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same appeal to the aesthetic feelings that comes from the old churches of Europe. Most of the churches are poor and barren. The people are very religious and attend a great many church celebrations. We were present at one of these on Corpus Christi day. There were almost no seats in the church-everyone knelt. The women kneeling all over the church made quite a picture

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with their dark skins, black skirts, and white headdress. The full village band assisted the choir. After high mass there was a procession around the churchyard. Booths were erected at the four corners to represent the going out of the gospels to the four corners of the earth.

The padres generally receive their education in the Spanish seminary in Manila, and it is almost entirely theological. The padres, as a class, are not broad-cultured men, but they are still capable of teaching their people, and are in close touch with them. They show a desire to learn English. In one large convent we found the New York Police Gazette, translated into Spanish, the sole representative of American literature.

The morals of the padres do not in all cases bear close scrutiny. It may be said in extenuation that the people here do not look at moral relations in the same way that we do. Fornication is common, adultery rare. It may also be said that the padres are from the soil and of the soil-they reflect social conditions as they actually are. There could be no greater mistake, however, than to attempt to tear the people away from their church connections; they would have, at present, nothing to fall back on.

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It is interesting in going about the island to hear the stories told by the natives and by our army people. To most of the latter the Filipino is an animal on a decidedly low plane-a nigger," or, at best, an "Indian.” To show the natives' cruelty we were told how General Maximo killed in a most brutal manner a woman who did washing for the American soldiers. The duplicity of the native priests was set forth in a story about one of the well-known padres, a short distance from here, one who was always declaring his great friendship for the Americans. This man is said to have written a letter, now on record, in which he offered to the Filipino general to arrange a dance, take the American lieutenant- a man fond of balls and women. -to the dance and leave him; the insurgent army could then appear and do the rest. They tell also of the murder of five Spaniards who had come in times of peace to Juberan to set school affairs in order. This commission was met by a brass band and every indication of friendliness, but as soon as they got well away from the shore a hundred bolomen rushed out of the tall grass and cut them down. The Spanish government burned the town to the ground. A funny story is told that throws light upon the organization of the insurgent forces. Two brothers-presidentes of adjoining towns-came out to join the insurgent army. One came dressed as a colonel, the other as a lieutenant. The colonel began to poke fun at his brother, and finally told him to go back and dress as a colonel. The brother did so and was accepted as a colonel. During the latter part of the war rank was determined almost altogether by the number of guns a man could command.

On the other hand, the natives that I heard had no love for our army. We were told that in one town the lieutenant in charge

and nine-tenths of his men had their native queridas. When the 'lieutenant left the place and came up to Cebú, peparatory to sailing to the States, the woman came and lived with him. In another place we were told that the women all took to the hills while the town was being garrisoned by a volunteer regiment. The results of this cohabitation are beginning to be apparent, and are deeply deplored by the best of the native people.

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One fellow young a fine type of his race-told the following story: When a volunteer regiment came to his town, he was taken out and given a beating as being an insurrecto sympathizer. The next day he took to the hills, and joined the insurgent forces and became a captain. By and by he saw the uselessness of continuing the struggle, and, a regiment of regulars having succeeded to the place, he came in, surrendered, and was made chief of police, and succeeded in inducing a thousand of his countrymen to lay down their arms.

An ex-soldier told of helping one day to capture three hombres, who were suspected of knowing the whereabouts of the insur

recto army. This soldier was ordered by the lieutenant in charge to shoot them one by one unless they gave the desired information. He refused to do so, and was threatened with being court-martialed, but, still refusing, the lieutenant got up and shot the first man himself. The other two promptly told all they knew. This soldier said that giving the water-cure was such an everyday performance that it excited no comment. Our soldiers often indulge in the deadly native drinks to We came across one lonely grave where the fellow had killed himself drinking twenty bottles of bino in one night.

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The most hopeful thing about the situation at the present time is the attitude of all classes toward education. The American government has shown a desire to give the Filipinos, even while in arms, the best thing it has to offer the free school system; and the Filipinos, considering their condition, have shown a most commendable spirit toward this altruistic movement. Everywhere is shown a strong desire for the American teacher and his work. Presidentes and padres are eager to learn English, and it is nothing uncommon to find them working away at the books alone.

In the towns around this island there are usually not a halfdozen people who can speak Spanish. The native language is devoid of all culture, so it seems eminently proper that we should give these people a common language that contains the results of our progress for thousands of years.

We attended some of the native schools. The conditions were the rudest. A bamboo schoolhouse, a backless bench along the sides of the room, some children squatting on the floor, no chairs, tables, boards, or charts, a book containing the catechism in Vizágan—this was the school layout. All the children study aloud, and the best scholar is he who can make the most noise. The ignorance of the native country teacher is unfathomable, and when we found the salaries paid them we did not wonder at the class attracted, or rather driven, into the service. One woman a fat old matron of fifty or more-received one and a half pesos per month-something less than seventy-five cents. From this amount the salaries range up to thirty dollars, the highest paid in Cebú.

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The American teachers are trying to close these little barrio schools in which only the native dialect is taught, to train up assistants able to speak English and teach according to our ideas, and to concentrate the pay upon the really efficient teachers.

The American teacher has many discouraging conditions to contend with. He has difficulty in finding a house, and more difficulty still in finding food upon which he can live. He must try to persuade the town to build and equip a suitable schoolhouse. He must train his native teachers, and use all sorts of devices to get the children to attend after the novelty has worn off.

That the teachers have, as a class, gone at their work with characteristic enthusiasm and resourcefulness is unquestionable. That they are generally regarded by the natives in a very different light from the army people is likewise true. But that some out of the large body have fallen below the accepted standards of morality is equally true. One teacher owned his fighting cocks, and was a leading abettor of this favorite Filipino pastime. He was often seen coming from the pits of a Sunday afternoon -the usual time for the combats—with his clothes bespattered with blood. He contended that his conduct did not lessen his standing in the community; on the contrary, it heightened it— when his cock won. He also got drunk, but, it was said, “never ungentlemanly so." The division superintendent thought best, nevertheless, to drop him.

There is another case, that of a young woman whose indiscretion led an army officer to acts for which he was court-martialed and dismissed from the service. To send unmarried girls into towns in which they were the only white women, and in which they could not have the commonest conveniences, was all a mistake. The leavening effects, however, of the schoolmistress are beginning to be apparent, and there is no other agency doing more to win the people to our ideas than the school system. SAMUEL MACCLINTOCK,

Principal Cebú Normal School.

CEBU, P. I.

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