Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 45, DeMotte, Jasper County, 28 September 1939 — Air Clippers Bring New Life to Forgotten Spot. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Air Clippers Bring New Life to Forgotten Spot.

Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington. D. C. —WNU Service. Green, warm, and inviting, Guam lies in the path of the Pan American Clipper ships as once it lay on the direct route of the Spanish treasure galleons that plied between Manila and Acapulco. It is no longer an isolated and forgotten spot on the map, but an important link in a chain that encircles the globe. Before the coming of the air Clippers, Guam had no direct mail communication with the United States and by the time a letter arrived it was often more than a month old. Mail either came on irregular and infrequent naval transports requiring a full three weeks- for the voyage, or else went by liner all the way to Manila, whence it Was brought back to Guam on one of three transports visiting the island from the Asiatic side each month. Today the trans-Pacific clippers, on a regular schedule of a plane a week in each direction, carry mail and passengers frorh Guam to Ala'Yneda, Calif., and vice versa, in four days. There are just so many houses available for American occupancy in Guam, and it is necessary for the departing personnel to go aboard th’e same transport that brings replacements. The departing families leave their houses in operating order,, with well-stocked refrigerators, and servants already installed. This makes moving day practically perfect. Land of Sunshine. Guam is a land of brilliant sunshine and deep shadows; happy children and forlorn, neglected dogs and cats; canned milk and cow-drawn vehicles. The natives pack the cinema houses to see western pictures, sing cowboy songs in praise of the great open spaces, and go home to sleep, ten or more in a room, with all the windows closed and locked to keep out evil spirits! The Chamorro language, one of that great family of Malayan tongues, is the vernacular of the island. All instruction in the schools is carried on in English, by native teachers, but the moment school is out the youngsters begin to chatter m their preferred language, and forget all about English until school opens the following morning. They call their language Finojaya, the “Idiom of the South,” and refer to Spanish, which many understand and speak to some extent, as Fino-lago, or the “Idiom of the North,” because the Spaniards first appeared here from the north. While an increasingly large number of Chamorros now have a working knowledge of English, there remain many who speak only their native language. There are Spanish residents who speak only Spanish and Chamorro, Japanese who have acquired a knowledge of Chamorro, but little English. Thus amusing difficulties often arise, sometimes requiring a battery of interpreters. In Agana. the capital of Guam, where more than half of the island population lives, there are many native families of means, very often of wealth, according to the local scaie. They are business men, government employees, and school-teachers. They read books and magazines, go to the movies,, and in other ways keep more or less abreast of the times. They are, for the most part, mestizos, with Spanish, German, Scottish, or American blood. The natives of this upper stratum of Guam society claim descent, on the Chamorro side, from the ancient chieftains. It is unlikely that there are any persons of unmixed Chamorro ancestry on the island, even in the back country, but of course the mixture of European blood is most no-

ticeable in Agana, which has always been the capital city. Many Are Educated. Many of the men and women of the upper class have had educational advantages that place .them abeve their neighbors. Some have attended school in Manila, Hongkong, or the United States. The girls and women of this group are handsome, often beautiful, and are dressed in the latest fashion from Manila cr San Francisco. The most important official function of the year is the reception at Government House on New Year s day. Then daughters of the old families of Guam present a picture one does not forget. There are very definite social divisions among the 20,670 native inhabitants of Guam. The town resident feels somewhat superior to the man from the back country, and villagers display a marked envy of dwellers in Agana. Many Chamorros in some of the remote settlements have never traveled beyond the limits of their own village. They appear to have very little curiosity about the island on which they live, and are sometimes incredulous when you speak of interesting places you have visited which may be within a short distance of their homes, but which they have never seen. A journey of 10 or 12 miles is looked upon as a formidable undertaking. Formerly it meant an allday journey in a bullcart, or perhaps on foot. Even now that there are automobiles, the trip from an outlying village to Agana, a ride of perhaps 40 minutes, is still a serious

BOEING CIAPPER. Picture shows a huge Boeing Clipper of the type that stops at Guam on its trans-Pacific flight. These flying boats are bringing new life to the small island.

matter, and it is not unusual for the traveler to seek a telephone at once to communicate to his family, through the village patrolman, that he has arrived safely in the city and is well. Foot-Travel Best. Within a short time after your arrival you find that you have just about exhausted the possibilities of the motor roads—some 85 miles of improved highways—and that if you are really going to see Guam you should have to see it on foot. The roads over which a motorcar can pass serve only the principal villages, and these are near the seashore. Only footpaths and carabao trails reach into the hills and the jungles, where no wheeled vehicle can travel. You have no difficulty in finding guides to take you over the island, but you have to engage a different one for each district you want to visit. Each man knows only his own immediate surroundings. In many places the trails are not clearly defined: indeed, you often have to cut your way through the jungle with machetes. Since a mosquitoinfested jungle would hardly be a comfortable place to get lost in, you invariably have a native as guide and carrier. The Chamorros do not carry water on the inland trails. They drink from any stream or pond, even when it is obvious that carabaos or other animals have recently been there. Besides, in the jungle one can always get a drink that will at least prevent actual suffering from thirst by cutting a couple of feet of guiji vine, which grows everywhere. Sap literally gushes from the vine so cut, and it is not unpalatable.