Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1910 — Page 3

WANTED A New King for Palawar

L nOr. i A-KiSk’LJ A

HE Tagabanos are disconsolate, for their man-god, soldier-king is dead. Salip Akib and Salip Tomi, the pirate Moro chiefs, are again despoiling the peaceful and fertile island of Palawan, for was not the man they had come to fear as the devil incarnate seen to tumble ingloriously from a boat, flounder helplessly and

fiins to the bottom. Lieut. Edward Y. Miller, the governor of the most outlying of all Uncle Sam’s territory, and the inspired uplifter of its people, has been drowned ip 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 Bureau of Insular Affairs. This is the question that is bringing to light a piece of work that has been carried forward in the wilds of the great East that is as full of romance and accomplishment as the most fanciful yarn aver spun by the imagination.

For Lieut. Miller, U. S. A., has for eight years been absolutely ruler over 34,000 people; wild, barbaric, unchristion. He has single-handed brought peace to those people in the place of continuous warfare. He has repelled the Moro pirates in many pitched battles, armed and drilled his natives and • made his coasts a place to be shunned ■of all else by these gypsies of the sea. Yet Miller died inglorlously a month ago from falling overboard from a boat in the still waters of an Inland stream. The Moros have learned of the nature of his death in such a simple emergency that any mere native would have been able to save himself. The fear of him and his kind has consequently vanished and the Moros are again at war , . Dean C. Worcester, American secretary of the interior for the Philippines, came a little later into Palawan to 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 bureau and the provisional government is s (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 Chicago 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 outlying southern provinces anfl his superiors soon recognized his genius for (getting along with the natives. Because of it he received his appointment in the regular army and his detached detail. Lieutenant Miller wag but 24 years ©ld when he first enlisted. Yet he left a soldier's 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 accomplishment that is perhaps unequaled in the history of so small a force working for the-unlift. Palawan is the very outpost of the (Philippines. It 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. It Is a strip of land 20 miles wide and 275 miles long. Timbered mountains store the moisture which makes its valleys perennially feritle. Its long coast line offers itself to the spoliation of the Moro pirates, who have swarmed through these waters for centuries and have preyed continuously upon their natives. The mountain people and those of the valleys are wild but sweet natured and simple. They are the Tagbanos, good-natured wanderers, for whAn much hope is expressed. Yet all was chaos, and war never ceased in the old days. It was into these conditions that Lieutenant Miller brought his young wife. The men of the army protested against such exposure, but the yotmg officer believed that he knew the natives better than they and that he was safe with them. He established ■himself at Puerto Princesa, which had once been a Spanish town of some Imiportance, 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 numtber of cnoaen young natives into a militia organisation. These he sup-

plied with arms and drilled. His alm waa the repelling of the Moros. Salip Aklb had long been the terror of the coasts. The natives had ben Ineffective as warriors and the trades were at the option of the pirates. Lieutenant Miller was well prepared before he struck a blow. Then one summer night the news was brought that the pirates were ashore at a village up the coast and the natives were being robbed of their stores and animals. The raidprs had gorged themselves, had stolen a score of the pretty women of the settlement for barter in other ports and were carousing in the village. The governor massed his constabulary and crept upon the town. The pirates were surprised, but expected an easy victory. But they had reckoned without the big American, who was a fiend when aroused. His followers had been drilled into efficiency, but were yet timid, not knowing their strength when armed with American guns. But they followed their chief to battle in fairly good part The pirates were cut to pieces and the band broken up. The American that day won for himself the title of “the demon.” The timid natives learned that they were able to stand against their hereditary enemy. The gratitude of the whole community came to the governor. Recruits came to his arms. The band of Salip T>mi gave the second big battle in the working out of the problems of this Isolated law and order scheme. “The demon" met this band under similar conditions and the results were the same. The timid natives found that they could fight apd that they liked it. They placed themselves at the of the governor and did his bidding without question. They came to call him king and his word was law. They carried the tales of him to the ends of the island and all the people proclaimed him. None would have dared stand against him, even had they not loved him. He gave his orders as to cessation of war among the tribes and the allotment of land. In two years he had brought peace Into the whole island and found it in readiness for his real programme. The fear of his arms among the Moros became so great that for six years before his death there was not a piratical raid on any pan of the island. The natives called him king, and his powers with them were absolute. To all Intents and purposes he was in reality king; for them there was no authority in the land but his. Being a practical man. Lieutenant Miller knew that if the people prospered. it would be through a cultivation of their fertile soil. They were mostly nomadic, .wandering from place to place. He exerted all his influence to get them to settle down and make themselves permanent homes, cultivating more land. The Tagbanos, or inland people, were the favorites with the governor. They were intelligent, tractable, musical, lovable. He determined that he would do something for these people to fix their habits and tie them to the soil. It was in the carrying out of this plan that he lost his life. The? Aborlan river r.uns Inland through valley near Puerto Princess. Twenty-six miles up this stream Governor Miller selected the

