Travels of an
Unofficial Attache

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1943

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THE TRAVELS

OF

AN UNOFFICIAL ATTACHE

General Jesse M. Lee and Mr. Wiborg under duramen tree,
Prang Prang, Mindanao

THE TRAVELS OF
AN UNOFFICIAL ATTACHE
DESCRIBED IN SIMPLE NARRATIVE
FOR HIS FRIENDS
BY
FRANK WIBORG

PRIVATELY PRINTED
1904

Copyright, 1904
By Frank Wiborg

50?. Vi

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

TO
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NELSON A. MILES AND MRS. MILES
LIEUTENANT COLONEL MARION P. MAUS AND MRS. MAUS
MR. HENRY CLARK ROUSE, MR. CHARLES SHERMAN
HOYT, AND LIEUTENANT COLONEL
HENRY H. WHITNEY
MY COMPANIONS OF THE JOURNEY
I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK
ACKNOWLEDGING TO THEM MY GRATEFUL APPRECIATION
OF THE MANY COURTESIES SHOWN ME

Foreword

LATE in the summer of 1902, Lieutenant-
, General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A., was
ordered by the President to proceed to
tbe Philippines on a trip of inspection of the
military department of the Archipelago. Later
he was ordered to Japan and Pekin, China, on
a similar mission. From Pekin the General
was authorized to return to military head
quarters at Washington by any route he might
select, and he decided, though in mid-winter,
to go from Pekin via the Trans-Siberian Rail
road to St. Petersburg, thence, via England, to
New York.
General Miles, an old personal friend with
whom I made several previous tours, was so
kind as to invite me to become one of his party.
To the opportunity thus afforded I owe the rec
ollection of a series of experiences such as few
are permitted to enjoy. A world- tour is a rare

Foreword

treat even to the most fortunate. To circum
navigate the globe as one of the party of
the official representative of the United States,
being received everywhere with the pomp and
ceremony due to the commanding officer of
the military forces of a great nation, is a privi
lege beyond compare.
The author makes no claim to recognition as
a writer of books, nor is this little volume
issued with any pretense of literary skill. All
that has been attempted within the limits of
these pages has been to preserve a souvenir of
this fascinating journey, and to share with my
friends such measure of enjoyment as the nar
ration of some of the most unique and interest
ing of my experiences can furnish.
My purpose herein is not to give such details
as a tourists' guide-book could present in better
form, but to tell the simple- story of our whirl
around the world, preserving what I can of local
color and presenting the kaleidoscopic views
which my memory retains. No attempt has
been made to preserve the proper proportions
of historic values, but rather to present, in
viii

Foreword

familiar phrase, the impressions which have
remained most clearly in my own mind.
Wherever comments or reflections, economic,
social, or political, are offered, they are to be
taken, like the rest of the book, personally, i. e.,
they are my own impressions and may not
(in some instances they do not) coincide with
the judgment of my companions.
F. B. W.

IX

CONTENTS Page
Honolulu   9
Honolulu to Guam . . . .... 19
Guam ..... . 23
Manila  . . ... 31
A Day in the Streets of Manila . .... 55
Along the Dagupan Railway .... 62
Cruise among the Southern Islands ... 67
Sultan of Sulu no longer a Subject of Uncle
Sam  90
Hong-Kong  .132
Hong-Kong to Canton ... . 138
Japan  . 152
Port Arthur  ... .165
Ching Wang Tao to Pekin ... 172
Pekin  .... 179
An Audience with their Majesties, the Dowager
Empress and the Emperor of China ... 181
From Pekin to New Chwang  . 215
Crossing the Lian-ho River . . 224
A Tragedy  243
St. Petersburg .... ... ... 250
Berlin  .... .... 256
London  26l

ILLUSTRATIONS

General Jesse M. Lee and Mr. Wibora under duramen

tree, Prang Prang, Mindanao
Map of Route
Market Place, Siassi
Moro Boys, Siassi
General Miles at Camp Vickers
Old Spanish Gate, Subig Bay, Luzon
Bumboats, Nagasaki . . . . . .
Arch in front of Main Gate, Pekin .
Russian Soldier. Taken at a way-station in
Manchuria
Ox-cart. Taken at a way-station in Man
churia
Place Rouge, Moscow . ... . .

Frontispiece
Facing page 8
• „ „ 84
• „ „ 100
¦ » >i 128
¦ „ „ 152
.. „ 180
„ 216
„ 232
„ 248

An Unofficial Attache

THE generous and sunny nature of the
people of San Francisco was most de
lightfully evidenced on the day of our
departure on the United States army transport
"Thomas," October 1, 1902. Many personal
friends of General and Mrs. Miles came aboard to
wish us hon voyage. Officers from the army
and navy posts in the vicinity of San Fran
cisco were present with the ladies of their
families, and a merry throng in holiday attire
crowded the wharf and shore. Lying out in
the harbor, almost in a direct line with the
"Thomas," was the United States first-class
cruiser " Oregon," in " full dress," every man
on the ship in position, in order to give the
commanding general of the army an appropri
ate farewell salute.
As our transport left her moorings, the shore
batteries thundered forth a salute of fifteen
guns, which was repeated by the " Oregon " ; a
regimental band on the shore struck up " The
Girl I left behind me," and the great throng
1 1

An Unofficial Attache

of people on the wharf shouted and cheered
and waved farewells.
And then we sailed out through the Golden
Gate on the boundless peace of the Pacific.
Though we were destined to be cheered and
saluted at almost every stopping-place on our
entire trip, there was no salutation more cor
dial and no godspeed more hearty than that
which followed us as we left the harbor of
San Francisco.
There is a subtle and mysterious fascination
in the wide solitude of the Pacific. The abso
lute serenity of this ocean seems to be but
another manifestation of its vastness. And
as its days and nights succeed each other,
lengthening out into weeks, and all alike, —
illimitable water, bounded and arched by the
immeasurable vault of the sky, water and sky
alike placid, unruffled, and tropically hot, — the
inland-bred traveller finds himself dazed by this
monotonous round. When we had steamed for
twenty-nine days without sighting a ship or
other evidence of human life, we came to under
stand the seaman's dread of fire or accident on
the Pacific. On the Atlantic there is always a
strong probability that refugees in the small
boats will be picked up by some passing ship.

An Unofficial Attache

To be adrift on the Pacific usually means to
face the horrors of slow death by starvation
and thirst.
One morning, a few days after we had left
the Golden Gate, the wonted silence of the ship
was broken by the brazen clang of a bell on the
starboard side of the deck. This was repeated
from other bells fore and aft, in every depart
ment of the vessel, from the upper decks to the
hold. Simultaneously with the ringing of the
bells we heard the quick, short words of com
mand from the boat's officers, and a hurrying
of the crew to positions on duty. All hands —
engineers, gunners, mechanics, seamen, and
waiters, stewards — responded to the alarm of
the fire bell, and in the winking of an eye the
lines of hose were run out, pumps were set in
place, and the fire-drill was' on. These fire-
drills were repeated several times during our
voyage and were interesting displays of the skill
and discipline maintained aboard an army trans
port. Taking all things into consideration, I
am quite contented that the element of fire was
omitted from the drill, though it would doubt
less have added considerably to the realism of
the scene.
Another morning the cry " man overboard "
3

An Unofficial Attache"

was heard on the port side. In incredibly short
time the signals were passed throughout the
vessel. Engines were reversed and the ship
came to a dead stop, then turned back on her
track. Meantime, the life-saving crew had ap
peared as if by magic. The boats were lowered
and manned and shot away from the vessel's
side toward an object scarcely visible above the
surface of the water. Presto ! The drenched
form was pulled aboard; the boats were returned
to the side of the ship, and drawn up into their
places. The dummy is stowed away until the
next time a drowning is deemed necessary ; the
life-saving crew disappear into their quarters
below ; the vessel is righted, and we speed on
toward our goal. The whole episode, from the
time of the first alarm until all is righted and
the decks are again in order, has occupied but
twenty minutes.
Oftentimes of mornings we lounged on deck
and enjoyed the exhibition of the skill of our
gunners at target practice. A soap-box was
cast overboard and the small rapid-fire guns of
the ship were aimed and fired at the floating
target as it bobbed up and down on the ruffled
path in our wake. Every turn of the screw
took us further from the mark, and every charge
4

An Unofficial Attache

was fired from a different elevation to that of the
preceding shot. This was continued as long as
the target remained visible on the surface of the
ocean. The marksmanship of these gunners is
marvellous, and furnished a good example of
what is meant by the " skill of the man behind
the gun."
The commander of the " Thomas " favored
our party almost daily with a call at seven
bells, which means, in landlubber's parlance,
half-past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. At
these meetings in the commander's quarters on
the upper deck we had opportunity to go over
the running of the previous day, the weather
conditions, and the small-talk of the ship.
These very pleasant social gatherings were en
joyed by the ladies as well as by the men of
our party, and by other passengers on the boat.
On these occasions some light refreshments were
offered. The captain told us an amusing story of a
colored trooper, who had never before seen the
ocean, aboard a transport bound for the Philip
pines. When the vessel, on a previous trip, had
been some two weeks from port without sight
ing a single sail, and nothing but water, water,
everywhere, his chagrin could no longer be
5

An Unofficial Attache

restrained. Approaching the captain, he came
to attention and then said, " Captain, I have
made a cackiUation and de goggerfies is all
wrong. When I was a little boy at school
dey teached me dat the wuld am two-firds
water and one-fird land. Dat am de mis
take. De wuld am nine-tenths water and one-
tenth land and dem goggerfy books had orter
be erected. I'se seen it myself since leaving
Frisco." The colored trooper may have been amiss in
his " calculations," but our party agreed after
so many days on the Pacific that the " gogger
fies" have understated the relative amount of
water in the composition of this planet.
Another trooper on the same trip is reported
to have approached an officer one morning
about ten days out from port. " Lieutenant,"
said he, " I 'se in bad luck. When I left Frisco,
a fren gave me a bottle of whiskey to take wid
me, an' I promised dat I would only take a
drink outen it wheneber we seed anuder ship.
It 's going on two weeks now, sah, and dis nigger
am gettin' powerful thirsty." Fortunately for
our party, we did not number our refreshments
by the passing vessels.
The following facsimile of a menu card is
6

An Unofficial Attache

given merely as a sample of the excellent dinner
service we enjoyed on board the " Thomas."
SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT

U. S.

Wednesday

(Flag)

Aemy
October 28, 1902

Transport " Thomas '

MENU
DINNER Olives
Soup Cream of Cauliflower
Fish Boiled Rock Cod Sauce Hollandaise
Boiled Smoked Tongue, with Spinach
Entrees Ox Tail Saute, au Madeira
Fricassee of Lamb, with Cauliflower
Macaroni- Italienne
Peach Fritters, with Wine Sauce
Boasts Prime Rib of Beef, au Jus
Sucking Pig, with Apple Sauce
Vegetables
Stewed Tomatoes Mashed Pumpkins
Baked, Mashed, and Plain Boiled Potatoes
Dessert
Black Cap Pudding, with Strawberry Sauce
Pineapple Ice Cream Peach Pie
Pound Cake Jelly Rolls Macaroons
Cheese Straws Crackers and Cheese
Assorted Fruit Iced Tea and Coffee
7

An Unofficial Attache

Although we made sleeping and eating the
principal business of our days and nights aboard
the " Thomas," we not infrequently worked up
a genuine enthusiasm over a game of skittles,
or horse billiards, on deck. I have since mar
velled that a party of grown men, in full posses
sion of their mental faculties and passing among
their fellows as sane and rational beings, could
become excited over the pathetically trivial
game of skittles, but I am inclined to suspect
that " mumble-the-peg " or " Simon says thumbs
up " might become a veritable orgy, were the
Pacific a little broader, skittles being barred.

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An Unofficial Attache

HONOLULU
LATE in the forenoon of October 9th, nine
days since we had seen our last glimpse
of land, we stood in eager expectation,
well to the fore of the boat, and all eyes straining
straight ahead to catch the first welcome view of
the land which we knew must soon greet us.
When one has been four weeks at sea, a sight
of land is about the most welcome thing imag
inable. Presently the cry, " Land ahead ! " was
raised, and then, almost simultaneously, the
different members of our party, peering through
their glasses, discerned a small black spot clearly
outlined on the horizon. As we sped on, this
rock seemed verily to be rising up out of the
sea. We soon saw other peaks lifting their
rugged heads from the placid ocean into the
blue dome of the tropical sky. Then the out
lines became clearer. We noted thin veils of
gray smoke floating from the crests of various
volcanoes which stood like lazy giants leisurely
smoking their pipes of peace. The absolute
9

An Unofficial Attache"

serenity of the scene was beautiful. Presently
we steamed almost in the shadow of Diamond
Head, thence into the quiet harbor of Honolulu.
Truly this is the El Dorado for which the cava
liers of old sought so long in vain, — this is the
land of fruit and flowers and perpetual summer.
As the " Thomas " came to her slip the entire
garrison of Honolulu, drawn up on the dock,
gave General Miles and his party a hearty
salute. A great crowd of sight-seers cheered
our arrival, and awaited our landing with eager
friendliness. Scarce had we left the gang-planks,
when each and every one of us was surrounded
by good-natured, laughing crowds who threw
long garlands of sweet flowers about our necks
and shoulders, and placed wreaths upon our
heads. This is known as " the placing of the
Leis," a native custom and of general obser
vance in the Hawaiian Islands. The Leis is
worn on occasions of public or private rejoicing,
— birthdays, weddings, and the like, — and this
sweet ceremonial, one of the simple, daily prac
tices in these islands, impressed me as the most
beautiful, the most absolutely charming and
innocent custom of rejoicing which I ever saw.
So general is this observance that it is not un
common to see a cab-driver or working-man
10

An Unofficial Attache

going about his daily task with a garland on
his hat in commemoration of some home
festival, — the birth of a child or the anniver
sary of his marriage or birthday.
Thus decorated we climbed into waiting
United States army Doherty wagons, — ca
pacious army carryalls so familiar on our
western plains. In this manner, accompanied
by a guard of honor made up of a few of the
. officers and ladies of the post, we took our way
through the heart of the city to the "Royal
Hawaiian Hotel."
This fascinating hostelry is a veritable bower
of tropical plants and flowers. The building
itself reminds one of a summer resort of the
most attractive kind in Florida or Southern
California; but the luxurious freedom of the
plants, shrubs, and trees about the grounds far
surpasses anything of the kind in our country.
The service at the Eoyal Hawaiian is of the
best, and the management is strictly up-to-
date. The splashing fountains fill the inter
missions of the orchestral music with a restful
murmur, charming eye and ear. The sense of
smell is grateful to each gentle breeze which
comes laden with the sweet odors of palm and
orchid, never strong, but always fresh and pure.
11

'An Unofficial Attache
It is difficult for the traveller, accustomed to the
artificiality of hotel life in America and Europe,
to realize that he is here at a great commercial
hotel in the business centre of a thriving and
busy city of some forty thousand population.
Yet a few steps from the hotel bring us into
streets, noisy like our own with the clang of
gongs on trolley cars and with the hurly-burly
of trade and industry. In most respects, Hono
lulu is not unlike the average western American
city of like number of inhabitants. There is
about the place a pervasive air of general con
tentment and moderate prosperity, though but
little evidence of great wealth. English is
spoken on the streets and in the markets, and
I have noted that the general adoption of the
English language always means the eventual,
if not the immediate, civilization of a country.
The native has been almost entirely assimilated
into the Americanized population of the islands.
Passing along the streets of Honolulu one can
not fail to notice the pleasing fact that every
house, no matter how poor or cheap, is gay with
flowers or shaded with palms. The people of
these islands are, for the most part, simple
and generous in disposition, light-hearted, gay,
sympathetic, and full of the love of the beautiful.
12

An Unofficial Attache

Americanized though they be, they are not yet
so far commercialized as to have no time for
those amenities which make life sweet and
render pleasant the daily intercourse of trade
and business.
The mountains about Honolulu are pictur
esque to a degree, and many points of interest
are within a few miles of the city. Among
these the "Punchbowl" and the "Pali" are
the most wonderful of nature's creations. The
Punchbowl is the crater of an extinct volcano,
— a deep valley cupped out of the very peak
of the mountain, when the volcanic fires within
the rugged monster ceased to vomit forth their
smoke and lava thousands of years ago. The
serried sides of the mountains are now dotted
with tropical vegetation. The crest, a great
circle like the rim of a huge bowl, is densely
overgrown with palms and ferns and a rank
luxury of fauna and flora unknown to us.
Within the hollow of the bowl the receding
lava has left a beautiful valley, over which
the kindly Pacific summers have spread a rich
deposit of soil, now almost entirely under culti
vation, and dotted here and there with cocoanut
and date palms. The view from the edge of
the crater is magnificent. Standing here and
13

An Unofficial Attache"

looking down over the peaceful valley and fair
city below, one realizes that here, in the days
of which we have no record of man's doings,
nature was in labor to bring forth new worlds
for unborn generations of the sons of men to
dwell upon in peace and content. Upon the
dead ashes of those primordial fires the suns
and rains of kindly centuries have spread their
blessings, until they blossom like one vast garden
in the fairy-land of our childhood dreams.
The Pali is a vast cliff, some two thousand
feet in sheer, precipitous descent, fronting out
toward the ocean, which roars and foams be
neath. The grandeur of the scene from this
elevation beggars description. This was the
last battle-ground in the war which was waged
by King Kamahameha against the seven kings
who held authority over seven other islands in
the Hawaiian group. After a brave fight in
the lowlands about the city of Honolulu, the
allies were driven along the mountain passes
into the plateau of the Pali. Here further
retreat was impossible, and the victorious Kama
hameha, forcing his enemies back to the edges
of the cliff, bade his victims choose their own
doom, — absolute surrender to his mercy, or
death by the swords of his soldiers. The defeated
14

An Unofficial Attache

band, brave in battle, were no less brave in
defeat. Perhaps their experience had taught
them what measure of mercy they might expect
from Kamahameha. Submit, they would not,
and facing about toward the precipice, the little
army rushed forward to meet death face to
face, not deigning to give their conqueror the
satisfaction of driving them to their doom, and
with one defiant cry of unconquerable valor
they plunged over the cliff to the rocks, a thou
sand feet below.
Verily, there have been brave men who knew
how to die at Pali as well as at Thermopylae !
From one of our sight-seeing tours we went
by trolley to a place on the coast where the
surf-bathing is said to be the finest in the world.
Though its water is too warm to be as exhila
rating as our northern sea bathing, the surf has
a roll and swell that are grand. The natives
paddle queer little canoes far out from the
shore, and the daring bather perches himself on
the frail craft and awaits the return start. The
native boatman watches for his chance, and at
the nick of time he twists his canoe deftly to
ride the crest of an extra large wave. The
novice passenger holds his breath as he is shot
forward, literally on the crest of the waves. It
15

An Unofficial Attache

is great sport and fine physical exercise. Occa
sionally a breaker leaps up onto the sandy
beach, spilling canoe and passenger unceremoni
ously on the shore or in the shallow water and
pounding them with a great bulk of foamy
surf. Returning to the hotel, we enjoyed a delicious
dinner, including poi, — a sort of porridge much
in favor with the natives, — which no American
or European hotel could surpass in general
excellence of preparation or service. Native
musicians played for our entertainment, and
as we sat about the table over our coffee and
cigars, native negro minstrels sang for us,
and native dancers went through the queer
mazes of old-time Hawaiian dances.
Later in the evening an informal reception
was held in honor of General and Mrs. Miles.
Music and dancing followed.
On one of the smaller islands, about forty
miles from Honolulu, is located the Leper
Settlement, made up of between two and three
thousand lepers, doomed to pay the awful
penalty of the sins of their ancestors. Verily,
the sins of the parents are "visited upon the
children even to the third and fourth genera
tion." Mark Twain, in his book, "Following
16

An Unofficial Attache

the Equator," writes as follows concerning the
dread place : " You would scarcely expect to
find in that awful Leper Settlement, a custom
worthy to be transplanted to your own country.
They have one such, and it is inexpressibly
touching and beautiful. When death sets open
the prison doors of life there, their band salutes
the freed soul with a burst of glad music."
On the second day of our visit to Hawaii we
took a trip by boat along the coast and up to
the new naval station of Pearl Harbor.
The entrance to Pearl Harbor is through a
very narrow channel, scarcely visible from the
sea, and easily protected in time of hostilities.
Passing through this gateway the course is
winding and tortuous for a considerable dis
tance. Presently, however, the waters widen
and the ship sails into a haven wonderfully
peaceful. So deep is the water that vessels of
the largest draft can move with greatest ease
and freedom, and almost tie up to the shore.
So sheltered is the harbor that even the most
violent of ocean storms cannot endanger the
safety of any ship within its kindly confines.
All too brief was our visit at Hawaii, and it
was with real regret that we departed thence.
A more delightful spot I never hope to find,
2 17

An Unofficial Attache"

a more simple, good, and kindly people I know
not, than those in the " Paradise of the Paci
fic," — Honolulu. And as we re-embarked to
continue our voyage on the " Thomas," we
went out laden again with Leis, the flower-
wreath of Hawaiian hospitality.

