETS.