Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1899 — NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES. [ARTICLE]

NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES.

Porto Rico, 'English dictionaries are in greater demand than any other commodity. More than half of the Porto Ricans live on less than five cents a d*JSkilled laborers, such as bricklayers, carpenters and plumbery earn 60 cents a day. Rents have gone np in San Jnan and prices of real estate have mounted skyward.-;'.' [J -, •., v : > Polygamy exists to a great extent. It is not uncommon for one man to have two or three families. Until a few weeks ago prisoners wore shackles that bad been welded on their limbs. But Gen. Henry gave the order that the shackles should be filed off and no more cruelty practiced. A resident of Porto Rico, desiring to go to Europe, asked the State Department at Washington for a passport and was informed that the request could not be granted because, until Congress takes action in reference to the annexation of Porto Rico, the inhabitants of that island cannot be regarded as American citizens. The Porto Rican way of bnrymg the dead is curious. A coffin is rented for the corpse to be carried to the cemetery. Two or four natives carry it on their heads or fastened to two bamboo poles. The corpse is taken ont of the coffin and buried about two feet. If the rent for the burial lot Is not paid within a certain time the body is dug up and thrown away.

Cuba. Baseball games are played daily. Traces of gold have been found in the province of Porto Principe. Five Havana newspapers advocate annexation to the United States. A Cuban radish grown this year near Manaeas weighed eight ponnds. Half a dozen American women are earning a living as stenographers in Havana. There are fifty-four ports in the island, but only fifteen are open to the world's commerce. No one can be admitted to the bar who has not a diploma from the University of Havana. For the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant there is no yellow fever in Havana. Since the American occupation the number of pawnshops in Santiago has increased from two to six. Nearly all the volunteers are now out of Cuba. The immunes at Santiago will be the last to leave. Women are now able tp dine alone In restaurants—a thing that was never possible under the old regime. Fitting work for women is scarce. Cooking and washing is monopolized by men. American employment of women in the Havana postofflee has been received with disapproval by the men.

Philippines. At forty American lawyers are endeavoring to earn a living in Manila. Since the American occupation over 400 saloons have been opened in Manila. Montana soldiers have found indications of gold while at work in the trenches. Dewey’s flag was the first of a full admiral to be flung to the breeze in Asiatic waters. Spanish officers are returning home and all have large quantities of native gold, which they say is plentiful in the mountain streams. Malolos is less than thirty miles from Manila, yet day after day the American columns advanced through towns and cities of from 1,000 to 10,000 population. The eighty-three officers’ wives who arrived on the Morgan City were not allowed to land, as Gen. Otis thought he bad women and children enough to protect. The rainy season in the Philippines is not the deadly thing that it is down in the Antilles. There is some fever, of course, but nothing like there is in Cuba under similar conditions. A. Furman Heiden has established a monthly magazine known an the Philippine Monthly. Woodcuts of scenes of interest in the Island of Luzon are prodoc? ed, and stories by naval officers and others are published.

Alaska. Some of the Alaska Indians eat mosquitoes. Wood Is 915‘ a cord. Last year it was 900. Consul McCook says winter at Dawson is preferable to summer. The coldest weather of the winter at Dawson was 50 degrees below zero. Among the Indians the woman who outlives her husband and doesn't marry becomes a slave. Lieut. Castner reports that the number of Indians has been greatly reduced by civilization. McClarty’s body was carried for burial by his four partners over the frozen trail to Dawson, twenty-five miles away. There are. no dentists in the Alaskan capital, no jewelers, except the crudest artisans among the Indians, no photographers, dressmakers, nor milliners, not even an undertaker, and only a semi-occa-sional shoemaker.

Guam. Daily concerts are to be given by ths Governor's band. American immigration has been infinitesimal since the island was captured. Regular steamship communication with the United States bs* not yet been established. Nine-tenths of the islanders can read and write, and it is reported that they aro rapidly learning English. -—I Hawaii. v Nearly one-tenth of the population ara Mormons. Eighty-four per cent of the native Hawaiian are able to read and write. There has been a decrease in the immigration of Americans. Scores of those who came immediately after annexation are in poverty and unable to return to the mainland. The postal savings banks have nearly 11.000 depositors, with nearly 91,000,600 to their credit. There is some demand for the continuance of the system unde* Alflentlft MMv« ' • ' ' SV. - ’ > '.-v, !