Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-10-15

ENXANAaG- riously from boat.
founder helplessly and
sink to the bottom. Lieut.. Edward Y.
Miller, the governor Of the most out
lying of all Uncle Sans territory, and
the inspired uplifter of its people, has
been drowned in the course of duty
and where is the man who will be able
to fill his place?
This is the question that is facing
the Filipino government and the Bu-
reau of Insular Affairs. This is the
question that is bringing to light
piece of work that has been carried
forward in the wilds of the great East
that is as full of romance and accom-
plishment as the most fanciful yarn
ever spun by the imagination.
For Lieut.. Miller, U. S. A, has for
eight years been absolutely ruler over
$4,000 people; wild, barbaric, unchris-
ton. He has single-handed brought
peace to those people in the place or
continuous warfare. He has repelled
the Moro pirates in many pitched bat
ties, armed and drilled his natives and
made his coasts a place to be Stunned
of all else by these gypsies of the sea.
Yet Miller died ingloriously month
ago from falling overheard from a
boat in the still waters Of an inland
stream. The Moros have learned Of
the nature of his death in such sim
pie emergency that any mere native
would have been able to save himself.
The fear of him and his kind has con-
sequently vanished and the Moros are
again at war.
Dean G. Worcester, American Sec
retary of the interior for the Philip
pines, came a little later into Palawan
to inaugurate Emergency Governor
Evans, was attacked by the Moros and
much blood has been shed. All is
chaos in Palawan, where peace has
reigned for six years. The insular bu-
reau and the provisional government is
looking the 90,000,000 over for a man
who can fill the place of the dead
governor-king, but with little hope Of
success.
All of which leads to the story Of
Lieutenant Miller. He was at the
time of his death a member of the
Twenty-ninth Infantry, but had never
seen that regiment and was unknown
to its officers. This because Of the
fact that he had been, since the time
of his appointment, on detached duty
as governor of Palawan. At the
breaking out of the Spanish-American
war he had been an officer in the Chi
cago militia and had enlisted. His
service was with the Fifth Illinois
Volunteer Infantry and had first taken
him to Porto Rico and later to the
Philippines. He served in the outly-
ing southern provinces and his supe-
riors soon recognized his genius for
getting along with the natives. Be-
cause of it he received his appoint
ment in the regular army and his de-
tached detail.
Lieutenant Miller was but "a years
old when he first enlisted. Yet he left
a soldiers sweetheart behind him in
Illinois and when he received the
permanent detail the sweetheart came
into the wilds to him and they were
married. All the years between then
and now Mrs. Miller has spent at the
side of her husband, and hand in hand
they have sought to lead the way for
their charges from the darkness of
barbarism to the light of civilization
and to better living. They have left
behind a monument of accomplish
ment that is perhaps unequaled in the
history of so small force working
for the uplift.
Palawan is the very outpost of the
Philippines. 1t lies in that great reach
Of the island that runs out to the
southeast, two days journey nearly to
Borneo, and separates the China Sea
from Sulu Sea. 1t is a strip Of land 20
miles wide and 275 miles long. Tim
bered mountains store the moisture
which makes its valleys perennially
fertile. Its long coast line offers It.
self to the spoliation Of the Moro
pirates, who have swarmed through
these waters for centuries and have
preyed continuously upon their ma.
tiyes. The mountain people and those
of the valleys are wild but sweet ma.
tured and simple. They are the Tag.
banos, good-natured wanderers, for
whom much hope is expressed. Yet
all was chaos. and war never ceased
in the old days.
1t was into these conditions that
Lieutenant Miller brought his young
wife. The men Of the army protested
against such exposure, but the young
officer believed that he knew the ma.
tives better than they and that he
was safe with them. He established
himself at Puerto Princesa, which had
once been Spanish town of some i'm.
portance, but had become a deserted
city of the south seas. Here he made
his capital and here he began his
work with the natives.
Soon he was able to muster a mum.
ber of chosen young natives into a
militia organization. These he sup