18

An Unofficial Attache

HONOLULU TO GUAM
AS the "Thomas" steamed away from
Honolulu we settled ourselves for the
tedium of another fortnight on the tropi
cal sea. But the brief stoppage had refreshed
us and had given us the sense of having really
begun our tour of foreign lands. The pleasant
recollections of Hawaii gave rise to keen an
ticipation of new and wonderful experiences
yet to come. The climate became hotter with
every league we put behind us. In vain we
changed from thin clothing to thinner; the
intense heat of the tropics seemed to envelope
us in stifling folds. Fanned by the breezes of
our own swift-moving ship, at night we found
some rest by bunking on the open deck.
Among the passengers aboard the transport
I frequently noticed a group of well-dressed,
jaunty-looking men in civilian costume who
seemed to constitute a social centre, as it were,
among the enlisted men and other passengers
on the lower decks. They were all good-look-
19

An Unofficial Attache

ing fellows and very " swagger," with an air of
genial good-humor which seemed to be conta
gious. Their presence aboard the army trans
port proclaimed them to be commissioned on
some kind of government business, yet clearly
they were not soldiers nor doctors. Somehow I
found myself assuming that they must be nurses
bound for service in the Philippines. But my
theory was rudely exploded one day when, on
making inquiry of the captain, I was informed
that my jaunty friends were undertakers, sent
over to the Philippines to exhume and return to
the United States the bodies of such of our
soldier boys who had lost their lives serving
their country in our eastern possessions.
On the night of Wednesday, , October 16,
1902, five days after our departure from Hon
olulu, the " Thomas " crossed the 180th meri
dian, the birthplace of the days. Our party
was loyal to the time-honored custom of Pacific
seamen, and held high carnival as the vessel
crossed the line. Amidships, under the open
sky, fluttered the flags of all nations and ample
festoons of gay-colored bunting. The deck had
been prepared like the floor of a ball-room,
and the ship's musicians lured the light fan
tastic toe. Thus, with much merriment, we
20

An Unofficial Attache

danced the lancers and the familiar round of
waltzes. I remember that Mrs. Miles was
my gracious partner for the " Virginia Reel."
Altogether the evening was most delightful,
and the hour was late when our merriment
ceased and we went to our rooms to sleep.
Now just here occurred the most disturbing
incident of our whole journey. We went to
bed (in good order too) on the evening of Octo
ber 16th. We opened our eyes to the sunshine
of Friday, October 18th. Thursday, October
17th, slipped past us unawares, somewhere in
the darkness of the night. Perhaps it is still
drifting about the wastes of the tropical Pacific,
waiting to be picked up by some passing ship.
Be that as it may, that is one day of my life
which I have missed entirely. It skipped me
altogether. Some facetious friend has insinu
ated that it is not necessary to go half-way
round the globe to have the experience of going
to sleep after an evening's merriment not to
awaken until the next day has spent itself;
but this I regard as an insinuation not worthy
of notice. It was also hard for me to under
stand that when we stood at longitude 164°
14' East, latitude 18° 12" North, at noon on
October 20th, it was 6.45 p.m. of yesterday
21

An Unofficial Attache

(October 19th) at Cincinnati. Yet such was
the case, as I was informed by our captain.
On Sunday, October 19th, we experienced
the only rough weather of the entire Pacific
trip. The sea ran high and very rough. The
wind blew in a gale and whipped the ocean into
a white foam. The " Thomas " plunged and
tossed at a rate calculated to strike awe into
the heart of the landlubber. But most of our
party were in no mood to revel in the majesty
of the storm. Strange as it may seem, all
religious services on board the " Thomas " were
omitted that day — as were all meals and prac
tically every other customary assemblage of
passengers. There are times when it is best
to be alone.
Fortunately for me I have become immune
against mal-de-mer, and consequently I was
able to drink in the glorious exhilaration of
the storm, which was, in fact, the tail end of
a Pacific cyclone.

22

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GUAM
EARLY in the morning of October 25th
the " Thomas " anchored in the harbor
of Guam, the principal island of the
Mariana or Caroline Group, commonly spoken
of as the Ladrones. This last appellation,
however, the people of the islands resent, inas
much as the word Ladrone means thief. The
story is told that one of the early navigators
having explored a short distance inland on one
of these islands returned to his landing place
to find that the small boat in which he had
come from his ship had been stolen by a band
of natives. The wary marauders made good
their retreat and secured their plunder, to the
great disgust of the , explorer, who thereupon
entered those islands on the chart of his
tour as the Ladrones or Thieves Islands.
At the landing there is no town worthy
of the name, a few straggling Nipa huts being
the only evidence of settlement. These were
the first examples I had ever seen of that
23

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method of architecture so general in the Phil
ippines and other tropical countries of the
Orient. The construction of the Nipa hut is charm
ingly simple. Four large posts are driven
into the ground at the four corners of the pro
posed building. These posts often extend
twenty-eight or thirty feet into the air. A roof
of thatch is built over the area included in this
space, and the builder then works downward,
siding, and finally flooring, his aerial domicile.
The floor is several feet above the ground level,
from ten to fifteen feet being the average height.
The occupants climb into their nest either by
means of a ladder or by a crude stairway not
unlike those in use by the Pueblo Indians. The
entire structure is of bamboo, from roof to floor.
In the commoner huts the floors are merely bam
boo sticks lashed together and forming a rough,
uneven surface. The cracks in such a floor are
ample for the disposition of any scraps or
garbage that may accumulate from the family
larder. The thrifty housewife therefore needs
merely to sweep and to cram the scraps and re
fuse food through the floor, when the chickens
and other domestic fowl may share them with
the goats which are sheltered " downstairs."
24

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From this primitive shanty the evolution of
the Nipa hut is most interesting. Some of the
buildings of the better class are two stories in
height, with many rooms and hallways and
ample verandas, and are, in all essential regards,
comfortable and commodious. In their best
houses the floors are conspicuously beautiful,
being inlaid with a sort of parquetry of strong
and tastefully woven bamboo mattings.
An amusing incident of the Spanish- American
war occurred here at Guam. One of the ships
of Admiral Dewey's fleet was preparing to
bombard the town and fort of Agonia, the
capital and principal town. As a preliminary
warning, the captam ordered that a single shot
be fired toward the city, which lies some seven
miles from the coast. The governor of the
island, in response to this hostile demonstra
tion, hurried to the shore and was taken aboard
in the ship's launch. He regretted exceedingly,
he explained, that he was unable to return in
kind the gracious salute of the passing American
vessel, but inasmuch as there was no ammuni
tion on the island he was obliged to forego this
privilege. When he was told that the shot had
been a hostile one, and that the United States
and His Majesty the King of Spain were at
25

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war, his astonishment was marvellous to be
hold. Of course, there was nothing for him
to do but to surrender, which he did cheerfully
and unconditionally.
Guam is now connected with the world by
the new Pacific cable, and it is valuable to the
United States principally as a cable station and
a coaling place.
Disembarking on the sandy shore we were
met by the queerest-looking vehicles I had ever
set eyes upon. Malay boys were perched on
the front of these diminutive carryalls, and in
the rope-traces were hitched little bulls. Most
of these vehicles did not possess shafts in the
sense in which we use the word, but the patient
bull trudged along at the side of a single shaft
or tongue. In other cases, two rough-chopped
poles, disproportionately long, extended out in
front, and the clumsy " Pegasus " trotted cheer
fully along between them. The seats consisted
of a single plank running lengthwise of the
cart at each side, with another board for the
driver across the front. On some of the carts
the seats ran along the centre facing outward,
so that the passengers sat back to back as in
Irish jaunting cars. A small victoria, the only
carriage on the island, was provided for General
26

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and Mrs. Miles. And thus we rode in style
over the hard, white road of sea-shells from the
harbor of the city of Ahonia. This primitive
town of Nipa huts and a few old Spanish build
ings, barracks, churches, and the like, constructed
of brick and plaster, contains a population of
some three thousand, white, brown, and yellow.
Nesting so high above the ground in their Nipa
huts, the people secure some measure of im
munity from the miasmatic fevers which seem
to be exhaled from the surface of the earth
after sunset. But the island itself is subject to
frequent attacks of ague-chills which make it
shiver and shake in a manner most distressing.
The week before our arrival had experienced
one of those tropical earthquakes of unusual
violence and duration. Many buildings in the
town were completely demolished, and the en
tire town was wofully damaged. The United
States garrison, though badly shaken up, suffered
no loss of life. An American coaling ship in
the harbor took a frightful lunge and careened
to such an extent that the captain thought his
vessel was sharing the fate of the ill-starred
" Maine " at Havana, and was preparing to
abandon the sinking ship. After this first
violent shock, however, the vessel righted her-
27

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self, and it was discovered that the only damage
wrought was in the steward's department, where
every single piece of glass and china-ware was
shattered. However, it would seem that nothing short
of an earthquake could disturb the placid in
dolence of Guam. Rich in all the natural re
sources of a tropical land, producing cocoanuts,
dates, bananas, and other fruits, sugar and rice,
Guam should not only be capable of maintain
ing itself, but, under the influence of modern
methods, the island ought to become of real value.
But the withering blight of Oriental indolence
and the enervating influence of the climate com
bine to prevent anything like a healthy growth
in civilization, material or intellectual.
The island was utilized by the American
Government as a political prison for the safe
keeping of such of the Filipino irreconcilables
as the fortunes of guerilla warfare placed in
our hands. Here I met Mabino, the Secretary
of State to the so-called Aguinaldo Government.
Mabino impressed me as the most intellect
ual Filipino I encountered. By all standards
of judging men I should consider him greatly
the superior of Aguinaldo, whom I met later
at Manila. 28

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A helpless paralytic, though comparatively
young in years, Mabino held himself proudly in
his banishment, and the whole bearing of the
man proclaimed him to be a person of distinc
tion and of character. He was one of those
rare individuals who leave their impress upon
the mind of every one who comes within the
range of their mental activity.
Our journey around the world brought us
into the presence of many of the notables of
diverse lands, but this lonely exile of Guam
left in my mind an impress of true greatness,
by comparison with which the pomp and pag
eantry of some crowned royalty is as sounding
brass or the tinkling cymbal.
Wherever the Stars and Stripes float over far
away lands there will be found soldier boys
homesick, homesick, homesick. But nowhere
have I seen a detachment of American soldiers
so utterly, hopelessly homesick as those sta
tioned at Agonia. There is no excitement of
war to keep them on the qui vive, no incen
tive to action, and no legitimate channel for the
healthful exercise of mind and body which
makes the life of the soldier tolerable. Though
the Army and Navy Club provides some enter
tainment for the officers stationed at Agonia,
29

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the arrival of a transport bringing letters and
papers from home is the only event of interest
to the enlisted men ; and time drags wearily.
One day at Guam was enough, and I was not
sorry that evening when we returned to the
ship in an army ambulance placed in commis
sion as an omnibus. The idea of leaving Guam
in an ambulance appealed strongly to our sense
of fitness. Honolulu is the Paradise of the Pacific;
Guam is at least the Purgatory.

30

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MANILA
ON the thirtieth day of October, the
"Thomas" entered the straits of San
Bernardino. The course through the
strait is twisted and tortuous, and so shallow
that the seamanship of our pilot was put
to an exacting test. Hugging the shore, now
on this side, now on that, it seemed that our
vessel must surely scrape bottom. But pres
ently the great Corrigidor light appeared stand
ing solitary on its rocky promontory. Then
we entered the narrow channel which opens
into the circle of Manila Bay. Almost in front
of our bows nestled the ancient city of Manila,
her ample harbor crowded with the ships of many
nations. To our right, closely discernible along
the shore, a few white cottages indicated the
location of Cavite. Scattered along near the
shore for a distance of several miles the wrecks
of the Spanish armada bore evidence of the
passing of Spanish authority forever from the
land of the Filipino. Here I counted no less
31

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than a dozen battered hulks, half submerged in
the shallow bay, mute evidences of Dewey's
victory and of the beginning of a better day
for the Philippines.
The sun was setting as we dropped anchor, and
the salute which greeted us was the sunset gun.
On shore, somewhere in the distance, we heard
the stirring refrain of the Star Spangled Banner.
Owing to the lateness of the hour, and to the
quarantine regulations, we did not leave the
ship until the following morning. However,
our arrival had been expected, and a number of
prominent military officers, together with a rep
resentative of Governor Taft, came aboard that
night to welcome us to Manila, and to offer our
party the hospitality of their city and of their
homes. Almost at break of the following day we were
astir, and preparing to take our final leave of
the " Thomas," and to resume, for a few weeks
at least, the more eventful life ashore. But
one more little incident of the sea remained to
put a pleasing finis to our life aboard.
In the golden sunlight the entire fleet of
American vessels at the naval station across the
bay headed their course toward our anchorage,
and, in gay procession, glided swiftly and grace-
32

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fully in formal line to greet the commanding
officer of the army. Halting at respectful dis
tance, the flagship of Rear Admiral Wildes
gave the proper signal, and the huge guns of
the squadron woke the echoes of the bay with
thunderous welcome. Then the steam launches
bearing the admiral and his staff, and those of
the officers of various ships, sped to the side of
the " Thomas."
Thus the navy saluted the army, — a cere
mony observed in full-dress uniform and with
a certain formal dignity which did not in the
least detract from its cordiality. The little re
ception on board the " Thomas " was soon over ;
the launches returned to their ships ; the colors
dipped to salute the general, and the fleet
steamed back across the bay to Cavite, the
naval headquarters. Soon after this our party
bade good-bye to the " Thomas " and her crew,
and, embarking in the launches which came to
take us ashore, we came merrily to the landing
place. At the wharf, General Miles and his party
were accorded a reception which was genuinely
American in its cordiality and in military cere
mony. Four troops of cavalry and two or three
companies of infantry formed an escort of
3 33

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honor. The general, mounted on a fine horse
and attended by his staff and the commanding
officers of the troops quartered in and about
Manila, rode at the head of the procession.
Carriages were provided for the ladies and
the civilian members of the party. In other
vehicles were prominent civil authorities and
notables of Manila.
To the martial music of a regimental band
our detachment took its way from the wharf
into the heart of the old walled city, the nucleus
around which Manila has grown into a great
cosmopolis of some two hundred and fifty
thousand souls.
The old town is very picturesque with its
Spanish architecture, buildings of stone, plaster
and tile ; here one may imagine himself in some
corner of old Madrid or Seville. The square-
built houses, with the open courts or patios in the
centre, revealed glimpses of splashing fountains
and leafy palms. The latticed windows sug
gest tales of cavalier and signorita, and of the
romance of Spanish love and intrigue.
We moved along the crowded thoroughfares
of old town and of new, our eyes greeted on
all sides by the familiar sight of the Stars and
Stripes. However great may be one's love for

An Unofficial Attache

the flag of his country, unspeakable emotion
wells up in heart and eyes when one sees
that simple emblem of our nation's hopes
and fears floating to the breezes of lands or
oceans far remote from home.
Passing the Estada Major, or military head
quarters of Manila, the infantry escort to our
party was detached, and we continued our march
to the palace of the Malacannan, the official
residence of Governor Taft, attended only by
the cavalry troops.
Our course took us through the Luneta,
the beautiful public park which is the great
Prado or promenade of the crowded city. The
carriages of the wealthy parade the driveway
in the late afternoon, and all sorts and condi
tions of men rub elbows as they promenade
upon the well-kept walks. An orchestra fills
the air with sweet music, American and native
musicians alternating with the days. But be
the orchestra of white men or of brown, of
American birth or of the Oriental blood, each
evening's concert closes with the Star Spangled
Banner. Whenever the first stave of the
familiar and soul-stirring chorus rises from
the brazen throats of the instruments, every
individual within the range of its sweet music
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rises to his feet, every man removes his hat,
and even the dark-skinned, barefooted urchins
of the street pull tattered caps from woolly
locks in respectful salute to the flag of our
land. Verily, the Filipino shall teach us how to be
patriotic Americans.
The Luneta plays a part in the civic life of
Manila which is unlike that of any single park
or resort in an American city. Not only is it a
place of fashionable resort and promenade, but
it is also the general rendezvous for men of
affairs. It is a sort of general meeting place,
and the expression, " Meet me on the Luneta,"
means much the same as " Meet on 'Change,"
" Meet me at the club." The Luneta is
neutral ground on which all can meet. The
main driveway extends for perhaps three-
quarters of a mile along the shore of the bay,
beyond the region of the crush of commerce
and the noise of traffic.
At the end nearest the heart of the city
stands the old Spanish fortress and prison of
Santiago. This spot on the beautiful Luneta
has been stained with the crimson life-blood
of many a wretch justly sentenced to pay with
his life for the crimes of his hands. But the
36

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blood of martyrs has mingled in its dust with
that of the vilest criminals.
Here it was that " the best hope of the
Filipino people was crushed," when at dawn, on
the thirtieth of December, 1896, Dr. Jose Rizal,
the patriot who had dared to speak the truth
for the religious and political emancipation of
the people of the Philippines, was put to death.
Rizal, by many conceded to be the greatest
man the Malay race has ever produced, was a
man of strong, virile mind, brave enough to
think and to speak, not only for himself but
for humanity and for righteousness. Born and
reared in the Philippines, himself a devout
Roman Catholic, Rizal grew to manhood under
the sinister influences of a corrupt local admin
istration, Church working hand in hand with a
rotten, temporal Government for the aggran
dizement of the mighty at the sacrifice of the
weak. His keen insight detected the sham
and hypocrisy which so often masked in the
garb of friar or padre, and his whole soul re
volted at the sight of the spiritual and material
degeneration which Church and State combined
to foster in the name of Religion and of Law
and Justice.
"A force working for righteousness" at
37

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home, Rizal, when still a young man, went to
Europe, where, as a student in one of the an
cient seats of learning, he put into the form of
a novel, a picture of the life of the Philippine
people. " Noli me tangere," " Touch me not,"
he called his work. Herein, with masterful
art, faithful always to the truth and to his
high ideal, he set before the world the cause of
the Filipino, groping for enlightenment between
the corruption of Spanish tyranny and the be
sotted ignorance and haughty arrogance of the
ecclesiasticism of the religious corporations.
The nations heard the pleading, and the eyes
of civilization were turned toward far Luzon.
Rizal, upon returning to his native land, — the
land he loved even more than his life, — was
hailed by the people as a new prophet. But
the Nation and the Church which fathered the
Holy Inquisition of the Middle Ages had not
forgotten the sweetness of revenge. Convicted
by due process of law for having incited se
dition against the lawful authorities, Jose* Rizal,
the martyr of the Philippines, was executed,
leaving behind him a memory and a hope.
The city of Manila is made up of several
distinct parts or districts of which the old
38

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walled town is but one. The district of
Malacannan, one of the modern divisions, is
the residence section of the wealthier citizens.
Entering this part of the town from the Luneta,
our party passed along the narrow streets
fringed on either side by stately palms and
other tropical plants. Attractive homes nestled
on the shady lawns to our right and to our left.
Presently we entered the park of the palace
of the governor. These spacious grounds are
decked in all the glory of eternal summer.
Here the lavish richness of nature is enhanced
by the deft care of the landscape artist. The
huge leaves of palm and banana mingle their
shadows on the soft turf. Fountains splash
musically in their rocky basins, and cheerful
monkeys frolic. One patriarchal chimpanzee
of vast self-importance reviewed our little army
from his unfettered perch, and frowned with
grotesque solemnity upon our cavalcade.
At the door of the palace our military escort
left us, and we were met by Governor and Mrs.
Taft, who greeted us with that same cordiality
which always characterized them at home, and
which all the ceremony and stately magnificence
of their official life could not rob of an iota of,
its simple sincerity. The reception which fol-
39

An Unofficial Attache

lowed our arrival was of the most informal
character, being confined to the members of
our own little party and a score or so of mili
tary and civil officers who took this occasion
of paying their respects to General and Mrs.
Miles. The palace itself is a large, square-
looking building with no suggestion of severity.
The facade is not unlike that of old Venetian
palaces, graceful and dainty in every detail.
From the driveway a few steps lead into a great
hallway or foyer on the ground floor. A grand
staircase winds from this apartment to the
second floor, on which are the official head
quarters of the governor, the public reception
halls and banquet-rooms, and the suites of living
rooms for the private use of the governor and
his family.
The walls are richly panelled in woods of un
usual beauty. On all sides the eye is pleased
by the tasteful arangement of the furnishings
and the harmonious effect of the tout ensemhle.
The tapestries and hangings are of rich silk and
embroideries, the furniture of handsomely carved
hard woods. From massive gilded frames old
Spanish governors and their signoras looked
down upon the scenes in which they no longer
play a part. 40

An Unofficial Attache

With noiseless steps and expressionless faces
Chinese serving-men move about their duties.
The bright colors of their gowns and their long
black queues add a touch of picturesqueness to
the impressive stateliness of the palace halls.
Great balconies extend the entire length of
the building on every side. Venetian blinds
or translucent screens formed from the pearly
lining of oyster-shells shield the windows from
the intense heat of the sun.
Stepping out into the balcony at the west
side of the palace, one looks down upon the
placid water of the Pasig River, dotted with the
swift-moving little boats of native truck-farmers
carrying their products to the city markets or
returning to their Nipa houses along the river-
banks. Queer little boats are these, long and
narrow dugouts, formed from single tree-trunks.
The native boatman, seated on the floor of his
unstable craft, propels it by strong, clear-cut
strokes of his single paddle. Clad only in a
loin-clout or a pair of breeches, his lithe and
muscular body glistens in the sunshine. His
pet rooster is perched in lordly pride upon the
bow of his canoe.
The rooster is omnipresent in Manila. Not
infrequently on the street family vehicles, or
41