site for'a model colony he planned to plant. Here he would erect a school that should be an agricultural and demonstration plant. Here he would get . the children of the Tagbanos to go to the industrial school. On the fertile lands that lay round about 'he would locate their parents. These he would show how to farm at the same time that the children were attending school. He would teach them the virtues of a farm life by actually demonstrating it to them. Governor Miller told his little plan to the provisional government and secured an appropriation with which to begin it. A little money he made go a long way, for the natives volunteered to do the work without charge, and there was not much call for the fine finish. The colony was this spring drawing on toward completion, and an it was the particular pet of the governor, he formed the habit of running Up to see it every night after work in a gasoline launch. It was while returning from one of these trips that the launch was upset. Governor .Miller, though a great, strong, athletic man, had the vulnerable point of an inability to swim. The men who knew him were surprised to know that he should drown in a narrow river. They supposed, of course, he could swim. But when the boat turned over the King of Balawan, the savior of the people, the man who had started the thousands on the road to development, went unceremoniously to the bottom and his native companions dived for hours before they were able to recover his body. So there had settled down upon Palawan the gloom of the great loss. The people mourn the death of the American as they have never grieved for anything before. The great work which he has established for them is at a standstill and its future is iu doubt Such work requires the gen ius of a man who fits into just such a nook, and civil service or the discre tion of the men higher up is unable to determine just what are’ the qualities needed even were the man with these qualities idealist enough to givt up the world to which he has been ac customed to live among the people oi the wild for the sake of doing good. And the Moros, these Samals or gyp sies of the sea, are again at their depredations. They had thought thia big American a demon, a thing oi supernatural strength and of charmed life. Yet he had sunk and drowned with his boat turned over. So would all his kind. They would throw the next big American overboard and drown him. Before a congressional committee last winter Major General Bell, chief p! staff for the army, was telling of . some of the remarkable men of that service and of the effective work they lyere doing. Lieutenant Miller was cited ns the most prominent of these. General Bell told of his work, and concluded by saying: “I had heard it stated that he could not be replaced by a company, probably not by a battalion, and possibly not by a regiment of troops." This was merely from the military standpoint of keeping the peace, assuredly the island overrun with troops would not have the benefilca’ effect upon tho natives that was bemg accomplished by Miller.

The ONLOOKER

WILBUR D NESBTT

Tc Kjj P* TgfiSftSiTi SB BL H/J R Jw?

I’d hate to be a city park, For I should shrink with doubt When people came to fence me in, For fear they’d lay me out. Td hate to be a house and lot— ■ To grief I should be moved When people came and said: "It’s not So very well improved.” ■ • Td hate to be a harvest field— Such fate would make me bawl; Unless my presence were concealed They’d thresh me every fall. __ Td hate to be a mountain high— Indeed, I’d be'appalled If people climbed to find out why I was so very bald. I d hate to be a little brook— This feeling is not shammed. For mill prospectors might but look And then I might be dammed.

That Man Once More.

The man with the iridescent whiskers sidles into the office and immediately finds his way to the desk of the shackled hireling with the frayed cuffs and the unafraid bald spot. “I haven’t been in foj a long time,” he says. “It hasn’t seemed long,” is the response. “I thought of a clever little thing you. might work up in your own way,” begins the man with the Iridescent whiskers. ‘‘These ideas come to me every now and then, and I believe in passing them along. Whenever I can lighten the task of a friend, I am always glad to do so.” "Yes? You said you had an idea?” ‘‘Yes. It’s a conundrum. You can fix it up to suit yourself, but the general style of it is like this: What is the difference between a man with pictures all over him who draws a large salary as a freak in a side show, and a huge billboard Covered with posters about auto horns?” “It’s pretty deep. What’s the answer?” “One is tattooed, the mother is toot ad.” “What?” ' “One is tattooed —the man, you see; and the other is toot —” But far over the distant hills th* breezes were racing in the pale glow of the twilight, and on the mountainsides the great trees were murmuring one to another in the mysterious language of nature, while high in the sky a single cloud drifted slowly into the hush.

Tempora Mutantur.

“John,” said the bride of a year, as she stopped her husband before the .window of a jeweler, “before we were married you used always to bring me around to this store, and we would look at the pretty things and would talk about which piece of jewelry would suit me best. Do you remember?” “I do,” acknowledged the fond husband. “But let us hurry on to the grocery store and see what is In that window.”

Mildred's Memory.

“Mildred, here is your grandpappa to come to visit us. Now, do you remember what I said about how nice you must be to hltn?” "O, yes, mamma, dear. I remember that you said I must be as nice as I know how to him, because we have as much right to a part of his money as any of the rest of the kin when he dies.”

A Refined Torture.

“And do you never have any cold waves here?” asks the visitor of bls satanlc majesty. “Not any," explains Mephisto, who has been showing the newcomer about the realm; “but we have a weather bureau that is always pre dieting one.”

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The HOLY LAND TODAY.

