Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1900 — NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES. [ARTICLE]

NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES.

Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, who made a tour 1 of the Philippines last year while the first volunteer regiments were camping on the trail of the insurgents, pays a very laudatory tribute to the character of the men composing the invading army. Writing in the Philadelphia Post, he says: “The American soldier looks the master: his face is the face of nobility; hi* stride is the stride of a prince. In the Philippines, in China, in Japan, he looks the lord of the land. He lias a fine loftiness of conduct. He goes every place. All doors open before him. He absorbs everything. He has the spirit of acquisitive inquisitiveness. In Japan, every street of every l>ort at which he touches is full of him. ’The shops are infested by him. He inspects the palaces with the curiosity of intelligence. He wanders among the temples of the ancient gods, a modern Omar meditating a new Rubaiyat. At the giant tombs of the dethroned Shoguns he sits and muses on the eeaseless tide of time which changes all and finally submerges all. He is n learner at first hand. No printed books or papers for him when the book of the world is before him. No painted map for him when the chart of the earth itself is beneath his feet. No dry nor fanciful account for him of the strange peoples of humanity’s first homes when he may see and know nnd absorb the spirit’ of those peoples themselves.” A belated war story comes from Ponce, Porto Rico, and is told by Lieut. Juan Arato of the Spanish engineers. “When tile war broke out,” said the lieutenant, “we found that our supply of ammunition of nil sorts was very low. Some was new and some ofti; some was blaek and some brown; some was old-fashioned and some was smokeless and mysterious. There was one lot of brown smokeless powder which was marked. ‘Use with care! Very powerful! Keep cool and dry!’ and to it was attached a legend that it-had burst a Krupp field gun. I determined to try it. I employed a .small chnrjje. in a gun, and to my surprise if refused to go off. My gunners were Very much disgusted, and one of them said: ‘Bah. this is no good for war. I'll use it for cooking our supper.’ We nil jumped as he threw a double handful into a small camp fire. Judge of our feelings when we saw the fire go out. I afterward learned that powder of this sort deteriorates with age, and that long before this case was opened it was as harmless as wet .'•and." The plant which is being erected in Manila by the United States Government for refrigerating and ice making is an enormous affair, with a capacity for cooling at one time no less than 5.030 beef carcasses. 7.500 sheep, 100 tons of salted meats, as well as for the storage of immense quantities of eggs, vegetables, butter and other articles, enough to supply the army in the I'hiliptiiues for mouths at a time. In addition it will be capable of producing fifty tons of ice per day and 0,000 gallons of distilled water. The ice will be manufactured by the ammonia process. The building will be nearly 300 feet square and about fifty feet it^ height. In Porto Rico the laboring classes are on the verge of starvation; there is work for them to do. but the planters who need their services are without funds with which to employ them. Even the Porto Rican people do not know, nor do they realize, the condition into which the island's people as n whole have been thrown. The distribution of relief supplies was discontinued temporarily some weeks ago. As a result many people began to drift in from the country district’s to the larger towns, where smne rations were distributed. Recently more than sixty ragged, starving women walked to Ponce from Narinjito, twenty miles away, to present a petition to the Governor General. The Cuban company, of which Sir William Van Horne is president, has secured. options upon all of the railways in Cuba. Gen. Samuel Thomas of New York, who is one of the directors, made a hasty trip to Loudon, where the roads are owned, and returned yesterday with tile options in his pocket. The Sagna railroad will cost the syndicate $3,000,000. the Caibarien railroad $2,000,000, tlie Savinialn road $5,1X10,000, the Cienfuegos S2,S<X).<MM) and the Jucaro line SB.<XX),TXXi. It is the intention of the syndicate to purchase, consolidate and extend these railroad'* over the entire island.

The division of customs and insular affairs of the War Ib-priitnieiit has given out a comparative statement of receipts at the cnhtonw port of Manila during the years 1893 to 1897, inclusive, with the receipts of the port in 18!X>. Also receipts named comprised tonnage, taxes, import duties, export duties, fines, seizures, etc. The receipts by years were: In 1893. $2,109,540; 1894. $2.:t.85.2iK1; 1895, $2,208,234: 189(1. $2,421,532; 1897. $'4,910,870; ■18!H», $3,825,150. It is stated that in three months under the American plan the school attendance in Cuba has Itorn raised from 4.(MM> to HO.fXM) pupils, with 2,(N)0 teachers. Although English is taught, the teachers employed are Cubans. No local school taxes nre raised. The school expenses, which it is expected will Ibis year reach $4,000,000, are paid from the island treasury. The teachers’ wages are higher than those paid in the United States. A correspondent assert* that as a place for u permanent investment Guam has possibilities aside from that of v. cable station, and is unrivaled. Its soil is rich, well watered, nnd is nbundnnt in tropical products. Guam has other advantages—a delightful climate, a good-naturtsl population, and—an American flag. * Porto Rico is one vhst poorhouse and there are opportuultie* for charity nt every «t ep. Were SIO,OOO to la* expended immedlntely for medicine mid medienl aid it would possibly save the lives of 3,000 people. At one time the Government considered the feasibility of assigning n physician to each town at mi aggregate coat of SBO.<XM) per year, but the funds fur such »u outlay are not available. •J~> • The North American Trust Company has pun-haned nearly $1,000,000 of Havana first mortgage bonds.