An Unofficial Attache"

stalls in market-places, are lorded over by their
own pet roosters, who are creatures of great dis
tinction, and are treated with every mark of
deference and consideration by the individual
or family to whom they belong.
By twos and threes the guests took their
departure. General and Mrs. Miles immedi
ately became members of the Taft family
circle. The various members of our party be
took themselves to the ready hospitality of re
discovered friends. The writer was carried off,
bag and baggage, to the " Bungalow," the beauti
ful home of Major and Mrs. Henry T. Allen.
The Bungalow is a charming structure of
bamboo and plaster, built after the style of the
better class of dwellings in India and the
tropics. Surrounded by palms and other native
trees, the house stands almost directly across
the street from the governor's palace. A
greater contrast in architecture could scarcely
be imagined than that presented by these two
buildings in the massive stateliness of the palace
and the light flexibility of the bamboo dwelling.
From its thatched roof to the lintels of the door
ways, the Bungalow is an example of the most
delicate and exquisite workmanship of purely
Oriental type. Constructed for coolness rather
42

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than for great strength, the house is furnished
in keeping with its architectural conception.
Everywhere the eye rests on cosy corners luxu
rious with wicker chairs and couches and a
wealth of cushions. The ceilings and some of
the partition walls are of gray plaster, rough
finished, and giving a sense of spaciousness and
coolness which is most welcome.
While here I noticed a queer custom which
at first impressed me with a sense of the un
canny, but which, from frequent repetition in
almost every house of the better class which I
visited in Manila, I later learned to regard
first with toleration, and eventually with a full
appreciation of its practical aspects.
In the evening, as Major Allen and I sat
smoking and talking of old times, my attention
was attracted by a queer little squeak, like the
cry of a tree-toad, which seemed to come from
the ceiling. Looking up I saw a green lizard,
perhaps four or five inches in length, which had
just caught a large moth -miller of which he
was preparing to make a feast. In an instant
there appeared another grotesque monster,
nearly twice as large as the first. With a
vicious lunge the newcomer attacked the cap
tor of the moth, and fiercely strove to rob him
43

An Unofficial Attache

of his prey. Holding gamely to his supper,
the little fellow struggled to free himself from
his tormentor, who held him firmly by the scaly,
shell-like covering of his tail. With a desperate
pull the little fellow jerked himself out of his
coat of mail and scampered away, still holding
tight to his dearly purchased supper. But in
vain, his Nemesis pursued him to a corner,
where he was obliged to turn and fight, no
longer for a mere savory mouthful, but to pre
vent himself from furnishing a feast for his
cannibalistic foe. And so, like the fabled dog
with the bone, crossing the crystal brook on a
fallen log, he dropped the bone of this conten
tion, which fell fluttering to the floor, and both
lizards went to bed supperless.
My host showed not the least discomfiture
at seeing these ugly reptiles in his home, and I
later learned that they are encouraged to take
up their abode in every well-ordered household,
because of their great value as domestic police,
effectually driving away the mosquitoes and
noxious insects which abound in these sections
of the tropics. So the lizards have free access
to every room, — kitchen, dining-room, parlor,
bedroom, and attic. The mosquitoes of Manila
would make the pests of New Jersey hide their
44

An Unofficial Attache

heads under their wings and blush for their de
generate and peace-loving habits. Here they
literally swarm, and mosquito bars are a neces
sity the year round. On retiring to the com
parative security of a well-screened bed, the
visitor, even in December, turns and perspires
for hours, wondering if the heat will ever per
mit of sleep.
On retiring to the shelter of my mosquito
bar I was decidedly embarrassed to find that
my bed had not been made up. The bar
covered only what seemed to be a bedstead
on which there was a framework of heavy
woven bamboo. Springs and mattress were
lacking, and the only bedclothing to be seen
consisted of a pair of woollen blankets and a
big bolster, round and hard. Though surprised
at such oversight, I could not bring my courage
to the point of disturbing the family, who had
retired, and so I stood the bolster in the corner
and lay down upon the hard lattice-work, and
vainly strove to sleep. I soon began to ache
in every bone and muscle, as I rolled and turned
uneasily on my couch. I would have crawled
out on to the floor, but the soothing lullaby of
the mosquitoes outside my bar reminded me
that discretion was the better part of valor.
45

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Furthermore, I had an unpleasant prejudice
against the lizards which I had seen on the
walls, so I remained in my bed. The hours
dragged slowly ; in vain I turned from one side
to the other, my bruises only grew more pain
ful. To lie upon my back would be to break
my spinal column. The one balm to my suffer
ing body was a cooling breeze which circulated
through the bed and about my weary limbs.
At about four o'clock in the morning, the tem
perature took a sudden drop, and I eagerly
wrapped myself in the blankets, thus procuring
a little padding to relieve the stony hardness of
the bed, and enabling me to secure two or three
hours of needed sleep.
I thought the neglect of the servants would
surely be discovered, and that the next night I
should get some repose. But when I retired
the following evening, I found my blankets
neatly folded and that aggravating bolster
placed in uninviting stiffness at the head of the
bed. And so I spent another night in futile
efforts to lie lightly, without allowing my full
weight to press upon these miserable slats of
bamboo. On the morning of the third day of my visit,
Major Allen, at breakfast, asked me how I had
46

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slept, and how I got along with my " Dutch
Wife." In some embarrassment and much
bewilderment I confessed that I had scarcely
slept for two nights, and that I did not know
whom or what he meant by my " Dutch Wife."
My embarrassment was not in the least relieved
at the burst of laughter in which my hosts
indulged at my expense. I knew instantly
that I had made some bad exhibition of green
ness, and I felt like the farmer who, upon
visiting some city relatives, had been shown to a
room in which there was a folding bed, and who
declared, after one experience, that he would
rather sleep in a hay-mow any time than in one
of " them there durned clothes-presses " with a
" lookin'-glas's in the side of it."
Then I learned that the long stiff bolster
which had so offended me with its formal use
lessness was of the utmost utility. The beds
are made with reference to coolness, and to lie
upon a mattress, however thin, would be to
swelter in a pool of perspiration. In order to
procure the free circulation of air, the frame of
the bed is constructed as I have described.
And the "Dutch Wife" or bolster is provided
to take the heavy pressure of the body off
the bamboo framework. The sleeper embraces
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this bolster, and by throwing one arm and one
leg across it, and holding tightly, he divides
the weight of body between the bolster and
the bed-frame.
The remaining nights of my visit with the
Aliens, and later at the home of Governor Taft,
I courted my " Dutch Wife," and though it made
me laugh at first, I soon learned the trick of
sleeping Filipino-fashion.
My host, Major Allen (now a brigadier-
general), was and still is the head of the
department of the native constabulary, work
ing thus in constant and close touch with
Governor Taft and the civil authorities of the
Philippines. From Major Allen I gained a
comprehension of the problem of the brigands
or "ladrones" whose lawlessness and atrocities
have for centuries been the terror of the
Spanish colonies in the West Indies, as well
as in the Philippines.
From the beginning of her history as a colo
nizing nation, Spain pursued a policy of banish
ing her criminals to the foreign lands which
flew the Spanish flag, thus endeavoring to
develop her new possessions by the agency of
those whose crimes at home had demonstrated
their unfitness even to share in the rights of
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citizens. In the course of time, the better
element of pioneers and hardy adventurers
came to the rescue of the colonies thus founded.
Villages and towns grew up in the wild coun
tries with the onward march of civilization.
The mother-country persisted in augmenting
the population of her colonies with the surplus
of her prisons. But this element could never
blend into the healthy life of the new communi
ties. The outlaws remained outlaws, and their
presence was the curse of the struggling colonies.
Following the wild dictates of their natures,
these men took to the roads, and became the
terror of the highways, plundering and mur
dering the lonely travellers on the pioneer trails.
As time went on, these bands of robbers were
augmented by new recruits, men whom the
grasping hands of Spanish tax-gatherers had
robbed of hard-earned competence, men whom
the greed of Spanish governors or the cunning
schemes of priests or friars had ruined. Such
men as these, made desperate, joined with the
bandits, thus, in a measure, following the
example set by the State and by the Church.
Their method of robbing was less artistic and
much more perilous than that which paraded
itself in priestly gown or operated by a royal
i 49

An Unofficial Attache

charter, but it differed not in fundamental
character. In assuming control of the Spanish Phil
ippines, the United States took upon itself the
responsibility of establishing the majesty of
law and order. The brigands who rush down
upon the peaceful farmhouse, murder the
occupants, and set fire to the cabin and barns,
bearing away their plunder to hiding places in
the mountains, are being hunted down and
punished. Law and the security of every
individual are being established. And to-day,
in the very beginning of American ascendency
in the Philippines, there is less brigandage, less
highway robbery, less fiendish rapine and mur
der in Luzon than at any time in the last three
hundred years.
The week we spent in Manila was full of
interesting experiences, and gave us ample op
portunities for viewing the life and customs in
that old city. To the sight-seer, the old walled
city presents the greatest attractions. Here are
located the headquarters of the governor, the
civil commission, and other public buildings,
all imposing old structures of Spanish archi
tecture. Here occurred one of those incidents
which demonstrate how close is the association
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which has bound Governor Taft to the heart
of the native people, especially those of the
working classes, — Taios, as they are called.
One evening as I entered the government
building I was surprised to see a long row of
Taio women seated Oriental fashion on the
stairway and along the floor of the corridor
which leads to the private offices of the gov
ernor. There were in the delegation between
one hundred and fifty to two hundred of them,
all intent upon some matter of gravest import,
as the resolute expressions of their faces and
the suppressed excitement of their manner
indicated. In the governor's office the cause which
had brought them together was being heard.
A dispute had arisen between the Friar Padre
of a certain parish and the women of his con
gregation. The padre had been officially ap
pointed to his charge by the authorities of the
Roman Catholic Church, supplanting one Friar
Aglipay, an eccentric but magnetic individual
whose aggressive personal and perhaps political
ambitions had brought him into open rupture
with the Church of Rome. Aglipay has since
proven himself to be a person of considerable
force, and a thorn in the side of the established
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Church, having seceded entirely from that or
ganization, and being still actively engaged in
an effort to found a new Church to be called
the Philippine Catholic Church.
The new padre had not proven acceptable to
the congregation over which he was placed,
and his tactless utterances had been met with
hostility. The women of the parish had taken
possession of the church, barricading doors and
windows, and mounting guard in the sacred
edifice day and night. The keys they held, and
they not only refused to surrender them to
their new shepherd, but with open defiance
they declared their intention of maintaining a
state of siege as long as such a course seemed
necessary. "The church is ours," they declared, "and
no one shall take it from us. Our fathers and
mothers before us, and their fathers and mothers
before them, have worshipped here. Our own
ancestors built the church and paid for it in the
hard labor of their hands. Our fathers and
mothers taught us to love the church, and we
have supported it with our contributions and
gifts. The church is ours and we will not give
it up." In vain the ecclesiastical authorities argued
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and threatened. But pleadings and threats were
of no avail ; the resolute Taio women still re
tained the keys and kept their garrison in
possession of the church. At this critical junc
ture the unpopular padre proposed to arbitrate,
leaving the decision of the matter to the local
police authorities, or to some court of competent
jurisdiction. This offer was refused, but the
women declared their willingness to submit the
case to the final arbitrament of Governor Taft.
When the time for the hearing arrived, the
Friar Padre and his legal advisers appeared to
plead their cause, and Aglipay presented the
case of the women. The resolute band of de
fenders, trusting in the righteousness of their
cause, came in a body to Manila to re-inforce
their representative, and to hear for themselves
the verdict of the governor. But, alas for their
hopes, the law in the case was clearly against
them ; Governor Taft is at Manila no less the
judge than he was formerly in the United
States. The property in question belonged to
the regular Roman Catholic Church organization,
and must be returned to the rightful owners.
The decision was announced to the delegation
of women waiting in the hall. Their disappoint
ment was pitiful, and their hatred for the padre
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was in no measure lessened. However, they
refused point-blank to surrender their keys
either to the Roman dignitaries or to the civil
police authorities. Only into the hands of the
governor would they place the keys. To the
governor they would yield compliance with
the law, even though the law was wrong and
sinful. The governor should take possession
of their church home and their altar, and he
alone should execute the letter of the law, re
storing their beloved house of worship to those
whom the law declared to be the owners.
This episode impressed me deeply, as indica
tive of the high regard and unquestioning con
fidence in which the Taio, or working people of
Manila, hold the governor. They have learned
to look upon him as the living incarnation of
justice and law. They know that his decisions
will rest upon the law, unbiassed by personal
feeling or class prejudice. And in this manner
there is growing up among them a new
sense of the majesty of the law and of the
fundamental principles which underlie good
government, making mob law or anarchism
impossible.

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A DAY IN THE STREETS OF MANILA
THE ancient walled town, gray with
age, but defying the ravages of
time, furnishes a strange stage for
the busy scene of twentieth century traffic
and industry which surges along the narrow
streets, from the grim old Fort Santiago
across the bridges which span the Pasig River.
Early in the morning, before the heat of the
sun has begun to render life a burden, the
merchants open their shops, and busy clerks
hustle in and out with cases of copra, rice,
tobacco, hemp, sugar, fruits, and other native
produce. Here and there commission houses
do a thriving trade in matting and other
articles woven from the native reeds. Hats of
Philippine manufacture, very fine in quality
and greatly like those we know as Panama
hats, find a ready market both at home and
in foreign lands. A few manufacturers pro
duce fine fabrics of silk and cotton fibre known
as jusi, — pronounced hoo-si, — which consti-
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tutes the finest dress-goods for the women in
the Eastern tropics.
Plodding carabao, or water buffalo, pull the
heavy laden drays and carts to the wharves,
where the precious cargo is piled high, to be
stored away in the deep holds of the merchant
men destined for many foreign ports. From
the basement rooms of square-built Spanish
houses, the family cows and goats low or bleat
for the morning's feeding and milking. Native
or Chinese servants emerge from other doors
on the ground-floors, in which their quarters
are partitioned off from the stables of the
domestic animals.
Antiquated street-cars, drawn by mules, rattle
along the streets, serving to emphasize the need
of local rapid-transit facilities, rather than to
supply that important demand. The busy mer
chant or the Filipino dame, bent on a morning's
shopping, ignores this uncomfortable tram, and
hails a passing " camaretta," or pony carriage,
of which there are a great many operating for
comparatively small fees. The Philippine pony
is used for all light draught for which the
caribou or the mule would be inappropriate.
These little animals are not much larger than
the famous Shetland ponies, but they seem to
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be more like the mustang or Indian pony in
their habits and general make-up. Tough as
leather, wiry, and sure-footed, they have wonder
ful endurance, and they thrive in this climate
where the larger horses of Europe and America
can be kept alive only with great difficulty.
For several hours the activity of shops and
streets and market continues unabated. But
as the morning waxes hotter, the life and
energy seem to be melted out. At eleven
o'clock the shop-keepers put up their shutters,
lock their stores, and retire to their living
quarters upstairs. The clerks and laborers
disappear. The streets are deserted, and the
whole city takes its midday nap. No one
would any more think of doing business at noon
than at midnight. From eleven until three
Manila sleeps ; then the activities of the day
are resumed. Shops are re-opened, the markets
are noisy with the hawking of the stall-keepers,
and Manila hustles like a Yankee town.
Now it is that the " Escolta," the " Broadway
of Old Manila," becomes gay with the bright
jusi gowns of the ladies, as they look for bargain
sales at the fashionable shops. The Escolta is
not more than five or six blocks in length, as
we measure distances, and it is uncomfortably
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narrow and crowded ; but from four to five
o'clock in the afternoon it is the Mecca of
fashion and the Rialto of trade.
Gradually the crowd in the Escolta becomes
less and less, as men and women of fashion, those
who ride in their private camarettas, and those
who must walk, rich and poor, old and young,
men, women, and children, drift toward the
Luneta, there to saunter leisurely homeward, or
to linger in the balmy twilight and drink in
the fresh breezes from the sea, and revel in the
sweet music which fills the air. At seven the
concert closes with the national air, carriages
and pedestrians resume their homeward course,
the Luneta is deserted, and Manila goes to
dinner. The sanction of ages has set the seal of
approval upon the brutal sport of cock-fighting,
which is regarded among native Filipinos in
much the same light in which bull-fighting
is looked upon in Spain. But cock-fighting,
with the attendant gambling and betting, has
received a decided backset wherever American
occupation has become firmly established, and
in Manila it has been effectively suppressed.
Other means of amusement find ample patron
age. Popular concerts always attract large
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audiences, and three or four theatres flourish.
At the time of our visit at Manila, an American
comedy company was presenting a series of
farces and light comedies to crowded houses.
It was amusing to notice the number of
native men and women in the audience who,
though unable to understand a word of Eng
lish, followed the performance with eager atten
tion, here, as everywhere in Manila, striving
to comprehend the methods of the Anglo-
Saxon whose energy and shrewdness are work
ing miracles throughout the islands. In other
playhouses were presented variety bills and
vaudeville performances in Spanish, English, or
Tagalog, the hybrid language of the masses.
Under the general auspices of the officers of the
army and navy stationed at Manila, horse-racing
has become a great fad, — the race-course, a
few miles outside of the city, being a great
rendezvous for the lovers of the sport, as well
as for that large class of gamblers and book
makers who " play the races " at Manila no less
than at Saratoga. The social life of Manila is
not unlike that of large cities of America or
Europe. Of course the gradations of wealth
in large measure determine the social sets or
cliques, and the heart-burnings and petty jeal-
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ousies of " society " are no less evident here
than elsewhere. Receptions and evenings at
home are frequent, and these social gatherings
are gay with the beautiful gowns of native jusi,
thin and delicate as the finest gauze. The
gentlemen wear suits of light cotton duck, and
jackets mostly cut in the lines of military
blouses, with collar buttoning high about the
neck. Stiffly starched shirts and collars of linen,
with claw-hammer coats, would be strangely out
of harmony with the climate of the Philippines.
One of the most arduous labors which
devolve upon Governor Taft is that of fulfill
ing the social claims which are made upon
him. No Filipino assemblage is complete with
out the presence of the governor, and not a day
passes without its deluge of invitations request
ing the " honor of the governor's presence," etc.,
etc. The governor makes it a point to accept
as many such invitations as it is possible for
him to do. His time is therefore occupied both
day and night.
The Church has under its auspices a good
many fiestas or holidays, but of all the varied
forms of recreation and festivity the Beile, or
country fete, approaches most nearly to the
position of a national custom. All classes of
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people, rich and poor alike, avail themselves of
every occasion which offers an excuse for a
picnic in the country. At these assemblages,
the Spanish love of gay color, tinkling music,
and stately minuet blend with the freedom
and unconventional merriment which is native
to the Filipino blood. We attended more than
one such festival during our visit to the Phil
ippines, where, with feasting, drinking, song
and dance under the overhanging branches of
palm and lime, the time sped merrily.
To the melody of guitar and mandolin,
bright-gowned damsels and their beaux, in
snowy white, tread the mazes of the courtly
rigadon. Herein the one aim of the dancers
seems to be the realization of a perfect grace
and harmony of movement and of music, —
the approximation of the ideally beautiful,
rather than the more conventional and free-
swing of the rhythmic waltz and two-step of
America.