WHAT has been one of the chief charms of the Holy Land for Bible students will before long be a thing of the past. After centuries, even millenniums, of conservatism in customs and speech, the barrier to enlightenment has been broken down by tlje Young Turks, and men of enterprise have been invited to enter Palestine —so long held in bondage by tho late sultan—and to form it into a modern and progressive country. With the entry of civilization and modern culture the many peculiar customs which have been observed since the days of the patriarchs, and the poetical speech of the natives which re-eejio words of the prophets, will soon be banished. For even in the smallest actions of their life the people rehearse Biblical scenes of the days of the patriarchs and speak to each other in the poetical phraseology of the Psalmist and the prophets, quite unconsciously. Perhaps the most interesting figure in Oriental life is the tall, dark Bedouin, whose life resembles in every detail that of Abraham of old. Sven he, illiterate and Ignorant as he is, a wanderer of tho desert, living the most primitive life, embodies bls ideas in highly metaphorical language. His black camers-halr tent is probably of the samb shape as that'of the patriarchal days, and Is made in such a manner as to facilitate Its erection and its removal and transportation on the backs of burden-bearing camels. The Bedouin is surrounded in his wanderings by just as many oxen and other animals as was the wealthy patriarch of early days. Biblical Scenes Rehearsed. In the fields one sees living illustrations of many of the parables, and in the villages are rehearsed many incidents mentioned In the Bible. There b a great variety of homes- to be seen in Palestine representing the various stages of the evolution of homes — from the abodes In the rocks of the poor peasant or the leper to the modern stone bouse of the wealthy Mohammedan. There are the more picturesque homes made of twigs and branches. These are literally ‘'A shadow In the day time from the heat.” They are also made of cloth from camel’s hair—and merely supported by long, rude poles. Then there are the houses of clay. The houses have flat roofs. These flat earthen roofs are not much protection against rainstorms. They soon become soaked and then commences a disagreeable dripping of water through the roof, which continues day and night. In stumper the people sleep upon their roofs, and some spend the day there, taking their cooking utensils up. At the sound of the crier from the minaret, five times a day, announcing to the village that “There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet,” every man and boy spreads his prayer rug on his cloak before him and kneels down upon It. Whether he be In the field at work or 'in his home

at rest or in the streets bargaining, at the sound of that call to prayer he turns his face eastward to Mecca and bows down his forehead to the ground, and rises and makes many genuflexions while muttering Arabic words from the Koran. Gates No Longer Closed. In olden days every city had high, wide walls. It was possible to walk around the city upon them. Today parts of the walls of Jerusalem are wide enough for this. The gates of a. city were always closed at sunset. Caravans arriving after dark were obliged to wait outside until morning. Travelers on foot could enter the city by the small door of the gate, which' was known in the gospel-days by the figurative expression: “The eye of the needle.” Christ was referring to thia custom of making the camels wait outside the gates until dawn, because of the Impossibility of their passing through the smaller door, when he said: ‘lt is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," Though the gates of Jerusalem still stand and a sentinel guards them, they are never closed by day or night. One of the most interesting illustrations of scenes of Bible days, perhaps, since our Lord took it as symbolic of uprightness In man’s dealings with his fellow-men is the daily scene of measuring wheat in the marketplace. The official measurer is hired by the vender of wheat and he measures the quantity before the eyes at the purchaser. He shakes the measure and continues pouring on more wheat until It literally runs over. By this very act he seems to reecho Christ's words: “Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosoms.” It Is still customary in well-to-do homes to recline on couches during the meals, but in the village homes the people sit on the matted floor around the' large wooden bowl which, contains the cooked rice or baan* The head of the house opens the meal by taking up a handful of the greasy rice and a piece of bread, and rolling It into a ball he places it Into the guest’s mouth himself. This complimentary act is the sign for all those assembled to literally “dtp in the dish,” eating with their hands. Work of the Women. When the evening meal is over, the comfortables are taken off the shelves and spread on the matting for the family to sleep on. Beds consist only of comfortables. When the children are all rolled up and asleep the. women in the homes begin the grinding of the wheat for the bread for the next day, while singing plaintive lullabies. This is monotonous work, and was often given to prisoners to do. Samson's enemies set him to grinding when he was their captive. Ezekiel, speaking of utter desolation, used the expresslop, well understood by the people: “The grinders shall cease and the sound of grinding be low.” The women are as busy in the field* as in the houses. There are Ruths gleaning and reaping and winnowing and even plowing by the side of the oxen. To the town the women come bearing the produce of their fields, and they look very picturesque “sitting in the market place.” On their heads they carry large baskets and on their shoulders their small sons sit, taking their first lessons in riding. Thia leaves the women’s arms free for the other purposes. Baby girls are carried in a carpet hammock slung across their mothers’ shoulders. There is a figurative prophecy regarding the better standing of women in the Orient, in days to come in the proclamation: “Their daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.** 1 Those better days are now at last breaking, for this is the dawn of freedom from subjection of women in ell Turkey and the Holy Land. But with her loosened fetters will go also thecountry’s traditional customs, and its i quaint, poetical fonntf of speech, ha | flucnced by the influx of civilization;