The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-06

Anderson. Dressed in white palm
beaches, year in and year out, for the
past ten years he has been training
the blacks of Porto Rico to tread the
paths they should tread and not drink
Jamaica ginger till they chased the
monkeys.
One of the nice things about mis-
sionary work in Porto Rico is that
there are no cannibals nor natives
who persist in a state of undress.
The blacks wear clothes and speak a
fair grade of adulterated Spanish.
Axel Anderson was born in Topeka
some 35 years ago. His father, J. P.
Anderson, and his sister, Mrs. Phil
Lingren, 2OS Tyler street, are both
living in the city.
Ten years ago he was working in
the Santa Fee shops, when the call of
the wild reached him. After becom-
ing a Lutheran preacher, he left for
the tropics as a missionary to Porto
Rico.
He married Miss Augusta Hawkin-
son of Marquette and came back to
Topeka two weeks ago to spend a
few days with his relatives. 1t was
ten years since he had been in To-
peka and after a few days visit he
left and is now steaming over the At
lantic toward his beloved natives out
in the jungles of Porto Rico.
For Porto Rico, United States
possession, is badly in need of mis-
sionary work.
Natives Are IdIers
1t has been an island of degenera-
ton for the past century and the ma
tives are generally content to live be-
side the crumbling ruins of the Span
1sh occupation and idle their lives
away, smoking and lazily watching an
occasional steamer drifting along the
horizon.
There are no aborigines in Porto
Rico, the Spanish having exterminated
them by 1880. and imported blacks
from the west coast of Africa. These
negroes have thrived on the island in
spite of brutal treatment and since
they were set free in 1873 they have
been doing as little as possible in the
way of work. They wear the original
palm beach suits made out of coarse
cloth and dwell in matched huts OF ma
tive timber. Growing a few chickens
and raising garden of yams will keep
any man alive.
The island is the home of the ba-
mana, the fruit growing anywhere and
in variety ranging from the delicate
little lady's finger. two and one-half
banana which we received in export
trade. Natives grow the fruit by
painting a root and letting the tree,
which is similar to the cornstalk,
leaves in the sun and creating a per-
feet shade. The tree rarely grows
taller than ten feet and the fruit de-
velops on the end of the trunk, the
the fruit is developed, but not ripe, the
tree is chopped down with a machete
and the green fruit is hung away to
ripen, the natives eating the bananas
as they reach the right flavor. With
vans, bananas, guavas, oranges,
chickens, fish and thousand and one
natural handouts at his back door,
why should a native work?
Making Progress.
The island is slowly building up I'M
der American dominion. When the
United States first garrisoned Porto
Rico, it was estimated that conditions
were 100 times worse than in 1900.
To get at the bottom of the degener-
acy of Porto Rico it is necessary to
quote some history.
Christopher Columbus discovered
Porto Rico on his second voyage and
a month repairing a ship and search
ing for gold, leaving November %.
1898. Later explorers came and the
island was worked over pretty thor
oughly. Ponce de Leon of perpetual
youth fame, crossed the island finding
gold and judged that there might be
more. AS the governor of Cuba was
his friend, he was given the island to
govern, and history shows that Ponce
de Leon Immediately commenced en-
shaving the friendly Borinquenos In
dams and letting his men ravage the
island. About this time the Spanish
king recognized the rights of Column
bus's son, Diego, and made him alb
America and Ponce de Leon was ex-
PEELED from Porto Rico in 1912. !