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ALONG THE DAGUPAN RAILWAY
GENERAL MILES is a rapid mover, and
he who would travel in his company
must be prepared to keep everlastingly
at it. Not a day, scarcely an hour, from the
time of our arrival at Manila until the comple
tion of the tour of the Philippine archipelago
did the general rest. The other members of
the party were free to go and come when and
where they pleased, always within the time-
limit set by the completion of the work which
our leader had in hand. The length of our
stay at Manila permitted of much greater in
dependence of our individual plans and engage
ments than was possible at the other places
included in our itinerary. While the general
was hard at work visiting and inspecting the
military quarters, and reviewing the troops in
and about Manila, the rest of us were off sight
seeing, or availing ourselves of the hospitality of
the Army and Navy Club, or of private individ
uals and public officials. Almost every night of
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our stay at Manila was eventful. Receptions
at the Malacannan, dinners at various clubs or
at army headquarters or with important citi
zens, and a host of other entertainments, made
our visit replete with interest.
The most memorable occasion on this visit,
however, was the grand review of all troops
in and about Manila, held before General Miles
on the Luneta. All the branches of the service
were represented and passed in parade before
the commanding officer of the army, while the
motley population of the ancient city crowded
the park and roadside, cheering the soldiers and
the general.
Toward the end of our first week at Manila
the duties of General Miles called for a trip of
inspection of the military station along the
route of the Dagupan railroad. This road runs
one hundred miles north from Manila, through
that part of the island which was the seat of
the greatest resistance of the Aguinaldo faction
against the forces of the United States. Every
mile of ground along the route of the railroad
has been the scene of skirmish, ambuscade, or
battle, and the dead of two nations are buried
where they fell.
But the country through which this course
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lies is wonderfully fair. The gently sloping
hills and quiet fertile district give little evi
dence of war or scenes of bloodshed. Yet the
Stars and Stripes do not blow to the breezes
of a thoroughly reconciled land, and at every
station on the line of the railroad there was
still an encampment of American soldiers, in
readiness to suppress any acts of lawlessness
or any interference with the peace of the high
way. Our train was drawn by an old-time
locomotive, consuming a vast amount of wood,
and taking on new supplies of this quick-burn
ing fuel at almost every stop, and stops were
frequent, not more than five or ten miles
apart. As we drew near to each station, our
engine, with blazes leaping high out of her
ample smoke-stack, and showers of sparks
like a gigantic Roman candle, shrieked and
whistled in a way calculated to awaken sleeping
embers of rebellion in the whole country-side.
Presently we drew up at the blackened ruins
of a railway station, where our soldier boys in
formal line greeted their commander with mili
tary honors. And to every loyal greeting from
these frontier guardsmen the general responded
with some words of cheerful encouragement,
reminding the homesick soldiers that the peo-
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pie at home were not forgetful of them, and
that it is the soldier in the untamed lands who
makes possible the spreading of better things.
The well-chosen words of the senior officer of
the army never failed to combine the elements
of soldierly directness and command to duty
with the deep sympathy and almost fatherly
gentleness which grow out of thorough under
standing of the heart and life of the soldier.
And it seemed to me that the cheers which
followed the veteran chief from camp to camp
proclaimed a loyalty which can be trusted to
endure. At Dagupan, we found stationed the Fifth
Infantry, United States army, the regiment of
which Miles was colonel after the War of the
Rebellion, and of which he has ever remained
the patron saint. Despite the changes wrought
by nearly thirty years, there still remained in
the regiment two or three grizzled old comrades
who had fought under Miles in the seventies.
The occasion was a memorable one, not only
for the soldier, but for all whom fortune per
mitted to be present. General Miles, now very
near the end of his long and honorable career
as a soldier, realizing that this would be the last
time that he should be permitted to meet his
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old command before his retirement, was in
spired to that eloquence which Webster calls
true eloquence, — that which exists in the man,
in the subject, and in the occasion. Standing
there before the regiment which he had loved
for more than half his life-time, parting, not
only from the associates of thirty years, but, in
a sense, taking leave of the work which had
been his life, Nelson A. Miles, in that tropic
camp, spoke a few sentences of retrospect and
farewell. His words were not recorded, but the
tears which filled the eyes of the soldiers who
heard him, and the rapt silence of all his audi
tors, pronounced this to be the most eloquent
utterance which ever fell from his lips. Though
his formal retirement did not occur until nearly
a year later, I believe that, in his heart, General
Miles dates the end of his official life from that
day at far Dagupan.

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CRUISE AMONG THE SOUTHERN
ISLANDS ILOILO
THE army transport " Ingalls," a pretty
boat of small draught and considerable
speed, was assigned to service for the
cruise among the southern islands of the archi
pelago. And when, on the ninth day of Novem
ber, she steamed out of Manila Bay, bearing our
party, considerably augmented by various army
officers and prominent civilians, she presented
the appearance of a large private yacht bent on
a summer cruise, rather than that of a vessel
dedicated to the god of war. So numerous
was our company, and so limited the cabin
accommodations of the " Ingalls," that we were
obliged to " double-up " and share our state
rooms with one another. Under such condi
tions the equatorial nights were not conducive
to sleep. But the rapid motion of the ship
fanned our decks with breezes which moderated
the sultry atmosphere even at midday. By
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night the charm of a moonlit sea and a gliding
vision of verdant islands cast a subtle spell
upon us, and we lingered late under the stars.
My old love of the open air prompted me to
make my bed on deck in a convenient ham
mock or an inviting wicker couch.
In the thin gray of early morning, long before
the sun appeared from his bed in the ocean, the
serene quietude of my slumbers was rudely dis
turbed by a savage swishing of water and a
noise as if a dozen fire-engines were at work
upon our decks. Upon opening my sleepy eyes
with a start, I sat bolt upright and received a
vigorous shower bath from a line of hose with
which the crew was washing the decks. My
presence discerned, I was not slow to take ad
vantage of the opportunity to beat an inglori
ous retreat while the minions of cleanliness
continued their vigorous exercise.
On another occasion, as I slept peacefully
under the open sky, a sudden downpour of
rain, a tropical deluge, drenched me to the
skin before I was fairly awake or able to get
to shelter ; but barring these little diversions,
which to my mind are far less to be dreaded
than the sweltering heat of the cabin, my
nights on board the " Ingalls " were blissful.
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The first stop on this trip was at the city of
Iloilo in the southern part of the island of
Panay. Here the " Ingalls " came to anchor
in an ample harbor amidst a dozen ships of
various countries. For a description of the
events of this day I copy the following article
from the Iloilo Times of Thursday, November
13th, a facsimile of one page of which is
herewith given. HAIL TO THE CHIEF
A GBEAT DAY IN ILOILO, THE CITY, CIVILIAN, AS
WELL AS MILITARY, DOES HONOR TO
GENERAL MILES
THE GENERAL, WELL PLEASED WITH ILOILO,
VISITS THE CLUBS. RECEPTION AT THE
PALACE
The long-looked-for event has come and gone and
the City of Iloilo has had the opportunity of doing
honor to the Nation's Military Chief. Monday
evening a telegram came saying that General Miles,
who arrived in Manila recently to make a tour of in
spection of the military situation in the Islands, was
in Capiz and would arrive here early Tuesday morn
ing. This news came somewhat unexpected as on
account of the fact that the telegraph and cable lines
between here and Manila have been out of order for
69

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sometime it was not known that the General was
so near this place.
Business was practically suspended on Tuesday
morning and the city presented a gay appearance
being decorated with all manner of flags and palms.
The day was perfect and well calculated for the
occasion which was to take place.
At Uttle before eight a.m. the Transport " Ingalls,"
which brought General Miles and his party, was
sighted coming up the Bay and an hour and a half
later he landed at the Custom House wharf where
the troops were arranged to receive him. The 29th
Infantry was lined up beginning at the landing and
extending well past the Custom House. At the
intersection of this hne with Calle Real, the Philip
pine Scouts were stationed, while from this point
troops E and F of the First Cavalry extended along
Calle Real.
As the General stepped on shore, the customary
salute of fifteen guns was begun. As soon as this
salute ceased, General Miles, accompanied by his
Aide, Colonel Maus the Department Commander,
General Frank D. Baldwin, his Aide, Lieutenant
H. A. Drum, all the local staff, and Sergeant John
F. O'Connor of Troop E. First Cavalry was chosen
Orderly for the General for the day, rode out into
the vacant space for the first formalities of the
inspection. On returning the mounted party rode
out on Calles Muello and Progreso, circled the Plaza
on the North, East and South, and took station be-
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tween the southwest corner of the square and Bis-
choff's store, where the troops passed by in review.
The troops generally comported themselves in a
becoming manner and showed plainly the results of
long and careful training. It may be said, however,
that they hardly did their best that morning, as on
one previous occasion they seemed to do better in
practice. The General was observed to pay more
than ordinary attention to the conduct of the Scouts
and seemed well pleased with their work.
In the afternoon, at 2.30 o'clock, the visitors,
accompanied by a large number of friends began
to make the rounds of the different clubs of the City
in the following order. The Sociedad Artistica, the
English Club, the Visayan Club, and the Sociedad Ar
tistica Recreativa. In each of these places the Gen
eral showed himself to be as much at home in society
as he was in the presence of his troops. At the Visa
yan Club the General made a short speech in which
he congratulated the Institution, thanked the mem
bers very kindly for the interest they had taken in
making the day pleasant for him, and added that the
thing that pleased him most was the sight of so many
energetic young Americans, and people of other na
tionahties as well, who are determined to carry out the
mission of America in the Eastern world. At the
Sociedad Artistica-Recreativa, the General was pre
sented with two large, handsome paintings, represent
ing respectively a battle hne of Filipinos and one of
Americans. 71

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At the rooms of the Sociedad-Recreativa where a
short program of music was given in the General's
honor, he made a short speech in which he said that
a nation as artistic as the Filipinos are, have a bright
future. Referring to the paintings with which he
was presented he said that the execution of the work
was complete but he hoped that in the future the
painters would never again have any reason to engage
in representing scenes of war. He expressed great
hope for the future of the Filipinos although they
were considerably handicapped by their past calam
ities. General Lee, in a few words, and displaying
considerable emotion, said that his greatest desire
and hope is that the American flag may come to be
loved and respected by the Filipinos as it is loved
and respected by the Americans.
General Miles was roundly cheered and shortly
after his departure he and his Aide were made hon
orary members of the Club. At the reception in the
evening at the Palace the General and his aide wore
the characteristic emblem of the society.
In the evening at eight o'clock at the casa gobi-
erno the visitors were tendered a grand reception by
the public in general, although provincial and mu
nicipal officials were chiefly instrumental in arrang
ing for the occasion. The time from eight to nine
was spent in getting acquainted generally. From
nine until twelve dancing was the order of the hour.
General Miles and his party left the Palace about
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eleven o'clock in order to resume the voyage at
twelve. They were accompanied by General Bald
win and his aide, Lieutenant Drum, during whose
absence, Lieutenant Colonel F. A. Smith will be
Acting Adjutant General. The route taken by the
party will be from this place to the Jolo group,
from there to Zamboanga, thence, to Cebu, and from
there back to Manila.
To one who had never seen General Miles before
it was a pleasant surprise. Although he has passed
the point of three score years, his appearance is that
of a man of vigor and energy, is more than prepos
sessing and he looks every inch the soldier that he is.
Mrs. Miles is a lady whose years have not diminished
her beauty and who is in every respect a fitting com
panion for her worthy husband.
The benefits of the General's visit in these parts
cannot be over-estimated ; and it is safe to say that
no event could have taken place that would have
had the same good effect politically. The absolute
impartiahty with which General Miles gave and
received attentions showed the diplomatic character
of the man and counted for much permanent good
here. The party accompanying General and Mrs. Miles
on their tour of the Islands consists of Colonel Maus,
Colonel Bailey, Major Scott, Captain Squires, Major
Sawyer, Brigadier General Lee, Lieutenant McCas-
key and Messrs. Rouse, Wiborg, Hoyt, Thirt and
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The General will spend in all about one month in
the Islands after which he will sail for Siberia and
will start for Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway.
He will be retired the third of next August and
according to rule no one can succeed to his title
unless Congress creates the rank. In such case
General Young will probably succeed him.
The Iloilo Times, despite the fact that it is
printed in two languages, Spanish and English,
bears unmistakable evidences of being con
ducted under Yankee auspices. From the
"Miscellaneous Column" I cannot resist the
temptation to cull a few journalistic treasures
which made me feel quite at home.
"Patrons of the Times should remember that
the editorial and business rooms of the paper are no
longer at No. 14 Calle Ortiz but have been removed
to Calle Osorio, No. 2, just opposite the Convent and
one door north of the Military Headquarters."
" If the new Filipino Church succeeds in establish
ing itself, it will be one of those organizations that
come up out of great tribulation."
" Our esteemed contemporary, ' El Tiempo,' has
come out with a decided improvement in general
make-up by putting some news on the first page."
74

An Unofficial Attache

" It was strikingly noticeable that no Spaniards
attended the reception given to General Miles at
the Palace although all other nationalities were well
represented." "The jusi and pina dealers would hke to see a
Miles day every once in a while in these parts.
They sold 500 pesos worth of cloth to the General
and his party."
"The General presents a fine figure in his uni
form, but we will wager it does not take him two
minutes to get out of it and into neglige" when he
gets back on the Transport."
" Americans who insist upon playing the r6le of
' hobos ' in this country just because they are far
from home will find out shortly that the home
government will be brought to them and effectually
administered." " Now we are certain that we shall have to get
out an edition of that big dictionary, for here comes
' La Laz ' the trilengual paper published in the
Nineva Caceres and speaks about some unfortu
nates being held in ' durance vile.' "
" General Miles, in private conversation, expressed
himself as very greatly surprised and pleasantly
withal, at the reception tendered him at this place.
He said that it was one of the most cordial recep-
75

An Unofficial Attache

tions he had ever enjoyed and was not even second
to that given him in Manila."
The following news item, taken from the next
column of the Times, had a decidedly foreign
ring to it, and presents, from the view-point of
the matter-of-fact native, a phase of the life in
the Philippines which we touched upon when
discussing the work of Major Allen and the
native constabulary.
MONTGOMERY'S ASSASSINS CAPTURED
CONFESSED THEIR CRIMES AND SAY IT WAS POR
PURPOSES OF ROBBERY
According to word received in this city from
Bacolod, the men who murdered Division Super
intendent D. C. Montgomery, two weeks ago to
morrow near Bacolod have all been captured or
killed. The survivors confess their crime freely
and say that they had come down that way to steal
carabaca that night, but as the prospects did not
look very favorable they decided to look for other
game. They say they were in Silay when Mont
gomery started for Bacolod and sent the boy on
ahead to carry the satchel. Believing there was
money in the grip they decided to hurry on ahead
and ambush him. 76

An Unofficial Attache

It is practically certain that no political signif
icance attaches to the murder, but it is also certain
that he was not mistaken for some one else as was
suspected by some at first.
In the same column was this item of local
importance. The Cosmopolitan Times prints a
bit of news from New York.
THE ELECTIONS IN THE STATES
ODELL WAS ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
OVER BIRD S. COLER, BY A PLURALITY OF
EIGHT THOUSAND
The Republican majority in the House of Repre
sentatives is thought to be about twenty-five. The
estimated standing of the parties is given, as Re
publican, 196; Democrats, 176; others, 11.
Democrats carried the entire South. Republi
cans victorious in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut,
Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska,
New Hampshire and New York.
From this it is evident that the far-off Philip
pines are kept in some kind of touch with the
affairs transpiring in the United States.
To us the city of Iloilo was as much an ob
ject of interest and curiosity as we evidently
were to the people there. On our arrival we
77

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were much impressed with the evidences of war
and destruction which marked the entire busi
ness section of the town. Blackened walls of
masonry and heaps of ashes were all that re
mained to indicate the site of public buildings
and of structures formerly the busy scenes of
commercial activity. The native population in
the early days of the Spanish-American War
had set fire to their town to prevent it from
falling into the hands of their old masters, the
Spanish, who were planning to seize the city
and make it the centre of military operations,
which would, of course, mean the quartering of
soldiers in the homes of the people and the
plundering of their stores by an arrogant lot
of legalized robbers.
But upon the ashes of the old town, huge
sheds and temporary structures of divers kinds
serve for the present needs of public business
and private enterprise, while new and perma
nent buildings are being erected as rapidly as
possible. The reception which was tendered to General
Miles in the evening was held at the governor's
palace, — an old Spanish building plainly show
ing the evidences of a gradual degeneration
which had doubtless been in progress for many
78

An Unofficial Attache

years of Spanish rule and Spanish neglect. The
entertainment was calculated to make the visi
tor feel that the people of Iloilo were experienc
ing a new awakening and a new determination
to accomplish, to take advantage of the new
opportunities which a free and progressive gov
ernment secures. No effort and no expense
had been spared to make our visit pleasant
for us and memorable in the annals of Iloilo.
From the evidences of energy and activity
which characterized the town and the people,
I felt the conviction that the near future holds
promise of good and permanent achievement
for Iloilo. No longer a run-down colony of
Spain, this city is striving earnestly to become
Americanized and to develop along the lines of
Anglo-Saxon civilization. It is at present the
third city of the archipelago, and what is left
of the place bears the imprint of the Spanish
architecture of the tropics.
Leaving Iloilo shortly after midnight, we con
tinued our cruise southeast, arriving at Siassi on
the island of Jolo the following daybreak. Our
arrival was evidently expected, for scarce had
the "Ingalls " cast anchor, some three miles
from shore, when a pygmy fleet of dugouts
swarmed about us, noisy with the shrill cries of
79

An Unofficial Attache

a crew of dark-skinned boys in nature's garb.
" Here, capitan, here, capitan ! " they cried, hold
ing up their hands and beckoning wildly to
attract attention from the party on the decks,
and to elicit copper coins. As we flipped pen
nies into the air, their keen eyes flashed, follow
ing the course of the falling treasures. As the
coins touched the water there would be a splash,
splash, splash, and the lithe little amphibians
dived deep after the alluring bait.
" Here, capitan, here, capitan ! " this seemed
to be the nearest approach they could make to
speaking English, and to constitute the whole
of their linguistic culture, beyond the jabbering
of their noisy tongues. However, just as our
stock of pennies was beginning to run out the
ladies of our party came on deck prepared for the
trip to shore.
" Here, mamma, here, mamma ! " shrieked a
red-lipped Zulu, as Mrs. Miles appeared at the
railing. " Here, mamma, here, mamma ! " cried
the swarthy chorus, clapping hands and laugh
ing merrily. This was too good a joke, and to
tease Mrs. Miles we played their harmless bunco
game until our pockets were empty.
Less than six degrees north of the equator,
Siassi is in the heart of the wildest Moro coun-
80

An Unofficial Attache

try. The town itself is composed chiefly of
bamboo huts with heavy roofs of thatch, and
occupied by a motley population of Moros,
Chinese, and degenerate Spanish.
The military station here is important, as the
wild tribes in the outlying districts are not pac
ified, and probably will remain savage and
bloodthirsty until their eventual extermination.
General Miles' reception here was probably the
most primitive in the history of American
military affairs since the early Indian wars.
The principal business men of the town are
Chinese, and they took upon themselves the
duty of extending to the distinguished guest
such a salutation and reception as should reflect
credit upon the hospitality of the town.
Disembarking from the ship's launch, General
Miles, attended by a military escort from the
local station, led the way up the main street
of Siassi, by comparison with which the Mid
way Plaisance at the Columbian Exposition
was sombre in color and quiet as a New Eng
land Sunday. On both sides of the line of
march a throng of men, women, and children,
representing at least four of the races of man
kind, pushed and struggled for positions of
vantage. Gorgeous robes of yellow, red, pur-
6 81

An Unofficial Attache

pie, green, and orange adorned the unwashed
shoulders and bodies of Chinese and Malays.
The slick skins of native men, deep brown and
glossy, bared from the waist upward, added
a savage quaintness to the scene. Moro women,
with their babies strapped, papoose fashion,
on their backs, elbowed their way among the
crowds, neither expecting nor receiving more
consideration than their less hampered neigh
bors. Here and there a group of swarthy
Spaniards looked at the procession with eyes in
which there was no friendliness, and two or
three grizzled Mohammedan priests mingled
in the host of their faithful followers. The
din of tom-toms beaten in rhythmic measure by
hospitable natives assailed our ears with deaf
ening noise, half thrilling and half ludicrous.
The great salute of the day, however, was that
prepared by the prosperous Chinese merchants,
and which greeted us as we filed past their
shops and stores in the business centre of the
town. Clad in cadet jackets, gay with gold
lace and buttons, trousers cut either on the
pattern of pajamas or of riding breeches, but
toning close about the ankle and becoming
loose from the knee upward, their heads
adorned either with the Oriental fez or with
82

An Unofficial Attache

gorgeous turbans of variegated colors, Moro
dandies swaggered along the streets, their bare
feet leaving broad imprints in the dusty ways.
These native beaux represented the elite of
Siassi, the old families not only of the town
but of the countryside about. In the sashes
about their waists flashed keen-edged bolos, or
wrinkled creese blades, handed down from
father to son for many generations, and prized
as the most precious heirlooms. Supple canes,
with jewelled hand-piece and metal ferule, or
neat swagger sticks, slivered from the horn of
the carabao and tipped at either end with cap
of silver, gave an added air of jauntiness and
style to these self-important individuals.
Fire-crackers are said to be of earlier inven
tion than guns, and history affirms that the
ancient Chinese employed them in the defence
of the great wall of China to scare away the
enemy. In the present instance, the " Heathen
Chinee " used them in lieu of heavier artillery
by way of friendly salute. Two rows of
bright-robed Mongolians stood at the sides
of the street, carrying long, slender poles of
bamboo. As we passed between them the in
genious Orientals " presented arms " with these
83

An Unofficial Attache

bamboo rods, to the ends of which were attached
huge bunches of fire-crackers which sputtered
and popped and banged like a miniature Fourth
of July. Not fifteen guns, but fifteen thousand
Chinese fire-crackers sneezed an Oriental salute
to the commander from the far-off land in the
West, greatly to the delight of the populace and
to the unconcealed amusement, admiration, and
astonishment of the visitors.
Siassi is the most primitive Philippine city
we visited, and, to me at least, it was a revela
tion of crudeness and barbaric display. Color,
color, color, oh every side ! Bright turbans and
Moro scarfs, beads and tinsel jewels, glittering
blades of creeses and of bolos, arrows tipped
with points of bone and weapons studded with
sharks' teeth, — such were the articles most in
evidence in shops and market as well as on
the streets and among the ugly multitude.
Here the vices of civilization seem to be long
established, but the virtues, moral, intellectual,
or industrial, have scarcely taken root. The
religion of Mohammed and the Koran holds a
tenacious grip on the people except where
old superstitions, inherited through ages of
Moro folk-lore, crowd out all forms of theology
or demonology imported from other climes.
84

