Show SPITE ot the marked improvement IN in conditions which has been wrought la the philippines under the beneficent reign ot uncle sam instructing the natives of the islands in the three R s is not all beer and skittles according to morion I 1 of detroit alch mr s conclusions were reached as the result of personal knowledge for three years he and mrs taught the brown people of our far east posses alons only recently returning to detroit to make their home their stay in the islands was not of sufficient length to warp their perspective while both were able to accurately gauge conditions in the line of endeavor with which they were identified that great good Is being accomplished both agree incalculable benefits are being con berred on the natives by the education al system instituted by the united states and the enlightenment of the masses through this medium Is the leaven which will eventually dispel the ignorance and discontent bred by long years of spanish oppression and fit the people for an even greater meas ure of self government than they now enjoy dut the man or the woman who goes to the philippines as a teacher with the idea that it Is going to be a perpetual holiday stands a splendid chance of being disillusioned before the task has been fairly undertaken not because the work is so hard but from the fact that the awful loneliness gets on the nerves after a time and causes mental depression that sometimes leads to demoralizing excesses americans degenerate Dege one of the sad spectacles in the islands said mr ISet recounting some of the experiences that befell him while away is the number of young americans who have degen aerated to little better than human der first place we had our home again with the exception ot the first year when I 1 was a teacher I 1 acted in a supervisory capacity this kept me moving around the province but with rare exceptions I 1 managed to spend the nights at home when I 1 was marooned in one of those little all lages I 1 could appreciate the loneliness of the one who was compelled to spend all his time there and I 1 felt genuinely sorry for them there isn t any way of bettering conditions tor a long time to come so far as I 1 can see for many years there will be isolated villages where the people require instruction what the government la bending its ener agles to accomplish Is the fitting ot a sufficient number ot native teachers so that there will be little or no demand tor american instructors save in a supervisory capacity but it will take years to accomplish this in spite ot the rapidity with which the natives familiarize themselves with the eng elsh language and the eagerness of great numbers to qualify as teachers there Is a reason for this rush 0 applicants tor positions as instructors a potent one although of course other considerations figure your fill pino as a rule detests manual labor As a teacher he can wear good clothes and keep his hands soft and that is a great inducement the salary paid a native teacher in the primary grades runs from ten to fifteen dollars a month not a princely sum as we un der stand it but when the native mode is taken into account it is found that in the end the native teacher is just as well off financially as the amer lean instructor who receives several times as much besides it enables the native to preserve his caste which is about all a lot of them have to bang on to this ellets during their stay in the philippines whatever views one may have entertained regarding the uselessness of society as we know it you speedily revise your notions when you see what isolation has done in these cases at home conventions place a certain re about a man that be is bound to respect association with others ot his kind buoys him up even though he may be naturally weak dut take a man of this type and drop him down in a little philippine village perhaps many miles from the nearest white where there is nothing to do once the school has closed tor the day and everybody goes to bed ai dark except during the time when the moon Is full and it Is not bard to understand why he annexes all the scotch whisky be can lay his hands on and nightly pays court to a half quart or more that he may forget his loneliness and that he speedily down the moral scale the awful soil tude ot such an existence must be ex ced before one Is in a position to understand just what it means after you have had a taste of it you wonder that the excesses practiced by some of these fellows who have left home and friends and society behind and plunged into a wilderness populated by strange people are not more serious and marvel at the self restraint they display of course not all the men who go to the islands as teachers turn out that way many lead exemplary lives but the there just the same and it takes a lot of moral stamina for a single asp to maln tali the standards that would pass at home I 1 was fortunately situated la the S Is also an inheritance from the span lards perpetuated in part by the brit ashers who are encountered in manila and all through the islands they are a splendid class but they cling to the traditions of home and are outspoken in their criticism of what the united states is doing for the natives shattered caste horrifies british to them everything Is progressing backward they are accustomed to ruling with a mailed fist and because americans handle the with some consideration instead of wield ing a big stick they figure that the islands are headed straight for the bow vows fancy an englishman stripping off his coat and perhaps his shirt and performing manual labor alongside a class of in order that they might be shown how it could be accomplished complis hed more advantageously not in a million years mould such a spectacle be witnessed because caste prevents yet that la what the american teachers do and they win the regard of the natives as they could in no other way this matter of caste is pretty much of a joke to one unaccustomed to it else did I 1 find it better e than in singapore while I 1 was on my way home I 1 was desirous of visiting the botanical gardens and stepped into a little shop to ascertain the direction and the rate of fare there are two classes of in every town arst and second you can tell them apart for the first class carry a sign to that effect although they are identical otherwise with the second class nd are drawn by men it would I 1 be impossible to distinguish one from the other |