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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1899)
ff 6 Conservative. A NAVAT , OJTICKU'S VIKW OF THK AVAIL Commander John D. Ford , fleet engi neer of the Asiatic station , readied his homo , No. 1522 West Lfinvalo street , on Saturday morning before noon , after an absence of a year and a half , most of which period he spent on board the cruiser Baltimore , in the Bay of Manila. Commander Ford was the only Balti more officer on board the Baltimore dur ing the battle of Manila and since. His return on the army transport Zelandia , having left Mnuila on Mny 9 , probably completes his last voyage in the service of his country and he expects to bo re tired in a short time. "When I left , " said Mr. Ford yester day , "we held not quite so much ground as was ours during the first part of Aug ust last year , and our lines wore re stricted to the suburbs of Manila. The troops did push out into the country , but could not hold the ground they made by raids and were obliged to fall back. It is impossible to conquer the people or to gain the islands without more troops. If we send a great many more soldiers out there and bend all our energies to doing it , we can beat them and take the islands. It would mean great loss of life and considerable time , but it could be done. As it is now it is all we can do to hold our own. The in surgents are conntautly eucioachiug , and though , as I have said , raids are made , the natives driven back , and the line thrown out , wo can't hold the ground because we have not enough men. "The line is always active , and there is no relief. Men spend mouths in the trenches , subjected to great mental and physical strain and never knowing at what moment they will be assailed. The lines of the natives are often not a block away from our own , and the rule is when you see a head exposed to shoot it. The natives are always on the de fensive. They make no advances of their own , but wait and shoot when they can , do all the damage to us they know how , and when we sally out they > JI are driven back into places where it is impossible to follow , so strong is their number , so impregnable the country. "The Filipinos pictured in the sensa tional papers are not the men wo are fighting. They are entirely distinct and separate. The fellows we deal with out there are not ignorant savages , fighting with bows and arrows , but an intelli gent , liberty-loving people , full of cour age and determination. The idea that the Filipino is an uncivilized being is a mistaken one. Originally the natives of those islands sprang from Japanese stock , and are identically the same race , with a change of language and customs. There was a time when the feudal sys tem prevailed in Manila , but no vestige now remains , and the savagery of the people is found only in the very lowest class of ' ' 'little ' 'uegritos' or niggers , as the Filipinos are called. "I have pictures taken there , which I brought home , of native women who would bo handsome anywhere , and of good-looking , brainy men. They have the intellect and the stamina to govern themselves , and have done it for 800 years , although under the rule of Spain. They were the clerks , the book-keepers , the assessors , and managed the entire machinery of government. Their cour age is undoubted , and they fight to the death , having among them a superstition that if you are killed you do not really die , but in three days reappear some where else. 1 'As for their condition now , as far as I can see , they are stronger , more deter mined , and more skilful in the art of war than when the fighting out there started , and as the days go by they increase in strength and knowledge , having nine or eleven millions of people to draw from. They are armed with Mausers the best rifle in the world and are far better marksmen than the Spaniards. At first they shot high and missed , but now they have caught on and aim low with deadly effect. They have a good gov ernment now , which they are operating successfully , and preserve law and order. They certainly don't think theirs is a hopeless fight , and I don't think any one else does who knows anything about it. "What they are fighting for now is absolute and entire liberty. They don't want us there or over them , and in the course of time might wear out our patience entirely. An excellent postal and telegraph system is in existence , which we wish very much we could get hold of. While they fight for entire freedom , all they ask is a chance for life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness , and they care not whether it be a repub lic of their own , or some form devised for them by the great United States of North America. I see nothing promis ing in the struggle now or any hope of speedy success on our part , unless many more troops are sent out. "The problem can be solved , however , and I believe that if a proposal was made to the natives to lay down their arms upon the promise that the United States would annex the islands , treat them as Americans , and make their country a territory of ours , the rebellion if such it can be called , for we had no claim on them would melt away like a block of ice before the sun. A good , level-headed governor could be ap pointed , and given full veto power , while the rest of the government could be in the hands of the natives. They could bo called together and elect their own legislature and leaders , operate their own politics , and manage their own affairs. I believe firmly they would accept this proposal and surrender , as they realize the possibilities , in event they establish a republic of their own , of Germany coming along and talcing an island here , France an island there , and England three or four inlands every where else. No proposals of this kind have , however , been made to the Filip inos. " Baltimore Sun. MUSIC. The western part of this country , in cluding that in which wo live , may properly bo called a musical desert , in that outside the large cities one may spend a lifetime without ever hearing any music worthy the name. This is not because the inhabitants are indiffer ent to music ; on the contrary , it is the desire and purpose of each one to have it in his homo , as is shown by the amount of money invested in private musical instruments , which will in every community aggregate an enormous amount , in proportion to the outlay for any other form of pleasure or education. It is simply a case of arrested develop ment ; wishing to hear music , we have seen no other way to that end save to teach our daughters the difficult art of producing it with their fingers , usually on the piano forte. Every house , nearly , therefore has its piano ; but from their silent insides no anthem pealing startles the passer-by with strange alarms ; not once , we should say , in a mouth , on an average. We invest several hundred dollars in delicate apparatus , and we ex pend a greater or less amount in em ploying such instruction for our daugh ters as we can obtain ; but the daugh ters , alas , seldom or never arrive. The reason is plain ; piano-playing is a pro fession by itself , and requires not only as much special education as any other trade , but a very exhaustive and long- continued physical training ; now we have too many other uses for our daugh ters to allow more than one in ten thous and to become an expert pianist , and none but an expert can get the proper results from a piano. We may yet hope to have our music , however , for the American inventor has not overlooked this field , and mechanical genius will yet enable the daughter to relieve her shoulders of the burden of mechanical performance ; thus skipping at once the long and usually abortive years of finger-training , and starting in where the present system can only as pire to end. This will make life much easier for the friends and neighbors , and it will be very good for the girl's health besides. And it is all in the line of na tural progress ; not so very long ago , the daughter was expected to manufacture the pictures with which wo adorned our walls ; but now we find it cheaper to buy pictures reproduced by mechanical pro cesses ; we can have more pictures in that way , and they are really very much better pictures than the young ladies used to make.