Market

Moro Be

rket Place, Siassi

vs, Siassi

An Unofficial Attache

Naturally unattractive in feature and linea
ment, the natives add to the ugliness of their
faces by the use of a narcotic irritant called the
betel-nut. This innocent-looking nut seems to
combine in its toothsome kernel all the evil
properties of nicotine, opium, and alcohol, and
its use keeps the uncivilized Filipino in a state
of wild exhilaration, lapsing now and then
into periods of voluptuous somnolence. Not
only is the effect of the drug visible in the
expression of the eyes, but its action on the
teeth is such as to turn them black, while
the lips become flushed with an unnatural
crimson brilliance.
The centre of interest at Siassi is the market
place. Here throng the people to buy and sell,
or, like the American Indians, to barter their
wares. The swarthy fruit-merchant exchanges
a goodly stock of cocoanuts with the woman
who operates a hand-loom, for an ample cut of
jusi. The fishmonger barters a fine red-snapper
for a supply of betel-nut, and the bolo-man
haggles with the pearl-fisher on the terms of
an exchange of commodities. Naked urchins,
boys and girls, run in and out among the stalls
playing "I-spy" and "Tag," very much the
same as children everywhere. The rivalry be-
85

An Unofficial Attache

tween the Moro scarf-weaver and the jusi-
maker is keen, and woe to the stranger who is
so rash as to patronize the one to the neglect
of the other.
The principal attraction at the market place,
however, is neither jusi nor plaid, cocoanut nor
betel, fish nor pearl, nor jewelled blade. The
passion for gaming draws men and women with
irresistible force. Native gambling devices,
unique and shrewd, coax the money of the
unwary, while an eager crowd watches the
throwing of the dice or the tossing of a coin.
Bizarre, garish, dirty, eager, the rabble never
weary of their games of chance, and the " shell
game " is played with local and original
variations. From Siassi we coasted swiftly to the city of
Jolo, the capital of the island of the same name.
This diminutive metropolis is much Hke the old
district of Manila. Massive stone walls entirely
surround the town, originally a Spanish strong
hold from which an unceasing warfare was
waged against the wild Moro tribes in the
jungle fastnesses. Governor after governor,
general after general, conducted fruitless expe
ditions from Jolo into the heart of the lands of
86

An Unofficial Attache

the savage bolo-men. Even Weyler, the Spanish
generalissimo of Cuban trocha fame, gave up
the hopeless game, and the Moros of Jolo-land
have never acknowledged allegiance to masters
other than their native chiefs or provincial
sultans and datos.
The sultan of Jolo occupies the ambiguous
position of being at once a pensioner of the
United States and an Oriental despot whose
sway, among the tribes which have for gener
ations been the subjects of his royal family, is
little less absolute than that of the Czar of
Russia. After the capture of Manila, American vessels
were sent to take possession of the various
towns and colonies throughout the archipelago
in the name of the United States. Most of these
beino; under actual as well as nominal control of
the Spanish, capitulated readily and came under
American control without the shedding of
blood or the loss of life on either side. The
town of Jolo, having been abandoned by the
Spanish, was controlled absolutely by the sultan
of the district, who had a very considerable
garrison of native troops stationed there with
the avowed determination to give battle to
Uncle Sam, destroy the city if necessary, to
87

An Unofficial AttacM

prevent it from falling into the hands of the
Americans, and to bind himself and his warriors
in eternal enmity to the intruders.
The position of the American commander
was peculiar. A few moments' activity from
the ship's battery would mean the destruction
of the quaint old city nestling in mock security
within the circle of its grim stone walls. The
native garrison could be exterminated, possibly
without the loss of an American soldier. But
this was not war; this was no work for
soldiers and Americans, but for butchers and
murderers. Already was there a faction and a press at
home crying out against " Imperialism," and a
policy of wholesale plunder in the communi
ties which the shock of war had put into our
power. Our mission was to preserve, not to destroy,
whatever of civilization, prosperity, and virtue
might be found in the Philippines, and to spread
the influence of American ideas and American
civilization with as little bloodshed as possible.
To this end the friendship and allegiance of
powerful local leaders was much more to be
sought after than their lives. Following the
precedent of paying to Spain a huge indemnity
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An Unofficial Attache

for the possessions we had taken from her
through the fortunes of war, a certain annual
pension was offered to the sultan of Jolo for
the peaceful evacuation of the city, and the
oath of allegiance to the United States. The
shrewd potentate was not slow to close a
bargain which any haggling on his part would
probably have caused to miscarry. He with
drew his troops from the city, and retired to his
castle in the jungle some miles from the coast,
where he lives a life of Oriental ease and luxury,
maintaining a great harem and an establish
ment of barbaric splendor which his ample
pension provides. The army of retainers who
do his bidding are bound to him in a system
of feudal vassalage. How long he will be
satisfied with this new-found opulence and
peace is questionable. His surly majesty re
fused to come to greet the general of the
United States army, though informed of our
visit and invited to attend the reception at
Jolo. The following is a newspaper clipping :

89

An Unofficial Attache

SULTAN OF SULU NO LONGER A
SUBJECT OF UNCLE SAM
TAKES UP RESIDENCE IN SINGAPORE
Scbipps-McRae Press Association,
Washington, Sept. 14, —
Uncle Sam no longer counts among his subjects
the sultan of Sulu. With his six wives, his retinue
of slaves and the resplendent datos who make up
his cabinet, he has removed to Singapore. Although
young in years, he is a total physical wreck, and has
but a short time to enjoy Uncle Sam's pension and
the income derived from his pearl fisheries.
The reason for his departure is said to be his
weakening grasp upon the throne, due to the
American invasion and to the fact that he has no
male heir. He appreciated the situation, assisted no
doubt by his own people, and so moved to the
Straits Settlement.
However, the city was spared the havoc of
bombardment. Beautiful Jolo, a very dream
city, unreal in its peaceful picturesqueness,
rejoices in American occupation, and the wild
Moro tribes about it have been subjugated and
controlled for the first time in history.
On the open space before the door of the
90

An Unofficial Attache

house of the commanding officer of the local
post, a band of wild men from the woods danced
a war dance for the edification of General Miles
and his party. A more savage rite I never
saw. Naked, save for the loin clout, these dusky
Indians of Jolo-land, their bodies adorned with a
few trinkets, leap into the air, brandishing aloft
their spears with points of sharpened bone.
Then suddenly they crouch low, stealthily
creeping toward each other, every eye keen
and every muscle tense. With a cry they
jump to their feet, spears are left upon the
ground, and in the sinewy right hand of
every dusky warrior glistens a razor-edged
bolo. The tom-toms raise a deafening discord,
the knives flash close before the faces of the
imagined foes, then, with a swift movement,
they disappear. The noise of the savage tom
tom grows quicker. The lean bodies dash be
fore us in a mad whirl, brandishing aloft the
war clubs, studded with sharks' teeth. The
fierce rapidity of the dance is beginning to tell
even on the hardy sons of the jungle, as at a
sound from the tom-toms each club is cast to
the ground, and spears again glisten in the air.
The movement slackens, the old look of blood-
91

An Unofficial Attache"

thirsty eagerness grows more intense as, two
by two, the band divides into groups, each
man advancing toward his opponent until the
keen points of bone seem to be almost ready to
pierce the breast of his adversary. A clash
from the tom-tom and a cry from the warriors !
The whole band is once more whirling and
winding its mad flight about the ring until,
panting and sweating, the savage warriors
drop heavily upon the ground, exhausted.
After our visit at Jolo, Malabang was the first
stop of importance. From its strategic position
on the coast near the centre of a hostile and
aggressive host of Moro tribes, Malabang is
of the utmost military importance. An army
supply station is located here, and a con
siderable force of troops is kept constantly at
this post. The town itself is intolerably hot
and dry and dusty, uninteresting and disagree
able, and the soldiers and officers stationed here
regard this assignment as an unmitigated bad
fortune, — an evil to be endured because it
cannot be cured.
The American policy of " carrying the war
into the enemy's country " has here been ap
plied to Moro warfare, and the results prove
92

An Unofficial Attache

beyond a question that this method of subju
gating the savages is much more effective than
the Spanish course of making occasional sallies
out of a strongly entrenched position into the
trackless jungle. From Malabang, the Ameri
can forces have built a fine military road through
the heart of the country of the savages to the
crest of the mountain which forms the mili
tary as well as the geographic centre of the
island. Operations were in progress at the
time of our visit to run another road from
Iligan, on the opposite coast, to connect with
this road at Lake Laguna on the summit of
the mountain.
At Malabang, horses were provided for such
of the gentlemen of our party as had equestrian
ambitions, and Doherty wagons furnished less
strenuous means of transport for the prudent
and knowing ones. Following the military
road, with a guard a short distance in advance
of us to provide against possible ambush or
open attack from the fierce Malays, who were
hereabouts in active warfare, we soon plunged
into the depths of the tropical juugle.
On either side of our pathway rose vast
forests of rosewood, mahogany, ebony, cedar,
eucalyptus, and giant palms of a dozen varieties.
93

An Unofficial Attache

Dense about the lower parts of these rural trees,
intertwining leaves and branches form a net
work through which even the brightest rays of
the equatorial sun never penetrate. Flashing
through the air, or on the outer branches
of the trees, are myriads of birds of marvel
lous plumage glistening with all the colors of
the spectrum. Parrots and paroquets scolded
and screeched in ceaseless wrangling, and
flaunted their unrivalled millinery. Here and
there, inquisitive tribes of monkeys stopped
their frolics among the cocoanuts and bananas
to discuss our possible business in their domain.
From the darkness of the distant ravines the
cries of prowling carnivora echoed from rock
and hill.
But the perils which most beset this road are
not the beasts of the jungle. At every turn
in the tortuous course, a military camp with
picket guard proclaims the foe to be a human
foe and ceaselessly vigilant in his bloody busi
ness. But the long arm of our Uncle Sam is
extended from Malabang to Lake Laguna, and
the highway is not easily beset.
Of our party, General Miles, who is always
in condition for any test of endurance, how
ever exciting, and his military aides were the
94

An Unofficial Attache

only members whose enthusiasm for horseback
riding did not become dampened by the climb
of twenty-two miles along that wonderful mili
tary road. For my part, when we stopped for
a change of mount, half-way to our destination,
I should have been most glad to have deserted
the mounted squad for the Doherty wagons ; but
one never likes to show a white feather — and
the seats in the wagons were all occupied.
Toward sunset we passed through the picket
lines at Camp Vickers, on the shore of Lake
Laguna, three thousand feet above the level of
Malabang, which from here looks like a mere
spot of white and red on the line where land
and ocean blend.
At Lake Laguna, old Mother Nature has
decked the mountain crest with lavish splendor,
and has tempered the tropical airs with cooling
breezes, making the place delightful to all the
senses. Here, for the only time in my life, I
slept in a military camp in time of actual
hostilities. Captain John J. Pershing, the hero of Bacca-
lod, was herein command of some two thousand
troops, among whom there was discernible none
of the ennui and morbid discontent so generally
prevalent with the soldiers in out-of-the-way
95

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stations where there is no activity and no ex
citement. For here the warfare was aggres
sive, the element of danger and the alertness
due to the near presence of a watchful foe
kept the men in high spirits and eager activity.
Guard mount here was no mere form, but a
stern necessity, and every drill meant practice
for a contingency which any day might bring
to pass. This night we were quartered in such
style as the exigencies of martial regulations
permitted. As I was waiting to be assigned
to the hospitality of some officer's tent, a
grizzled veteran wearing the insignia of a
major approached me and introduced himself
as a fellow-citizen from Cincinnati, Major Carr,
the senior medical officer of that command.
Though I had never had the pleasure of know
ing Major Carr at home, the circumstances
under which we met at Camp Vickers made us
old friends in a moment, and I quickly learned
to appreciate the qualities which have made his
career so eminently noteworthy. As the last
echo of taps sounded from the distant bugle, I
lay down upon a cot in Dr. Carr's tent and soon
fell asleep. How delightful it seemed to sleep
in a place where the torrid heat of the tropics
was moderated by a lofty altitude and the
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cooling breezes of the mountains. But my
dream of sweet comfort was all too brief.
Scarce had Morpheus clasped me firmly in
his arms, when I began to shiver like a man
in a chill. Although I wrapped about me
every available blanket and coat that I could
find, the cold night air penetrated to the very
marrow of my bones, and my body would
shake and goose-flesh in spite of all I could
do. I tried a little faith cure, and endeavored
to make myself believe it was all imagination,
but my faith was not equal to the occasion.
When, somewhere about two o'clock in the
morning, my cot gave a little jump and then
quivered nervously for some seconds, I was too
sleepy to be greatly surprised.
But the glory of the dawning day was am
plest recompense for a night of broken slumber.
The earthquake which jarred the mountain
camp called forth but passing comment from
those who were more familiar with the eccen
tricities of this island.
The call of bugle and the roll of drums
awakened the sleeping camp and summoned
the soldiers to the work of another day.
Early in the forenoon the entire garrison of
Camp Vickers was formed in order for the in-
i 97

An Unofficial Attache

spection of the general. Not only were the
perfunctory manoeuvres of horse and foot exe
cuted by the troops of cavalry and companies
of infantry, but the field batteries and artillery
squads went through their drills and gave dem
onstration of their skill at target practice.
After inspection, the general, and such of his
party as felt disposed to make the trip, went on
a tour of observation among the various Moro
strongholds which had, by persistent campaign
ing, been taken by the American soldiers. These
fortresses are of the most primitive character,
consisting of earthworks thrown up across some
chasm or other place of natural advantage for
defence. Heaps of brush and the dense growth
of the jungle covered these embankments, effec
tively screening them from chance observation,
as well as forming a wild trocha, increasing the
difficulty of advance by an attacking party. It
was in storming one of these frontier for
tresses that Lieutenant Vickers, a gallant young
American, leading a dashing charge was slain,
and from him the soldiers named their camp.
Conducting our company a few hundred yards
from the outposts of Camp Vickers, Captain
Pershing led to a point on the shore of Lake
Laguna. Here we peered through our field-
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An Unofficial Attache

glasses in the direction indicated by our famous
host, and we saw, clear and distinct among the
dense trees which covered the mountain side
opposite, the red flag of war floating defiantly
from a pole on a Moro fort, one of the most
impregnable redoubts of the bolo-men.
Pershing had been holding his forces in check
for some time past, seeking to end the bloodshed
which every clash of arms implies. His every
energy had been bent to the peaceful subjuga
tion of the tribes which still remained on the
war-path. Emissaries from the ranks of the
Moro warriors who had previously surrendered
to American arms were sent among the hostile
tribes to point out to them the futility of fur
ther resistance and the wisdom of immediate
cessation of hostilities.
But the merciful overtures of Captain Persh
ing were rejected by the brown-skinned deni
zens of the forest, and about a week after our
visit a renewed hostility on the part of the
Moro tribes called forth another sally from
the American soldiers, and another tribe of
Moros was rounded up and overwhelmingly
defeated. In this way, harsh as it is, the
ascendency of America is being established
from fortress to fortress and from coast to
99

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coast throughout the Philippines. The condition
is analogous to that which once existed in our
own land when Indian tribes plundered farm
and village on our western frontier. The only
possibility of extending the reign of law and
order and of establishing civilization through
out the land lay in the subjugation or the
extermination of the Indian.
I can see no other possible solution of the
problems in the Orient.
Before we left Camp Vickers for our return
to the " Ingalls," which we could see riding at
anchor in the distant harbor like a tiny toy
ship, the soldiers assembled informally to
bid farewell to their general. Nothing would
suffice them but a speech. And a speech they
had, a ringing, vigorous, hopeful address, en
couraging the boys to do full duty, to remember
that they are always Americans, and that
Americans across the Pacific at home are mind
ful of them. The praise General Miles accorded
them and their officers was of that character
so well understood and appreciated by the
soldier, but which, to the uninitiated, appears
to be of microscopic proportions. However,
the three cheers and a tiger which followed
us as we rode away for Malabang came from
100

M<<-

General Miles at Camp Vickers

An Unofficial Attache

the hearty admiration and good-will which the
boys cherish for Miles. They knew, and we
who rode away with him knew, that the general
was pleased with the soldierly conduct and
bearing of the boys at Lake Laguna.
Returning along the military road we stopped
to inspect every station which guards its sec
tion of the way. The garrisons here are not
large, from fifty to one hundred men at each ;
but the discipline maintained, and the pervad
ing air of business, reminded us continually that
the soldier's work in this region is no vacation
outing of a State militia.
The course of the " Ingalls " from Malabang
lay along the wooded shores, and never once
did the steamer get out of sight of land until
she hove to at Prang Prang, where the custom
ary review of troops was held. The smaller
towns and posts in the Philippines are much
alike, and there was but little incident or
variety to distinguish them in our minds.
The next important point in our course was
Cottabato, a town of considerable military and
commercial significance on the Rio Grande
de Mindanao, several miles from the coast. We
arrived at the mouth of this beautiful stream
in the middle of the night, and cast anchor there
101

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to await the dawn before continuing our cruise
inland. In the cool air of the early morning,
our party left the " Ingalls " and embarked in
a tug sent out from the military headquarters
at Cottabato to convey us over the shallow
waters of the Rio Grande.
No words of mine can do justice to a descrip
tion of the marvellous beauty of the vegetation
which grows in rank luxuriance to the very
water's edge. Here and there the forest glooms
give way for ample stretches of low-growing
bushes, ferns, and fruitful banana, while the
slender stems of giant palms rise like senti
nels at intervals over the dreamy landscape.
The majesty of wood and jungle ever challenges
the wonder and admiration of the devotee of
" God's first temples."
As we drew in sight of Cottabato, picturesque
and ancient, a salute of fifteen guns announced
the arrival of the looked-for guest. But our
stop was only momentary, and we continued our
course up-stream, postponing our longer visit at
Cottabato until our return, for we were now
on the way to pay our respects to an indi
vidual of the utmost importance in this region
of Mindanao.
Thirty-five miles from the mouth of the river
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dwells Dato Piang, the patriarch and autocrat
of all he surveys. Piang is a local ruler, now
shrewdly acknowledging allegiance to Uncle
Sam, but no less shrewdly exercising the
prerogatives of legislative, judicial, and exec
utive branches of the local government. As a
side line, merely by way of keeping busy, the
wily old statesman has constituted himself a
bureau of commerce and industry in the section
over which his fate and his inheritance have
called him to rule, and the monopoly he main
tains over the financial and religious resources
of his realm would make certain " captains of
industry " and " trust promoters " of America,
discover that they could learn the ABC
of this profession from this benevolent old
potentate. Piang is a hereditary ruler, and his subjects,
mustering some six or seven thousand natives,
look to him for law and authority. They work
for him and do his bidding with a childlike
docility and unquestioning obedience. Practi
cally all the money of the realm finds its way
to the ample money-bags of his royal treasury,
and natives look to Piang, the dato, for such
supplies as their simple trade and barter fail
to provide. 103

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As our launch approached the palace grounds,
a thunderous salute from a dilapidated old
battery of antiquated muzzle-loading cannon
and mortars roared welcome to the honored
guest. A moment later, from the wharf
appeared a banca, or barge, propelled by ten
boatmen. Herein, in royal state, rode Dato
Piang, a wrinkled, swarthy, lean old man, his
eyes keen and bright as a weazel's, his teeth
black as ebony from the constant use of the
betel-nut. His costume was bizarre and fantastic. A
suit of white cotton bedecked with a parti
colored sash, yellow leggings, tight-laced from
his bare feet to the knees, his head adorned
with a great turban of Oriental purple and
bright green, such was the garb of this splen
did Dato Piang.
However, "'Tis distance still that lends
enchantment." The glory of Piang lost half
its glamour when we drew to close quarters.
The royal garb had sad need of a visit to the
wash-tub, and his excellency himself would
have been vastly improved by a vigorous appli
cation of soap and water.
Escorting our launch to his landing place,'
Piang extended to General Miles the hospital-
104

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ity of his palace and his domain, attaching
himself with leech-like tenacity to the guest
whom he wished particularly to honor and to
cajole. Piang' s palace is a rambling structure, per
haps some two hundred feet square, and
combining, in complacent disregard of all laws
of art and science, the most heterogeneous
and diverse elements of architecture. Sur
rounded by a massive stone wall, the abode of
the dato is guarded by a sort of praetorian
cohort of half-civilized Moro warriors. The
fantastic garrison seemed to be in perfect
keeping with the royal artillery pieces which
are mounted at intervals along the stockade.
In a separate building within this outer wall
dwells the bearded Mohammedan sheik who,
in his austere personage, combines the attributes
of Lord High Chancellor and Prime Minister of
the Imperial Piang and of spiritual and relig
ious head of the household.
In number of members the family of Dato
Piang rivals some of the courts of European
monarchs, no less than one hundred and fifty
people dwelling within the confines of the
palace, and many more being employed there
in the various enterprises conducted on the
105

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premises and under the watchful supervision
of dato and sheik.
A rattle-trap structure, a dislocated wing of
the palace, forms the harem. Jealously guarded
from prying eyes of strangers, the curiosity
native to woman-kind overcame all the precau
tions with which the custom of ages had screened
the beauties of the harem. Peering out from
behind half-open doors and screens, or even
venturing into the open court-yard to look upon
the wonderful visitors from the far-off lands,
the queens of beauty forgot the dictates of
prudence and discretion, and disclosed to the
unholy gaze of the stranger the mysteries in
tended only_ for the eyes of the sovereign Dato
Piang. Alas, for the disillusionment ! Instead of
voluptuous figures, robed in silk and bedecked
with jewels which pale beside the brilliant
lustre of beautiful eyes, we beheld a group of
slatternly females, unkempt and dirty, their
single garment of coarse homespun hanging
loose and ungirt. The exact number of con
jugal adjuncts maintained by Piang I was
unable to ascertain, but from the small army
of little Piangs who romped about the grounds
and at the landing place, I inferred that
106

