El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-03-02

D is the seat Of society. politics ant
trade 1t has all the public building
I The population is over 1000 and thi
In an island of 10,0 600 is a great many
Z At Agana are the chief public build
/ ings. The most imposing structure
/ are the governors palace, the coueg,
Of San Juan de Letran, the courts and
the barracks.
The town is laid off about plaza oil
I open space about the size Of a city
square. The streets are all named, anc
all the stone houses are numbered
Since we took possession many stone
buildings with iron roofs have beer
constructed There are also stone
houses with roofs Of red tiles, but the
majority Of the people live in houses
made OF bamboo poles covered with
palm leaves and matched with grasses
OF palms.
Outside Of Agana, there are villages.
] but they are nearly all made of 0a1n-
I boo and thatch. In the whole island
+ only about one house in Is has a roof
1 Of tile or or iron. The iron is galvan-
! lied and the most of it now comes
! from Japan.
/ In Agana the public buildings face
the plaza, the governors palace faces
north and the college. the officers
quarters and the cathedral the remain
/ ing sides. The stores are on the streets
p There are five or six in the town, one
OF which is an American trading con-
Germ which has come there for the
in copra In addition to this, there are
two Japanese stores. one native store
and one Chinese store. The American
and japanese concerns have small sail
ing vessels which make regular vOy-
ages to bring in cargoes of merchan-
disc and take out cOpra OF dried CO.
coanut meat.
Since we took possession of Agana
we have given it a good water supply.
We have put in about a half mile of
six-inch sewer pipe for the use Of the
naval station and the city In the past
the water came from wells six or more
feet deep which were practically fed
from the surface and were often full Of
sewage The government has made a
dam Of the river that runs through the
town and the city water now comes
from a reservoir
CIeanIinesz Enforced.
Our officials have passed laws that
every man must keep his yard and
house clean and inspectors are sent
around every week TO see that he does
So II he does not, they clean IL them
selves and make him pay the cost If
he does not cut his grass. they cut IL
for him and he pays the bill AS re-
suit Of all this, Agana is now one Of
the cleanest towns Of the tropics.
Guam has had no contagious diseases
since 1t came into our possession. and Z
about the only epidemic disease is den
que fever, z sort Of grippe. which at I
certain seasons seems to run through 1
the island as ii does through the /
United States.
The same sort Of cleaning up has I
been done in the villages, and roads /
nave been built from place 10 place.
Ihese roads are as hard as stone and I
as smooth as the floor They might {
be used for automobiles, but there are
none on the island The material used
Tor surfacing them is a yellow clay
called cascajo, which hardens to a ce- I
Education in Guam.
When we took hold OF Guam there
were practically no common schools. /
There was g little college at Agana
1t was centuries old, but this
vas hardly equal 10 the ordinary coun-
try high school OF the United Sta tes
There were also private schools. run by
Uhe- priests, but, as a rule, the people /
were 1uirerate and many could not
write their own names When Gov
Leary took hold he sent out an order
that every man and woman must learn
to write HIS OF her signature within a
certain number Of months and that
Uncle sam would furnish the copy. As
a result Of that nearly everyone can
now sign his name.
Gov. Shredder brought out some
school teachers but the reve-
nues grew short and they had to go
back Since then other schools have [
been organized and they are now to be
found in Agana and in all the vii
lagos. These schools run from the I
lrst TO the eighth grade. Education
Is compulsory and the children are all
learning the rudiments Of an educatioR. |
There is a high school in Agana blrt
Il has only about 80 pupils, and there
IS also the college Of San Juan de
-atram.
Some school work Is being done BY
he Protestant missionaries of whom
here are some Congrega tiOnalists and
others. better missionary work
,ould be done by the American Catho-
les. for the field is peculiarly theirs.
the islanders are devout Catholics. but.
Ike the FiHpinOs. they have been |
.ursed by the. friars and they need the
I've, progressive methods of modern
American Catholicism for their devel-
pment
Among the ChamOrros.
But who are these people Of Guam?
IRE they Chinese. japanese, Malayans
he savage headhunters? They are far
ifferent from the Filipinos, although
hey have the same semi-Spanish civil
zation and dress and look much the
anne Our governors have sent to the
aVy department some interesting in
concerning them. They come
rom a race known as the ChamorrOs,
mich was in Guam when Magellan
lnded there In 1921. Magellan says
hat the natives were TarlIke and that
hey defended themselves with stones
nd lanceS. Legaspi, who called at
uam in 1865 says that the people /
.
nat the only meat they ate was fish,
ats and flying foxes. A Jesuit father,
mo wrote Of the island in 18th cen (
ny. says that Guam then had so, 600 + (
eople, or five times as many as now.
he inhabitants lived in towns or VII {
lges, having clean houses Of bamboo, 7
oofed with cocOanut leaves, and di- {
ided into rooms by mats, which were
oven in one piece he says that the I
len were so cOrpulent that they 2
eemed swollen, and that they shaved {
heir heads with the exception Of a
'pknOt which was allowed to grow to
he height OF three inches. The women I
ad long hair, which they bleached dead / c
mite and they stained their teeth 6
lack :
Baseball In the Pacific c
These ancient people were healthy .
nd vigorous and the missionaries say
hat they baptised -120 men who were
ach 10 years old. They were great
thletes and were expert sprinters, !
lnners and climbers. The people OF
uam today are resuming their inter d
sc in athletics. Our marines have in
reduced them to the delights Of base
all, and there are now ball clubs 4
EeryWhere- Every school has its E
Tubs and there are naval clubs and S
wi clubs THE little C2uamit6s are osr- ] q