Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1900 — NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES. [ARTICLE]

NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES.

The following is a list of the official positions to be filled in connection with the organization of a goverumen in Porto Rico: Goveiwor .>9,000 Secretary 4.000 Attorney General 4,000 Treasurer 5,000 Auditor 4,000 Commissioner of the Interior 4,000 Commisslener of Education 3,000 Chief Justice of Supreme C0urt....... 5,000 Associate Justice 4,500 Associate justice 4,500 United States Marshal.. )..... 3,000 United States District Attorney...... 4,000 United States District Judge 5,000 District Marshal f............. 8,600 Collector of Customs 3,000 Collector of Internal Revenue 3,000 Commissioner to the United States.... 5,000 Commissioners to revise laws (three). 5,000 Five members Executive Council, salary not fixed. Thirty-five members of Legislature, >5 per dicm. Clerk of Supreme Court, eatery not fixed. Interpreter Supreme Court, salary not fixed. Clerk District Court, salary not fixed. Interpreter D Ist rift Court, salary not fixed. All of these officials, with the exception of the members of the Legislature, who are elected, and the clerks and interpreters of the courts, who are selected by the judges, are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate? It is the purpose of the President to select native Porto Riearik for these offices so far as possible, but it is probable that the first lot will be men of experience in administrative affairs in the United States. While it is not necessary* it is advisable that they should speak the Spanish- language. A traveler recently returned to this country from the Philippines gives an interesting description of the graceful carriage and walk of the women in that place. "As a rule the women of all classes are as straight as the wall of a house, if not straighter. A plumb line dropped from the nape of the neck would, in most instances, fall well behind the heels. But the gait is a peculiar swing which is quite noticeable. Some charge this, as weH as the straightness, to their habit of carrying all burdens, from a cake of soap to a house and lot. on the top of the head. That is probably the cause of the erect bearing, but 1 think the peculiar gait due to a certain swingof the limbs required for keeping the shoes on the feet. The local woman’s shoes consist usually of a flat sole with a toe cap. Sometimes the cap has room for all the toes; sometimes not. Often the sole is raised from the ground by wooden heels and soles —blocks like, but lower than those used by the Japanese. Stockings are not usually worn."

A correspondent of Leslie's Weekly, who has trudged about the island, gives these-condensed facts about Guam: Not a newspaper is published in Guam. There are fourteen horses in Guam. Guam has sixty soldiers and as many carbines. There are fifty natives of the Carolines who live in Guam. They are absolutely improvident. There is one good road in Guam, six miles long, extending frflm Pili to the capital. There are two dozen bullock carts in good repair in Guam. There are uow two Spaniards in Guam. Guam has a population of 5,000. The subsidiary currency at Guam is worn, chopped and bitten until its early respectability is open to question. Guam is a free port. There are two Japanese on the island. They own the principal stores. There is one Chinaman in Guam. He is the sole proprietor of the only A No. 1 investment on the island —the distillery.

Prof. A. E. Frye, superintendent of public schools in Cuba, has come to the United States to arrange a trip for 1,000 of these teachers to this country during the summer. His plan is to spend six weeks at Harvard with the teachers and then take them to New York, Chicago, Washington and then back to Cuba. Discussing the results of his work in Cuba, he said: "On March 1 we had 3,099 schools in operation, with 130,000 children in attendance. I appointed Cuban teachers because it was necessary to teach in Spanish and because they helped to support many needy families. We hope to add English to our course of study and night schools for adults have already been started.” It Is estimated that the cost of fighting the plague in Honolulu will reach at least $2,000,000, a large part of these expenses having been incurred in finding homes for the people who were burned out by the fires, particularly the great conflagration on Jan. 20. Eight hundred Japanese residents who were burned out In that fire have petitioned the Government to exempt them from taxes for the year 1900. If the request is granted it would lie to open the way for similar claims on the part of some 10,000 Chinese and nearly as mauy natives. Private Elliott Hook was cooking a beefsteak at Caloocan when a Mauser bullet mi the pan in which the steak was sizzling, knocked it about a rod and sprinkled Hoqk with hot grease. The disappointed soldier immediately loaded his rifle and watched aU day long to get a shot at the rebels, saying to-bls comrades: "I went into this war at the call of my country, but since that fellow spilled niy meat it has become a ’perganal matter.'" And so he regarded it rstil he sailed away from Manila. Rear Admiral Philip say* that once when his flagship lay in New York harbor he was walking the quarterdeck when a sailor approached him and asked permission to fratl a yarht which had anchored near by. "Why do you wish to hail her?" aaid the admiral. “Because 1 own her,” was the unexpected reply. The sailor was n young New York swell who had joined the navy to fight Spain. Dr. Charles F. Mason, a volunteer army surgeon, writes from the Philippines to the Medical Record that there la danger of the communication of variola and smallpox In this country to friends of soldier* through souvenirs sent to them. He says that these diseases are almost universal there among all class**, and that the people have their own looms ia their born**, and manufacture many varieties of flu* “josl" and “pina” cloth, which ar* much sought after by American soldiers and by them sent through th* mails to their frienda.