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they were not few. Piang evidently takes his
domestic blessings in allopathic doses.
Two profitable industries, cloth and mat
making, and the manufacture of fine creeses
and bolos, are conducted on the premises. The
former is carried on by women who, seated
on the floor, with feet straight out in front of
them, throw the noisy shuttles between the
close-set strands of hempen woof, and shift
the clumsy harness of the ungraceful looms.
As souvenirs of our visit to his forges, Piang
presented every member of our party with a
wavy-bladed creese, tempered and embossed in
his own armory and made by the hands of his
own armorers.
The kingly state of Dato Piang attains to
its most imposing aspect in the imperial throne-
room. This lofty apartment cheaply mimics
the beauty of Alhambra Halls, its massive
columns and arched dome furnishing an effec
tive setting for the heavily draped divan
whereon the great man sits on occasions of
state, and whereon he sleeps at night, sur
rounded by his serfs and private guards.
Piled high about the room are sacks and
chests carefully sealed, and guarded with un
ceasing vigilance. By one of the innumerable
107

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servants who attended us during our visit I
was told that these sacks contained the dato's
treasury, — a sum, an idea of the vastness of
which the native endeavored to convey to me
by eloquent gestures and wonder-wide eyes.
My own experience with Philippine currency
had taught me something of the bulk of coin
required to represent the minutest actual value,
as values are measured among the civilized
nations. To carry one hundred dollars in legal
tender of the Moro tribes would tax the bur
den-bearing ability of a strong man.
Piang is decidedly a radical in politics,
aggressive, shrewd, quick to see his opportu
nities and to embrace them. While perhaps
he foresees the end of the system of govern
ment of which he is such an important part,
and the eventful downfall of the mediaeval
feudalism which makes possible his squalid
royalty, Dato Piang is making hay while the
sun shines. He has formed relations of the
most friendly character with the American
officers whose duties have brought them into
his district, and by them the wily old Moro is
credited with keeping his eyes open and getting
into line with the course of progress.
Piang has two great ambitions. The first
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is to own a steam launch enabling him to
abandon his picturesque but antiquated barge.
The second is to visit America, the mysterious,
far-away land which produces such wonderful
men, — men who fight like devils, and then lay
down their guns to take up spades and axes,
building roads and villages as they go, and
sending teachers to open schools in every
native town.
The Rio Grande de Mindanao, from the
palace of Piang to Cottabato, presents to
the stranger, gliding silently over its placid
surface, a series of dissolving views which
charm the eye and fascinate the imagination.
Every bend in the river's course conceals a
vista of water, sky, and forest, only to reveal
new glimpses of the infinite variety of nature's
manifestations. Now and again great flocks
of sea-birds float gracefully and swiftly across
the sky, or settle, with noisy clamor, on some
forest tree.
One such incident occurred on the Sunday
morning as we sped toward Cottabato. A
flock of white herons, thousands, nay, tens of
thousands in number, dropped from the vast
ness of the sky and settled on a huge tree which
stood on the river's bank, its enormous branches
109

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extending far out over the shady waters. The
effect of this sudden apparition was a marvel
lous and instantaneous transformation in the
whole aspect of the scene. Where a moment
before we had looked upon the stately grandeur
of the giant of the forest, dark and clearly
outlined against its background of low-
growing jungle and cloud-veiled sky, we be
held, with unspeakable astonishment and with
wonder amounting almost to awe, a huge dome
of snowy whiteness, solid and compact, of
almost geometric symmetry, its entire surface
glinting and flickering in the sunlight. So
sudden had been the marvellous change, and so
completely had the myriad of white herons
overwhelmed the tree, that even its titanic
limbs were bent beneath the weight, all the
wild grace of nature's outlines being pressed
into a seeming solid cone, the dark foliage of
the tree blending beautifully with the dazzling
plumage of the birds. For a time we gazed in
mute wonder at this phenomenon. Then some
one in the stern of our boat fired a shot into
the air. With a noise like the breaking- of a
tornado, the feathery tribe rose in a mass,
moving like one great living organism, and
gradually spreading out like a cloud as the
110

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flock unfolded its close-formed ranks in the
free air of the sky. The giant tree which had
bent his back and braced his limbs to sustain
the heavy burden which had come thus sud
denly upon him, lifted his head and stretched
his sinewy limbs like a powerful man rejoicing
in the proven prowess of his body.
At Cottabato another biological phenome
non, equalling if not surpassing in beauty that
of the white heron tree, challenged our wonder
and hypnotized our senses. After the military
inspections had been completed, the commanding
officer at the post invited the general and his
retinue to refreshment at the official head
quarters, formerly the residence of the Spanish
governors. We fingered long about the table,
which was spread with viands and delicacies of
American production, as well as of Philippine
growth. When at length we proposed to take
our departure, night had stolen upon the land
scape, studding the sky with stars and brood
ing over the world with mystic, dreamy beauty.
The trees and leafy shrubs hummed aloud with
the discordant harmonies of the million unseen
insects. On the open lawn, perhaps one hun
dred feet from the balcony, gloomed the dark
bulk of a shapely evergreen, standing some
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thirty feet in height. As we looked, this tree
burst suddenly upon our sight, glowing with a
phosphorescent flicker, as of ten thousand tiny
electric bulbs in frosted opalescent globes. So
brilliant was the illumination that every twig
and every filigree outline of the tree was
clearly visible, and the soft radiance cast a
halo against the sky and a golden dew upon the
ground. The tree glowed for a second only,
and then was dark again. Again the wonder
ful illumination started once more throughout
the branches of the tree, only to be once more
extinguished. From at first doubting the evi
dence of our eyes, we began to suspect that a
beautiful electrical display had been arranged
for our entertainment. This, however, was a
theory not long to be held. The miracles of
nature excel the works of man. The tree con
tinued to pulsate with throbbing heartbeats of
light, to breathe deep draughts of unconsuming
fire. Had a voice oracular spoken from that burn
ing bush, our wonderment could have been
no greater, nor our silence more reverently
enthralled. The phenomenon which thus charmed our
incredulous senses is one not uncommon in
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the Eastern islands, and is produced by the
simultaneous and rhythmic action of a myriad
of luciferous insects not unlike the firefly or
" lightning bug " so common among our Ohio
hills and fields in the balmy nights of early
summer. At certain seasons these beetles hold
high festival in the Oriental tropics, swarming
much after the manner of honey-bees, when
they form themselves into a solid mass, attach
ing themselves to the limb or the trunk of a
tree. An uncounted host of these fireflies,
moving over the entire surface of the ever
green, and flashing their candles in perfect
unison, produced the strange and beautiful
illusion, — a torchlight carnival of fairyland.
On this beautiful Sunday morning, as we
sped with the current of the Rio Grande, we
caught a few fleeting glimpses of the life at the
common trysting places, at the river's brink
where long-established custom has decreed that
rural markets shall be held at stated intervals.
Here were tied up to convenient tree-trunks little
fleets of bancas covered with crude awnings or
canopies of rushes or coarse mattings. The
boatmen herein displayed their wares, garden
truck and poultry, choice fruit, betel-nuts, home
spun of homely weave, knives and implements
8 113

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of war or peace, mats and peaked headgear.
From the country round about flocked the
peasantry, some afoot and some astride their
lank and sinewy ponies. Here and there a
swarthy farmer might be seen urging his
clumsy carabao, while wife and little ones
peeked out from the quilted cart-cover of
bamboo shreds. Here barter is the common
form of exchange, though some of the bulky
currency of Mindanao passes in payment for
a stock of provisions or a bolt of jusi cloth.
Through such scenes as these, and with a
store of delightful memories, we steamed down
the Rio Grande and back to the " Ingalls,"
which lay at anchor at the river's mouth.
That night I got another drenching from a
sudden downpour of rain as I lay sleeping on
the uncovered steps of the transport, our course
headed for Zamboanga.
Old and battle-scarred, the grim Spanish for
tress frowns defiance at the approaching vessel,
but the hospitality which now dwells within
the town, garrisoned by American soldiers, pro
claims the visage of the fortress to be a liar
and a fraud. Zamboanga, the fourth city of
the Philippines in size, is a cheerful place, pros
perous and contented, with ample park or prado,
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and not lacking in clubs and other places of
social resort and friendly intercourse.
The barracks here were formerly occupied by
the Spanish garrison, and the headquarters of
General Sumner, the commanding officer at
the time of our visit, long housed the families
of Spanish governors. Here we passed a de
lightful day in feasting and sight-seeing and
meeting pleasant army people, while on the
grassy court a military band filled the air with
sweet music.
Scudding along the shallow waters, within
easy sight of shore, we stopped at a number of
military stations only so long as was necessary
for the official duties of General Miles, and at
many of these points our brief stay was ample to
satisfy the idle curiosity of the camp-followers.
Illgan, in Mindanao, across the island from
Malabang, was one such squalid village, interest
ing only because it is a military post and the
terminal of the military road which is to con
nect Camp Vickers on Lake Laguna with both
shores of the island. Far different was the
aspect of Cebu, the second city of the archi
pelago, the capital of the island of the same
name. Here our vessel steamed in deep water
to the very dock, where a concourse of people
115

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awaited her arrival and greeted her landing
with lusty cheers and waving flags. The escort
of honor which conducted the wayfarers from
the wharf to the citadel was imposing, and the
atmosphere of the streets and marts was that
of a thriving European town rather than the
enervating indolence of a Malay village, of the
latter of which we had seen so much. A United
States court holds sessions here, and here also
centres the spirit of the " Irreconcilables." Cebu
is more than a native settlement; it is a
Spanish city, seasoned and tempered in the
years of Spanish custom. The dominant ele
ment of the population is intelligent and
capable of self-government, and therefore rest
less and ill at ease under the yoke, however
light, of a foreign master. Were all the Phil
ippines composed of such places as Cebu, Iloilo,
and Manila, the protection of a strong foster-
parent would be necessary only as a bulwark
against foreign aggression. But the vast popu
lace of the archipelago could never be held
together for a day by the weak hands of a
local state government struggling for existence
itself. Cebu is the headquarters for the hemp indus^
try of the islands, and the huge hemp presses
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and baling machines in the local factories and
warehouses clank with the noise of active
business, — a sound like music to the ears of
an American.
On the evening of our visit at Cebu, a public
reception and musicale was tendered General
and Mrs. Miles in the parlors of the Filipino
Club. The occasion was memorable, and every
possible precaution was taken to prevent any
impression of disloyalty to American sov
ereignty. During the course of the evening,
some of the speakers threw out very broad
hints that an expression of General Miles' opin
ions on the subject of the Philippines, and the
probable policy of the American government in
regard to them, would be very acceptable. But
the veteran soldier is a diplomat as well as
a warrior, and in his address to the people,
abounding in congratulations, hopeful proph
ecies, and grateful recognition of their hospi
tality, he deftly avoided any remark which could,
by any interpretation, be assumed to have a
political or an official significance.
We spent only one day at Cebu, and after the
reception all our party went directly to the
" Ingalls." We sailed during the night, and con
tinued the cruise northward. 117

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As we approached the northern islands, the
tortuous course became narrower and more dan
gerous, and at the entrance of San Juanica
Strait, we were obliged to desert the rather
light-draught "Ingalls" for a tiny vessel sent
from military headquarters at Tacloban to con
vey us thither. This little boat was called
by the euphonious title " Sam Shui," which,
in English, means cold water.
Tacloban, on the island of Leyte, is interesting
because of its unique character, the finest ex
ample of a Nipa hut town I had seen thus far
on the trip, and its importance as the military
headquarters for the districts of Leyte and
Samar, which are separated only by the narrow
channel of the strait. The " Bungalow," situ
ated in the outskirts of Tacloban, the famous
official residence of General Jacob Smith —
" Hell-roaring Jake " — during his campaign,
is the most remarkable object of interest in
Tacloban, being the most elaborate example of
bamboo construction in the Philippines. This
building is an enormous rambling affair, three
or more stories in height, and of exceedingly
intricate design. So seductive was the enter
tainment provided for us at the Bungalow
that our departure thence was delayed until
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late at night. Meantime we enjoyed in full
measure the generous feast which was spread
in honor of General Miles by the officers of
the local post.
Turn and turn about, every member of our
party was called upon for a toast and a sen
timent, and whatever was lacking of individual
eloquence was amply made up by the badinage
and banter of his fellows. I have often noticed
that the man whose wit forsakes him absolutely,
and whose tongue becomes paralyzed whenever
he is called upon to stand up and make a
speech, is sure to be a very genius at helping
another post-prandial orator with audible sug
gestions and prompting, the humor of which
cannot fail to penetrate to every corner of
the room. Being the victim on this occasion,
I make the foregoing observation as a defence,
not as an excuse for failure to say something
worthy of the occasion.
When the moon shone with sufficient bright
ness to enable our pilot to direct his course, a
dangerous one requiring the greatest care,
we re-embarked and the " Sam Shui " crept cau
tiously back to the " Ingalls," which was await
ing us at the entrance of the strait, fifteen miles
distant. 119

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We arrived at Laguan, an island of Samar,
about midnight the day following in a heavy
storm. Almost all passengers were miserably
seasick, and when at last daylight dawned, it
revealed as sallow, hollow-eyed, and miserable a
party as ever trod the deck of an army trans
port. At six o'clock we went ashore, where we
were welcomed, not only by the formal line of
soldiers, but by a cohort of another kind.
Drawn up in double row along the landing
place was a throng of some two hundred native
children from the school which the American
Commission has instituted in Laguan. Every
child carried a white flag, and the fluttering of
these peaceful emblems in the hands of the
happy little folk was a greeting and a welcome
not easily to be forgotten and full of "the
promise and potency" of better things than
the eternal clash of arms in every Philippine
town. As we passed through this guard of
honor, a cheerful chorus of childish voices rose
in well-trained unison : " Welcome, welcome,
General Miles, welcome, welcome, General
Miles." This little incident remains in my memory
as one of the pleasantest episodes of our Philip
pine trip, and I shall remember Laguan as the
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place where we were greeted by the chorus of
school-children long after all definite recollection
of the visible features of this dilapidated Nipa
town have passed from my mind.
After leaving Laguan, where we spent only
a few hours, we cruised along the coast, bound
for Legaspi on the island of Luzon.
That afternoon, at about two o'clock, the
" Ingalls," which was running at a moderate
speed, suddenly gave a violent leap, then seemed
to fall back, quivering in every timber. A
moment later we realized that we had run
aground, and that we were high and dry on
one of those hidden coral reefs which render
the approach to the harbor of Legaspi so peri
lous. Upon first examination it appeared that
our position was most grave, and that the only
possible salvation for the transport would be in
the immediate assistance of tugs and lighters.
To our vast relief, however, we soon learned
that the tide was at half-ebb, and that the re
turning tide would probably enable the vessel
to float herself by the aid of her own ma
chinery. This proved to be the case, and, after
several hours' delay, the "Ingalls" resumed her
course unaided. Meanwhile, we made our visit
to Legaspi, going ashore in the ship's launch.
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This town, until recently the fourth city of
the archipelago in size and importance, is a
great centre for the hemp, sugar, rice, and
tobacco interests, and its wonderful though
dangerous harbor, penetrating to the very
heart of the business section of the city, was
constantly thronged with ships.
The recent insurrection, led by one of the
most unprincipled scoundrels who ever received
amnesty from a too lenient federal government
cost Legaspi its commerical prestige and its
metropolitan dignity.
General Pana, a Chinese Mestizo, or half
Chinese, half Filipino, caused the destruction of
the major portion of the city in order to prevent
the Americans from occupying the town. The
place is now practically ruined, and a small de
tachment of United States soldiers, possibly fifty
men, are now stationed at the military post,
doing guard duty over the wreck of a once
prosperous city.
The beautiful suburban village of Albay, built
in the time of the Spanish occupation, is about
three miles from Legaspi. The oyster-shell
road leading to this place, the beautiful scenery
on both sides, and a living volcano in constant
view, the picturesque Nipa huts, the numerous
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carabao working in the fields and pulling
vehicles, gave me one of the most delightful of
all my experiences in the Philippines. We
visited at this village, occupying very high
ground, a monastery which is one of the most
famous in the Orient, and which was the scene
of a lively fusilade at the time of the revo
lution, between the people who opposed the
destruction of the place and the followers of
General Pana. It is purposed to make a per
manent military post at this place.
From Lagaspi certain enterprising newspaper
correspondents cabled to New York, via Manila,
a harrowing tale of the wreck of the "Ingalls" on
a coral reef, and the probable loss of all passen
gers and crew. As our friends were reading
this glowing report in their morning papers at
home, we were speeding away toward Pasacoa,
Luzon, the last objective point on our cruise be
fore our return to Manila, never dreaming of
the awful fate which the Associated Press was
reporting in " sensational extras " in the streets
of New York.
The little village of Pasacoa on the island
of Luzon is so diminutive as to be scarcely
worthy the name of a town. So shallow is
the water here that the " Ingalls " was obliged
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to cast anchor several miles from shore, and
even the small boats which conveyed us land
ward became grounded some hundreds of feet
from the water's edge. Our landing was there
fore made under the most awkward circum
stances, as it was effected in a manner of
primitive crudeness. A stoical old beast of
burden, mule or horse, I cannot be certain
which, was driven out in the shallow water to
our boat, and one by one we took turns astride
his bony back, coming thus ashore. While
some of our party were indulging in this doubt
ful sport, an old Doherty, the only wagon
which the town afforded, conveyed the general
ashore in a manner a trifle less spectacular
but not particularly more comfortable. When
at last we stood high and dry on the sandy
beach, surrounded by the populace of the vil
lage and the neighboring country, we found
ourselves, for the first time in our entire tour
of the Philippine military stations, evidently
unexpected, and unprovided with military es
cort. The news of our intended visit had not
yet been received at the post of Nueva Carre-
ras, fifteen miles distant, and our arrival was
premature. The telephone which connects the
station with the coast town was soon put into
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active service, and the news of our arrival made
known to the garrison. Then we learned that
the recent storms had destroyed the bridges,
and had rendered the roadway from Pasacoa
impassable for horses. It would therefore be
impossible for our party to make the trip by
any means other than sedan-chairs borne on
the stalwart shoulders of sure-footed native
carriers. This news filled the hearts of the villagers
with unconcealed delight, affording promise of
a day of lucrative employment for a large pro
portion of the male element of the population
of Pasacoa. In a trice there appeared half a
score of these picturesque conveyances, swing
ing free on their long flexible handles between
the human horses who beamed in gleeful antici
pation of the job before them.
This was, for most of us, the first sight
of a sedan-chair as an object of actual utility.
And here too, for the only time in my acquaint
ance with General Miles, did I see that resolute
soldier abandon, uncompleted, an enterprise
upon which he had determined.
In vain did the native chairmen beg and
implore him for the honor of being permitted
to carry his excellency in their pendant cars.
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General Miles refused to permit himself to be
carried on the shoulders of a fellow-man.
That element in his moral make-up which has
been so many times the cause of his being mis
interpreted, that inflexible resoluteness which
makes it impossible for the man to make com
promise with what is abhorrent to his ethi
cal sense, — reasonable or unreasonable, —
that attribute of Miles the man asserted itself
with impregnable steadfastness. "I should
be ashamed to look a fellow-man in the face
were I to permit myself to use him first as
a beast of burden." Such was the general's
ultimatum, and to it he stood. Our trip to
the post was abandoned, and we returned
to the " Ingalls," leaving a disappointed and
mystified throng of natives on the beach,
wondering why General Miles would not give
their men the privilege of a good day's
work. The episode impressed me strongly as throw
ing a side-fight on the character of General
Miles, and illuminating certain phases of his
public career and official actions which in an
other man would be inexplicable. Miles is
sometimes open to the charge of " standing so
straight that he leans backward," and many
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of the enemies that he has made for himself
have been made by this same moral earnest
ness misunderstood.
Later, in our travels in China, where the
sedan-chair is the universal mode of convey
ance, and where to employ a beast for any work
which a man could perform, thus robbing labor
of its right to live, would be a crime against the
laws of the land, General Miles unbent from his
stand at Pasacoa. But I never saw him enter
a chair without a look of ill-concealed revulsion
and self-humiliation.
The journey from Pasacoa to Manila was ac
complished in a night, and at half-past nine, on
the morning of November 24th, we anchored
again in Manila harbor. After the quarantine
authorities had pronounced us to be sound and
free from taint of any sickness worse than that
of the sea, we disembarked, and our party again
divided, each member going whither he would
or where his hospitable friends decreed. From
this time until the end of our visit I was the
guest of Governor and Mrs. Taft at the palace
of the Malacannan.
Of all the public functions held in honor of
General Miles and Mrs. Miles, none excelled the
reception at the Army and Navy Club at Manila
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on the evening of November 25th. The illu
mination of the buildings and court, the orches
tral concert, the dinner, the dancing, and the
fraternal good- will which pervaded all, rendered
the occasion more delightful than formal, more
personal than official.
By proclamation of the governor, the last
Thursday of November was made a holiday of
Thanksgiving, and all Manila regaled itself
with turkey dinners and a wholesale feasting,
very much the same as we do in the States.
The race-track furnished a substitute for inter
collegiate football games, and the day was alto
gether delightful. In the morning all church
denominations were invited to take part in the
union services in the Pentecost Tabernacle, a
great public hall. The services were entirely non-
sectarian, and the congregational singing of old
and familiar hymns was one of the most prom
inent features of this meeting. Ministers rep
resenting the Episcopal Church, the Methodist,
and the Baptist were present on the platform and
spoke briefly to the congregation, as did Aglipay
the founder of the proposed Philippine Catholic
Church. In the evening Major and Mrs. Allen gave
an old-fashioned American dinner-party at the
128

- pt-v'-r™.'''.,'^***^ '-?"*"7\ v-r -

Old Spanish Gate, Subig Bay, Luzon

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Bungalow, where we toasted our country and
our friends across the sea.
The twenty-ninth of November was busy
with preparations for our final departure from
the Philippines. From early morning till even
ing we were hurrying about making purchases
and attending to the arrangements for our
baggage and bidding farewell to friends. This
evening Governor and Mrs. Taft gave a beauti
ful dinner at the Malacannan Palace in honor
of the commander of the German warship
" Hertha " at anchor in the bay.
Before midnight, we bade good-bye to Gover
nor and Mrs. Taft, and hurried to meet General
and Mrs. Miles at Estada Major, where we
took the steam launch to the " Ingalls," wait
ing our arrival in the harbor.
Here we were greeted with a " real sur
prise party." A crowd of the younger officers
stationed at Manila, with many ladies, had
taken possession of the decks. We danced,
sang, and made merry until the " wee sma'
hours." After our last guests had departed,
we heard them singing farewell from the small
boats as the "Ingalls" weighed anchor and
headed for Subig Bay.
The terrific havoc wrought by the guns of
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the " Charleston " at Subig Bay is not to be ob
literated in a day, and at the time of our visit
the place bore the aspect of desolation and ruin.
The steel mills and armory upon which the
Spanish forces were so dependent for munitions
of war furnished the principal target for the
American guns, and their fate was little less
than complete annihilation.
The "Ingalls" was never designed as an
ocean-liner destined for service on the open seas.
Nor was the Chinese Sea designed by nature as
a pleasant cruising ground for light-built yacht
like vessels. My recollections of the trip from
Subig Bay to Hong-Kong are not to be enjoyed
with keen relish. The sea alternated between
spells of choppy, rough, and squally ill-temper
and nauseating rolls and undulations in which
there was no poetry and much discomfort.
The " Ingalls " was game, though ill-suited to
the task before her, and she forged steadily
ahead through bad seas, and most of the
time herself a dripping, drenched, and miserable
spectacle. The decks were, of course, unten
able, and life within the confines of the cabin,
ineffectually sealed against the encroachments
of the ocean, was far from pleasant. Few of
our members escaped the agonies of seasick-
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ness, aggravated by the disgusting condition
of being perpetually drenched by the brine
which forced its way into the very cabin. In
this manner we came across the Chinese Sea,
and the second of December we hove to at
Hong-Kong.

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HONG-KONG
THE spectacle which greets the sea-
weary traveller entering the port of
Hong-Kong is marvellous.
The greatness of Britain and the genius of
the Anglo-Saxon are nowhere in the world
more remarkably exemplified than here in the
London of the Orient. Hong-Kong presents
the aspect of a great European city set down
in the ancient land of the Mongolians. The
harbor is thronged with merchant vessels from
all parts of the civilized world, and cruisers
from the navies of half a dozen nations flaunt
their national banners to the wind. The town
itself is noisy with the hurrying feet of busy
thousands, and it echoes with voices speaking
a score of different dialects. Either Sikhs or
Bengals, British East Indians, enlisted soldiers in
the British army, do police duty in native uni
forms of their old campaigns ; along the asphalt
streets sped the jinrikisha men dragging their
fares, with nimble skill and despatch, and
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dodging deftly among the sedan-chairs which
share with them here a monopoly of the
common-carriers industry. Here an imposing
retinue of gorgeous-liveried servants have a
sedan-chair bearing a crest and coronet, and
the rabble gave way for this scion of the
aristocracy. Yonder jinrikisha which spins
along at such a rapid rate, propelled by a
" pusher " behind as well as the " puller " in
front, conveys a noted surgeon on an emer
gency call to the hospital, the short, sharp
cry of his first runner clearing a path through
the crowd of slower-moving passengers upon
the streets.
At the entrance to every hotel and public
place, long rows of jinrikishas and sedan-chairs
stand in wait for the passengers, while their
operators assail every pedestrian with clamor
ous bids for patronage. So steep are the
streets of Hong-Kong that horses and other
quadrupeds of burden are nowhere in use,
the sinews and brawn of human beings furnish
ing the motive power for all conveyances.
The hotel at which we stopped stands almost
directly across the street from the landing place,
and in easy access of the principal points of
interest. The service here was fairly good, and
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our comfort was as complete as it could have
been in the usual European or American hotel.
Shortly after our arrival at Hong-Kong, the
secretary of Sir Alfred Blake, the governor of
the colony, called upon General and Mrs. Miles
at the hotel, and invited our party to " tiffin "
or midday luncheon at the governor's residence,
an invitation which we were most glad to
accept. The state in which Governor Blake was con
veyed through the streets of Hong-Kong was
no less splendid than picturesque. His open
chair was of the most exquisite manufacture,
royal in its elegance. Between the handles,
before and aft, a quartette of Chinese bearers,
huge, powerful giants, resplendent in gorgeous
liveries and moving in perfect unison, ambled
smoothly and swiftly, while every other vehicle
gave the right of way to the governor's con
veyance, as we in America make way for a fire-
engine. The trip to Governor Blake's tiffin gave
me my first experience with the sedan-chair as
a means of conveyance. As I took my seat I
was unable to deny to myself certain qualms of
conscience at the idea of allowing myself, and
I am not a featherweight, to be carried by two
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men, neither of whom appeared to be of physi
cal proportions at all commensurate with my
own. But when I saw how easily their spare,
sinewy limbs straightened themselves to their
task, and how lightly they trotted off, bearing
me like a baby in a baby-jumper, I gave myself
over completely to the enjoyment of the novel
sensation. Along the Queen's Road we swung, where
the shops are gay and beautiful with the
products of the Orient, articles of bronze and
mosaic, of lace and tapestry and silk. The
sandals of our Oriental steeds patted rhythmi
cally on the hard pavements, the muscles of their
lean legs working like a series of tough leather
thongs. We passed within a stone's throw of
the inclined plane railroad which runs from
the lower town to the top of the mountain, the
crest of which is the fashionable residence dis
trict and most comfortable place to live, as it
is cooler in summer, along the sides of which
the city struggles upward, thinning as it rises
higher, like the forests on the sides of the huge
cliffs of the Alps or Sierras. But our chairmen
kept to the winding road, steep and precipitous,
which creeps serpent-like up to the mountain
slope. And thus we came to the residence of
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Governor Blake, a veritable Italian villa, nest
ling on the side of the mountain and overlook
ing the most magnificent harbor-view in all
the world. Spreading out before us like a
vast panorama lay the harbor of Hong-Kong,
sheltering a myriad of ships which rode lazily
at anchor or moved, swan-like, in and out
the bay. Nearer, at our feet, the British city
crowded to the very water's edge, substantial,
dignified. At one side of this scene, the ancient
Chinese settlement, dense, intricate, with quaint
peaked roofs, lay basking in the sunlight, while
the hills and green glades furnished the fairest
conceivable setting for the picture.
Our reception at the home of Governor
Blake was most delightful. Lady Blake and
her daughters welcomed our party with the
hospitable graciousness which distinguishes the
ladies of England everywhere.
Returning to the hotel that evening we again
commented upon the evident transcendency of
the United Kingdom as the colonizing nation
of the world. For after all, the greatest thing
about Hong-Kong is not that it is rich or large
or beautiful, but that, even though it stands
within one hundred miles of Canton, the city
of horrors, it is English to the core.
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On the second day of our brief visit at Hong-
Kong, Admiral Robley Evans, " Fighting Bob,"
as he is familiarly dubbed by his admirers,
called upon General Miles, extending the greet
ings of our naval forces in the Orient to the
representative of the army.

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HONG-KONG TO CANTON
A BRITISH steamship company operates
a line of boats which ply daily between
Hong-Kong and Canton, a ten-hour
run up the Pearl River. On the evening of
December 4th, our pilgrim band took quarters
in the cabin of one of these huge steamboats
for the ninety-mile side-trip, a journey which
was destined to reveal to us a condition of
horror and of brutal degradation such as were
inconceivable to one who has not penetrated
into the China of the Chinese.
The cabin accommodations of this vessel were
excellent, and its provisions for our comfort
were lacking in no essential ; but on the lower
deck a horde of gibbering Mongolians made
night hideous. Hundreds of these yellow-
skinned Orientals were crowded into the con
fines of an area reserved for their race, where
there was neither bed, nor chair, nor any ap
pointment for comfort or for rest other than
the bare floor. So numerous were the passen-
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gers here that, moving about as they did, they
appeared as a great swarming mass of animals
caged for shipment to stockyard or place of
slaughter. Those who would sleep, crouched
upon the floor as best they could, or leaned
against the railing, snatching what slumber
they might from the babel about them. Every
boat from Canton to Hong-Kong, or the reverse,
bears its squalid horde of Chinamen, dirty,
stoical, and ugly, and this flux and reflux of
a human tide goes on from day to day, and
from year's end to year's end. The quarters
reserved for the white passengers are a precinct
inviolate for the Mongol, and to which no
wealth of native merchant can buy access as
long as his skin remains yellow and his eyes
three-cornered. With a traveller's curiosity, I endeavored to
find my way to the Chinese deck, to observe
what was to be seen of the Celestial in his own
preserves. When I found the doorway leading
to this department of the boat, it was securely
bolted, and an officer politely informed me that
under no circumstances could any person other
than a Chinese be admitted to the lower deck.
The regulation is not only a matter of con
venience in the conduct of the vessel, but, as
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I soon learned, a necessary regulation. So
keen is the Chinese hatred for the foreign
devils that no one whose skin or whose garb
proclaims an origin other than that of China
is ever safe, when unprotected, amidst a throng
of these fanatics.
Our state-rooms were clean and comfortable,
and sleep was not hard to woo that night. But
before daybreak I was startled by a very pan
demonium of noises, shrill, eager, and excited,
which seemed to be rising from the river, and
mingling with the re-awakening confusion of
the lower deck. Then, though unable to see
anything from my berth, and though our boat
was still in motion, I felt, somehow, inexpli
cably convinced that there was commotion in
our boat, and that people were hurrying on
and off the vessel. Hurriedly dressing, I ran
out on deck and looked down upon a scene the
like of which I had never beheld before, and I
probably shall never look upon again. We
were moving slowly toward our dock in the
ancient city of Canton. Upon the misty gray
surface of the Pearl River about our boat surged
and swarmed a myriad of quaint-hooded row-
boats, — sampans, as they are called by the
natives. So numerous was the host that it
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was impossible to even hazard a guess at their
number. The river was black with them, and
our boat was obliged to proceed with the
utmost caution, creeping among them like a
captive in order not to submerge some of them
at every turn of her paddle. These ungainly
craft vied with one another in eager efforts to
secure places of vantage at the very edge of
our boat, their proprietors struggling and crowd
ing, jabbering (doubtless profanely), making
bargains with passengers on the Chinese deck
to haul freight or luggage to destinations at
other points along the river front from the
landing place. So keen was this cut-throat com
petition for business that now and again, as
opportunity presented, some raw-boned biped
of unspeakable ugliness would clamber from his
sampan onto the very deck of the steamer,
seizing and endeavoring to transfer to his own
small craft such baggage as he could convince
the passenger would be best delivered by his
trusty transfer boat. The babel of tongues, the
noises of shifting heavy boxes and bales, the
impact of boat against boat, sampan against
sampan, all combined to make a medley of
discord, — a veritable open box of Pandora.
It is estimated that between fifty thousand
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and sixty thousand people live in these sam
pans on the river at Canton, many of whom
are born there, live there, and die there, without
so much as ever penetrating farther than a
stone's throw from the shore. How it is possi
ble for human life to be sustained in such en
vironment, cramped, filthy, damp, unstable, it
is difficult to comprehend. But all China is a
mystery, — a horrible, ugly, pestilent, stinking,
polluted cesspool of misery, and yet a mystery
more baffling than the riddle of the Sphinx.
Upon our arrival at the crowded landing
place, we were met by United States Vice-Con
sul Langhorn, with chairs and bearers for our
entire party. Taking our places in the bamboo
sedans, we set out for a day of sight-seeing.
The congested condition of the populace on
the river was no whit less dense in the city
proper. The streets are so narrow that two
chairs can pass each other only with the great
est difficulty, both parties hugging as close
as possible against the dirty house fronts which
wall the labyrinthian maze. From every door
way, from every window, and at the entrance
to every alley, swarms of Mongolians scowl
upon us, abusing the " foreign devils," and
cursing them in the name of every god and
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demon in the celestial hierarchy. Every few
paces some ill-favored Chinese, more bold and
defiant than his fellows, spits at us, with ugly
grimaces and gestures of hatred and contempt,
while his admirers jabber and gesticulate
approval. Over the threshold of every door, or safe
within the squalid shelter of the vestibule,
stands the household shrine, sacred to the spirits
of departed ancestors and propitious to the gods
of the family, inviolate to the evil spells of
demons, fiends, and spirits of darkness. At
every shrine burns the undying flame of sacri
ficial offering, — a tiny flickering lamp which
is never permitted to go out.
The odors which assail our nostrils as we
pass along the canyon-like streets are nauseating
with composite elements of filth and food, of
merchandise and incense, opium, gin, and the
offal of chickens and domestic animals. Evi
dences of disease and scourge, of the ravages of
small-pox and a hundred kindred plagues which
flourish where there is no cleanliness, shock us
at every turn and make us recoil from their
revolting ravages. In Canton, human life seems
to be held in little more esteem than the lives of
dogs and cats. The body of -a pauper or of an
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executed criminal is carrion. The flesh of rats
and dogs may be utilized for human food. An
exhibition of the horror of Chinese civilization
was revealed to us as we passed along the main
street of Canton.
Drawing near a little court or area which
opens off a market-place in the very business
heart of the city, we were disgusted at the odor
of blood which at this place added its redolence
to the omnipresent " slum smell " of the city.
A moment later our guides were walking on
the pavement literally flooded with blood, and
at the entrance to the little court-yard we saw
two tarpaulins spread over heaps of oozing car
rion. With no less concern than if he were
uncovering a side of beef in the market stall,
one of our guides lifted the cover off the car
casses, and, to the horror of those who looked, a
human head, dislodged from the pile of which
it was but a unit, rolled down and on to the
open pavement.
The gruesome sight was enough to unnerve
a ghoul, but the wholesale slaughter which
these screens concealed was almost incredible
to those of us who looked, and with our own eyes
counted twenty-two cadavers in one heap and
their severed heads in another.
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Only a few hours before our arrival these
wretches had been led out into the public square,
their hands tied behind their backs, and, kneel
ing down in attitude of prayer, had bowed their
necks for the keen edge of the sword of the
executioner. All criminals at Canton are exe
cuted publicly, and the mode of dealing out death
is made as horrible as possible on the old old
theory that example of torture and mutilation
will act as a deterrent of crime. But the fiend
ish atrocities practised upon the law-breakers,
" slicing," or gradual dismemberment of the
living, choking, flaying alive, beating to death,
and the many other forms of torture ingenious
in its fiendishness of conception, seem only to
inure the populace to the sight of horrors, and to
make public executions occasions of excitement
and thrilling entertainment for the curious and
idle. The crowds which pause in their course
along the streets to witness the torture of a river
pirate or the " slicing "of a woman who has
killed her husband in an opium-crazed orgy, make
comments on the " gameness " of the victim or
wager bets as to whether death will come with
out eliciting a groan or a wince from the tor
tured. The horrible butchery completed, the
headsmen cover their carnage with canvas or
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straw-matting, sprinkle sawdust or dry rushes
on the weltering pavements, and leave the scenes
of their morning's work with as little concern
as a butcher manifests in the contemplation of
a day's product. Within the next twenty-four
hours the scavengers will haul away the cadavers
for burial, and the sun complete the work
of cleaning the streets. The crowds will dis
perse, and no more attention be drawn to that
awful mass beneath the canvas covers than
a passing glance.
A Chinaman meets death with the same
nerveless stoicism with which he accepts all
the experiences of life, and bows his head to
the sword with no show of emotion, trusting in
his bravery to secure easy admittance to Heaven
for his soul. The dread of having his members
scattered after death is more terrible than the
idea of death itself, for to awaken on the day
of resurrection with another man's head on
one's shoulders would cause perpetual damna
tion in the after world. So firm is this belief
in the minds of the Chinese that the relatives
of the condemned often bribe the officials for
the privilege of keeping together the head and
body of their kinsman, to secure safe entrance
to the company of departed ancestors. The
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tortures of those condemned to slow death are
also often lessened by the use of money, the
executioner either drugging the condemned or
secretly administering a fatal thrust before
proceeding with his dreadful task of torture.
Only a few blocks from the scene of this
awful carnage we passed almost under the
shadow of a " garrote," the ghastly face and
lifeless body of another " example " still in the
machine, placarded with a bulletin giving the
name of the wretch and a history of his crime,
together with an admonition to the public to
take example from this man lest his fate be
meted out to others for like offences.
Every turn of the street led us from that
which was incredibly horrible to that which
was unutterably worse.
Every face which peered at us seemed like
the memory of these " things " we had just
looked upon. All the vile smells of Canton,
to our excited olfactory nerves, savored of fresh-
spilled blood, and our eyes shrank from looking
too close at any object not understood at first
glance, for fear of gazing again on some new
evidence of the majesty of Chinese law.
Needless to add, we declined a pressing in
vitation from some local dignitaries to witness
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the public " slicing " of a woman, an incident
which was scheduled for the following day.
When I had started on this trip to Canton it
was with the expectation of enjoying a treat in
the Chinese shops, and perhaps tasting some
delicacies in the line of Chinese confections,
Canton ginger, or other world's-famous luxury.
But the longer we tarried in this " City of
Horrors," the less desire I had for sampling
any morsel of food which could be produced in
the foul atmosphere of Canton. Fortunately
for us, we had come from the ship prepared
with provisions for our brief visit.
By special arrangements with the officers of
the steamboat company, a couple of waiters
and an ample luncheon of cold meats, sand
wiches, olives, crackers, and the like, and
particularly a supply of sparkling table water,
had been sent ahead to await our arrival at
the Five-Storied Pagoda, a huge structure
forming one of the ancient citadels upon the
colossal city wall. This pagoda, about one
hundred and twenty-five feet in height, an
elaborate affair of many rooms and chambers,
occupies a high position from which one may
obtain a panoramic view of Canton and its
environs. The building was evidently, at one
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time, a redoubt of great importance, and even
to-day, after a period of disuse extending back
perhaps a hundred years, it retains a certain
air of majestic force, a dignity in ruins. The
place is preserved without repairs from year to
year, but evidently swept out on occasions
such as that of our visit by the care-taker
who dwells there with his ample family.
Hither we repaired to partake of the viands
provided from the ship, and here we had hoped
to be, for a few minutes at least, out of the
sight of the heathen rabble and relieved from
the conglomerate odors which scent the air
wherever a group of Cantonese come together.
Our calculations were amiss. The excite
ment attendant upon our visit, and the native
curiosity of the rabble to follow every move
ment of the " foreigners," forestalled any
attempt on our part to be freed, even for a
short time, from the scrutiny of prying eyes.
As we sat down to luncheon, at least a hundred
Chinese, mostly children of both sexes and of
all ages, edged into the room which had been
reserved for us, and stood, wide-eyed and open-
mouthed, to see us eat. We felt like a lot of
animals in a menagerie, being fed for the
edification of the crowds. They laughed and
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chattered at our peculiar and barbaric manners,
and seemed greatly entertained at the manner
in which we performed for their especial bene
fit. From their expressions we might have
imagined that we had furnished them with an
hour's amusement almost as interesting as
an execution.
As we took our way back to the boat that
evening I was conscious of a composite emotion
in which the elements of disgust, pity, contempt,
horror, and revulsion united, producing a feel
ing of eagerness to get away from Canton and
all that it contains. The excitement which
one feels in this " Hell on earth " is like the
delirium of a nightmare, — a sense of loneli
ness and vague, ill-defined fear. It seems to
me that all the wealth of China and all the
treasures of the Orient could not tempt me to
live ten years in Canton.
The " French Concession " is the section ex
clusively dedicated to the foreign legations.
Even this place, apparently serene and peace
ful, is like a city built upon the side of a
volcanic mountain, which, preliminary to the
terrible eruption which must some day be let
loose, belches forth poisonous gases, while its
whole frame shakes with occasional convul-
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sions. The French Concession is guarded day
and night by squads of armed soldiers, a,nd the
Chinese are forbidden to trespass in this reser
vation. But a handful of soldiers at the lega
tion would avail against a horde of Boxers,
frantic and thirsty for the blood of the foreign
ers, about as much as a bucket of water would
serve to extinguish the fires of Mount Pelee.
When the storm of revolution breaks over
China, as break it must, soon or late, the
French Revolution will pale into nothingness,
and the " Reign of Terror " will seem a mere
historic pleasantry.
Glad indeed were we to set foot once more
on the clean pavements of Hong-Kong, to
go to our hotel and there to revel in the luxury
of the bath. It seemed to me that my whole
body was stained and polluted by the very
atmosphere of Canton. Like Lady Macbeth,
I felt that " all the multitudinous seas " could
not cleanse me of the stain of Canton.

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JAPAN
THE journey from Hong-Kong to Naga
saki occupied five days, — days of
rough seas, cold skies, and rain. Every
league in our northward course was colder and
more bleak than its predecessor, and about the
only form of amusement indulged in aboard the
" Ingalls " on this trip was an occasional prome
nade on deck between spells of seasickness. One
member of our party, ashamed to acknowledge
being seasick, insisted that it was the smell
of Canton, thoroughly absorbed into his system,
which was the cause of his extreme nausea.
This pleasantry was the only joke made by any
member of our company on the trip to Japan.
Arriving at Nagasaki on December the ninth,
we were charmed with the neatness and cleanli
ness of the city. After our glimpse of Canton,
and the week of rough weather aboard the
"Ingalls," Nagasaki seemed to us a veritable
paradise. However, we did not tarry long
here, but, after a few hours of sight-seeing, we
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Bumboats, Nagasaki

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re-embarked and set out for Kobe, our course
being over the Inland Sea of Japan, one of the
most lovely and idyllic cruises in the world.
Steaming over this placid sheet of clear water,
we glided past a myriad of little islands, ver
dant to the water's brim and picturesque beyond
description. The shores of this inland sea rise
somewhat precipitately from the water's edge,
and the hillsides are cultivated from base to
summit. The skill and perseverance of the
gardener are rewarded by the productivity of
these gardens, and the work thus performed
for purposes of utility bears amplest recom
pense in beauty of landscape effect, — it is the
usefulness of the ideal and the idealization of
the useful.
At Kobe we took final leave of the " Ingalls,"
and, by way of recognition of the courtesies
extended us by her captain, our company pre
sented that officer with a beautiful sword, —
the product of Chinese skill and art in metal
work. Here we took a train for Yokohama, and, as
night was already upon us, we retired at once
to our berths in the sleeping-car and slept
through the night as we sped away to the
principal commercial city of Japan. The Grand
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Hotel at Yokohama is conducted by an Amer
ican, and is managed with all the liberal progres-
siveness of an up-to-date hostelry.
The charm which Yokohama holds out to
the tourist is not so much that of commercial
interest, though the industrial activities of Japan
may be said, in a sense, to come to a focus here.
The quaint picturesqueness of the town, the
immaculate cleanliness of the streets, of shops
and of people, the delicate coloring which
appeals to the eye with subtle magic, the
strenuous activity of the Occident reforming
the civilization of the Orient, — all these ele
ments enter into the composite impression
which the mind retains of Yokohama.
Here we visited the shops and bazaars, fascina
ting with their stocks of bronzes, mosaics, silks,
and delicate embroideries. Exquisite china-
ware, transparent and thin as egg-shells, spices,
tea, the pervasive aroma of which defies the
skill of the packer, and a thousand articles of
bric-a-brac and ivory tempt the sight-seer tp
extravagance. In some of the shops, American-
made articles of celluloid and imitation tortoise-
shell are arranged in deceitful and confusing
promiscuousness among articles of genuine
Japanese work. Many a rare souvenir of old
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Japan has its origin in America, whence it is
shipped to Yokohama, there to be stamped with
Japanese label, and re-shipped to the States and
to other countries, — a counterfeit pure and
simple, deriving a large part of its commercial
value from its brief sojourn in Japan.
One of the most interesting and beautiful
entertainments which I ever enjoyed was a
" Geisha Girls' Dance " at the " House at the
Top of the Hundred Steps."
A part of the city of Yokohama is hilly, and
this place of entertainment and many of the
fine residences of the city are located in pict
uresque spots on the sides or at the crests of
these hills.
The management of the hotel makes a spe
cialty of providing for the entertainment of
tourist guests, furnishing jinrikishas or chairs,
and conveying the visitors to the most unique
places of native entertainment, attending to all
the details, and thereby securing for their guests
the utmost enjoyment without any of the cares
of an evening's outing.
Although there is a good road circuitously
winding up to the " Geisha Girls' House," the
" Hundred Steps " furnishes a short and direct
approach from the lower level of the city,
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and adds a touch of the picturesque to the
scene. Entering our sedan-chairs at the hotel door
after night had fairly settled down over the
town, we were treated to a vision of delicate
loveliness, more like a panoramic festival than
a street scene of a metropolitan town. The
moon spread her silvery radiance in generous
profusion over the quiet city. No gaslight
flickered from iron lamp-posts and no electric
bulbs or sputtering arc-lights blinded the eyes ;
but over the doorways of many houses gay
paper lanterns with waxen candles or tiny oil
cups with floating wicks glowed, many-colored,
soft, and beautiful. Swinging from the poles of
sedan-chairs and jinrikishas, hundreds of these
mellow beacons flittered hither and thither
in unending mazes, like will-o'-the-wisps.
With our dim lanterns glowing before us, we
mingled in the throng and our carriers were
soon climbing the " Hundred Steps of the Geisha
Girls." At the door of this low rambling house, a
place more like a large private residence than
a public resort, we were met by the mistress
of the place, an elderly little woman who con
ducts the establishment here and seems to act
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both as hostess and as chaperon over the dainty
maidens whose grace and beauty have made
them great favorites among the fashionable
society of Yokohama, and whose reputations are
not tarnished by as much as a breath of scandal
or ill-report.
Following our hostess into a large, bare room,
the only furnishings in which consisted of a
few ornate screens and some straw-mattings of
delicate pattern, our party seated themselves
Oriental fashion on the floor at one side of the
room. From behind an elaborately patterned
screen, the dainty, slender figure of a girl
attired in a flowing robe of exquisite delicacy,
bearing a tray with cups of aromatic tea, which,
with the grace of a goddess, she proffered to each
of us in turn. As we sipped from these fragile
cups of china, four or five other maidens, in
quaint procession, entered the room and seated
themselves with ineffable grace on the floor
opposite to where we sat, first saluting us with
courtesy and smile which revealed glimpses of
pearly teeth and rosy lips. Presently one of
these girls began to sing or chant in somewhat
nasal accents with a weird rhythmic monotone.
Her companions, joining their voices with hers
at intervals, furnished a chorus, while she bore
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the refrain. As they chanted, a group of
Geisha girls entered, straight as rods of bam
boo, yet lithe and supple, with an angular grace
native to the women of Japan and inimitable
by those of any other race. Now one, now two
or three, now all in unison, they tread with
stately dignity and fascinating grace the mazes
of a pantomime tableau, their poses and their
movements depicting visually the incidents nar
rated by the singers. In this way, although we
were unable to understand one word of what
was sung, we were charmed by the beauty and
the chaste delicacy of these living pictures of
the Orient. One might naturally imagine that
a performance of this kind, representing a legend
or a story of which we had no knowledge, and in
which there was no incident of excitement or
surprise of plot would soon become monotonous
and wearisome. But the range of figure of the
minuet and the exquisite grace and beauty of
every movement held our attention with a fas
cination not unlike that of music to which one
can give no words, but which stirs the emotions
and fires the imagination.
At intervals throughout the performance, our
dainty waitress, assisted now and again by other
silken-robed attendants, tempted us with deli-
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cacies. The tiny cups of tea, the diminutive
service of sake, choice morsels of delicate cake,
candies and sugared fruits, and an occasional
cigarette, regaled us and bade defiance to the
thought of indigestion.
So pretty was the entertainment, so dainty
and quaint and odd the whole incident, that I
cannot but regret that the briefness of our
visit precluded the possibility of attending the
theatres, several of which flourish at Yoko
hama. The unique and distinctly Japanese
character of the performance at the " House at
the Top of the Hundred Steps " gave me an in
sight into a custom, purely national in charac
ter and of a beauty and a charm not easily to
be forgotten.
With Yokohama as our headquarters, we
made several short visits to Tokio, the capital
of the empire, which is kept in communication
with Yokohama by the local railroad trains
running at frequent intervals throughout the
day. Though Tokio is a very large, busy city,
possessing scores of places of interest to the
tourist, the residence of the Mikado, with its
ample and luxurious grounds and gardens, is
by far the most conspicuous of these. In this
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city too the foreign embassies and public build
ings are remarkably interesting and attractive,
while the many temples sacred to the rehgion
of Buddha or to the gods of Shintoism attract
the attention of the sight-seer. Here a grand
parade and drill of royal Japanese troops was
held in honor of General Miles.
But Tokio in mid-winter is not a pleasant
place to dally in. Too late for the chrysan
themums and too early for the cherry blos
soms, the December visitor shivers in the chilly
air. He who would see the most purely Japanese
civilization and life should visit Kyoto, the
ancient city into which the influence of Europe
and the modern age has scarcely penetrated.
Here Japanese life is found in native simplicity.
On the streets of Kyoto the garb of Europeans,
during the winter season, is seldom seen, and
we found ourselves as much objects of curiosity
to the people here as they were to us. Here,
too, the childlike ways and simple-hearted
innocence of the Japanese is evidenced on
every hand. Though not so inquisitive as the
peasantry of rural Japan, who follow the
foreign tourist even to his bedroom, and stare
with open-eyed wonder at his strange manner
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of undressing or of lying down to sleep, the
people of Kyoto stare us out of countenance,
as with unblushing curiosity they examine the
texture of our clothmg and comment upon our
uncouth appearance.
But, excepting this apparent incivility, which
springs from the simplicity of their hearts and
the untaught frankness of their natures, the
Japanese of Kyoto, like those of interior Japan,
are the most courteous, deferential, and polite
people on the face of the earth.
The jinrikisha man bows and salaams with
profuse deference, soliciting the privilege of
hauling us in his two-wheeled car. With over
whelming expressions of gratitude he accepts
the trifling fee which rewards his toil, and if
the generous passenger chooses to add a penny
to the fare prescribed by law for the distance
traversed, extravagant are the manifestations
of his simple delight and gratitude.
The glory of Kyoto is the temples which lift
their graceful forms in silent evidence of the
fervor of the faithful. Here the imagination
of the "flowery kingdom" has worked with
unhampered freedom. Statues of the gracious
gods, the givers of health and of life and of
sunshine, the patrons of industry, the protectors
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of the home and bestowers of offspring, occupy
exalted positions in the temples and at the
gateways opening thereto. Mingling among
these propitious saints are monstrosities of the
sculptor's shaping, grim, ugly, misformed images
of wood or stone, erected in placation of the
demons of disease and blight. Here and there
the fat paunch of a grotesque image is rubbed
to a polish by the hands of suppliants, seeking
by such devout observance to be freed of the
torments of aching stomachs or the acute pangs
of indigestion. Other graven shapes appear
with ear, or nose, or toe rubbed completely off
by suffering mortals in efforts to obtain relief
from the "ills that flesh is heir to."
"The Temple of the Thousand Buddhas,"
" Rengeoin," as it is called, is one of the
wonders of the Orient. The following legend
is a translation of the inscription engraved over
the portals of this vast temple :
" RENGEOIN."
In the first year of the period Chosho (seven
hundred and seventy-two years ago), in the
reign of Shutoka Tenno, Toba-no-mikado, after
he abdicated the imperial throne, founded this
temple, with one thousand and one statues of
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Ewannon, having eleven faces, and called it
Toku-chozuin. After thirty-two years, the retired Emperor
Goshirakawa doubled the size of the temple,
and placed one thousand and one statues of one
thousand hundred Ewannon, naming it Shin-
sen-judo or Sanju-Sangendo (thirty-three-rooms
temple). The whole was called Bengeoin.
In the reign of Gofukakusa-up-Sumeragi
(emperor), in October of the second year of
Hoji period (six himdred and fifty-five years
ago), the entire building burned.
In the third year of the period Bunyei (six
hundred and twenty-seven years ago), in the
reign of Kamayama Tenno, the temple was
rebuilt. The middle statue was made by
Oyokei and twenty-eight disciples and one
thousand Buddhas by Kokei, Hogen, Unkel,
and Hokkyo.
Returning to Nagasaki which, on the occasion
of our first visit, had appeared to our eyes to
be a very ideal of picturesqueness, we found
that the city had lost its charm. The glimpses
of the beauty and splendor of inland Japan had
so captivated us that, in comparison, Nagasaki
seemed a mere hybrid term, ordinary, uninter
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While we tarried here before our departure
for Port Arthur, the United States transport
" Logan," returning to America with a throng
of soldiers whose period of enlistment had
expired, stopped at Nagasaki, the last land
ing before setting out on her long run across
the seas. But the soldier released from the
restraints of martial regulations is likely to
shake off many of the restraints of civilization,
and to lapse, for a time at least, into the wild
ness of the brute. The drunken, carousing
mob of savages who ran riot in Nagasaki that
twenty-first day of December did not thrill me
with the pride which the sight of returning
veterans should awaken in the breast of patri
otic Americans. Such a spectacle as this tends
only to lower our nation in the estimation of
the Eastern peoples, annulling in some degree
the good influences which we strive so pain
fully to carry into foreign climes.
One cannot view such episodes as these with
out being impressed with the desirability of
"mustering out" our soldiers as individuals,
and only after returning them to their own
home towns. Then, and then only, can the
dignity and the honor of the national uniform
be preserved. 164

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PORT ARTHUR
THE Russian steamship " Argon," an im
mense combination freight and passen
ger boat, was loaded to the guards
with a mixed cargo, consisting of merchandise
and men of many nations, when we took our
places aboard her for the trip across the Yellow
Sea. We who, only a few weeks before, had
been sweltering in the tropic heat of the Phil
ippines, then wearing only the thinnest and
coolest garments of white cotton duck, now
shivered in our furs and mufflers as the keen
air of the northern winter nipped and pinched
us, and the hoar frost spread patches of gossa
mer lining where our breath touched at edges
of upturned collars. The Yellow Sea was cold
as the Arctic zone, but placid and smooth,
rendering the passage within the cabins far
from unpleasant.
The lower deck of the "Argon," like that of
the steamboat from Hong-Kong to Canton, was
reserved for Chinese, some five hundred of
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whom were herded here under the general
supervision of a Russian contractor's superin
tendent, who was conveying them to Port
Arthur to labor on some great engineering
undertaking. Sometime early in the morning
of our second day out, two of these yellow
giants became involved in a quarrel, and with
characteristic savagery they were proceeding
to settle their differences after the manner of
primitive man. The rest of the men, drawn
on by the excitement, formed into two great
factions, madly preparing to back up the brawl
of their champions in a free-for-all fight. At
this juncture, the ship's officers appeared on the
scene, and, with nautical despatch, put an end
to the row, placing the belligerents under arrest.
Amidst the greatest excitement the culprits
were led out onto the very bow of the vessel,
their pigtails were braided together, and their
muscular bodies lashed back to back. In this
manner, with no other covering than their coarse
working clothes, the wretches were tied securely
to a capstan and left in the icy gale, which stung
and cut like the lashes of a hundred whips as
the "Argon" ploughed her way through the
winter sea, dashing high a frigid spray.
The culprits stormed and cursed and threat-
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ened ten thousand vengeances as they were
left here to have the badness frozen out of them,
and the black scowls of the rabble on the deck
boded ill for any officer whose firmness might
waver for a moment or whose discipline might
be tempered by the promptings of pity. But,
as the hours dragged heavily along, and the res
olute stand of the ship's officers showed no signs
of faltering, the wretched creatures at the bow
of the vessel ceased to swear and threaten. As
the savage blasts of the winter gale pierced
like daggers, bhnding their eyes and bringing
a purple hue to their tawny skins, nature gave
way, and the savage spirit was broken and
cowed. Railings and curses gave way to
prayers and supplications, and finally, the last
humiliation of the Mongol, the prayer for
mercy, was coupled with promises of future
good conduct. Meantime, the example of their
heroes, ignominiously lashed to the spar, worked
a wonderful change of heart among the
coolies who had been threatening mutiny. All
evidences of bravado disappeared and the China
men were like a lot of caged beasts, cowed by
their keepers. It was a vast relief to us all,
when, after a seemingly interminable period of
chastisement, the wretches were released from
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their bondage, and, half dead with the awful
cold, were returned to their places in the hold.
The episode was shocking to us all, but in
General Miles it called up all the wrath and
indignation of which his nature is capable. The
savagery and brutality of it all he declared an
outrage against humanity. But Miles was
here only a passenger, and not the commanding
officer in charge of the vessel, and his indigna
tion was equalled only by his helpnessness to
interfere. Arriving at Port Arthur on December 24th,
we were met by the representative of the
great Russian Admiral Alexieff, the " Pooh
Bah " of the vast Russian interests in the ter
ritory tributary to Port Arthur.
In the name of the Czar they welcomed the
general of the United States army, and his
staff officers, to the hospitality of all the Rus-
sias, placing at his service whatever accommoda
tions the army or navy or the railways of the
Czar could furnish. While included in the gen
eral invitation to Russian hospitality, the civilian
and unofficial members of General Miles' party
were not included in the regal honors shown to
our leader, nor in the list of guests at the admi
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We tarried at Port Arthur only part of a day,
and in the afternoon we embarked on the " Zed,"
a small Russian steamer put at our disposal, and
carrying no cargo or passengers other than our
small party and the vessel's crew. A warship of
the Russian navy had been prepared, but this
we were obliged to decline, owing to the fact that
it had no accommodations for the ladies of our
party. Christmas Eve, 1902, I shall never forget.
Scarce had the " Zed " left Port Arthur for
Ching Wang Tao, across the Gulf of Pechili,
when a terrific storm arose, lashing the sea into
a seething, boiling mass, white-capped and run
ning mountain high. The vessel, carrying no
freight, rode high, and as she rolled from crest
of wave to deep valley between walls of water,
her screw worked to little or no avail, being more
than half the time above the surface of the water.
The gale increased in ferocity, and the " Zed,"
creaking and groaning, labored hard, straining
every muscle of steel in the battle with the ele
ments. Every gale which beat upon us seemed to
threaten destruction, and in the vertiginous whirl
of waters we were turned about like a basket of
chips. But steadily the " Zed " gained headway
over the pathless waste. At one point on this
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course, beset by perils in the fairest weather, a
great lighthouse, standing solitary on its rocky
foundation, casts its warning beacon rays far out
over the water. To the traveller on calm seas,
this light is an object of interest, seen for a few
minutes, only to be lost from sight in a few rev
olutions of the vessel's propeller. For three
hours the " Zed " wrestled with the storm god
almost within the circle of light which beamed
from this lonely sentinel of the deep. Boreas
seemed determined that we should not pass the
perilous shoals of the lighthouse. But the
plucky little ship, like a pygmy grappling with
a giant, struggled valiantly against the storm,
and finally we realized that we had passed the
light, and the danger of being too close to shore,
and were steadily advancing in the face of the
wind. To illustrate again the fierceness of that
storm which raged upon the Gulf of Pechili
that Christmas Eve, the memorandum from the
captain's log is interesting. When we had been
six hours from Port Arthur we had covered
only two hours' distance from our starting
place, and the storm was just beginning.
Though the winds abated and the waves re
ceded somewhat toward the end of the journey,
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we were twenty-four hours in effectmg the
crossing, — a trip usually made in seven hours,
— and Christmas day was well advanced when
the " Zed," storm-beaten but victorious, hove to
at Ching Wang Tao.

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CHING WANG TAO TO PEKIN
THE train which was to have conveyed
us from Ching Wang Tao to Pekin
had long since left the station when
the " Zed " arrived, but the " Emperor's car,"
the private railway coach of the emperor of
China, was awaiting us, equipped with every ap
pointment which Chinese railroad facilities and
ideas could add to the comfort of travel. With
this royal coach as headquarters, and with a
guard of imperial Chinese troops stationed at
respectful distance, General Miles and his party
spent the remaining hours of Christmas day
and Christmas night awaiting the arrival of
the train.
Time did not move on leaden wings, how
ever, and our little stay at Ching Wang Tao
was eventful and interesting.
Wherever there are great enterprises to be
carried on there will be found Americans. One
of the first voices to greet us as we left the
"Zed" had the true ring of Yankee accents,
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as a genial-looking, energetic man stepped
familiarly up to Mr. Rouse, one of the civilian
members of the party, extending his hand in
unfeigned pleasure at the meeting. Mr. Rouse
recognized in the hospitable apparition a man
formerly employed by the M. K. & T. Rail
road, of which he is the president. Mr. Brady,
for such was the stranger's name, had left the
M. K. & T. some years previous, to accept a
position in the Orient, and here we found him,
the general superintendent of the British rail
road system of China.
After the relief of Pekin by the troops of the
allied nations, at the time of the Boxer Insur
rection, the forces of the various powers that
were engaged in that famous crusade were
gradually withdrawn from the imperial city,
but small detachments were left at Ching
Wang Tao to be held in readiness for any
possible repetition of the Boxer outrages, pend
ing the final settlement of the Chinese claim.
At the time of our visit, the camp of the
alhes was the scene of a Christmas celebra
tion among the men as well as among
the officers. The visit of General Miles was
made the occasion of a very graceful and for
mal exchange of greetings of good-will among
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the nations represented. During the afternoon,
officers from the camps of six of the great
nations of the world called upon the command
ing officer of the United States while he was
still on board the steamship " Zed," lying
at the wharf. The spectacle was unique and
interesting. With stately dignity and attired
in full-dress uniforms, gorgeous in gold lace
and bedecked with badges of honor and insignia
of rank, the officers extended to the representa
tive of the United States army the salutation
of their respective sovereigns. The Tricolor of
France, the Crown and Eagle of Germany, the
Lion of Great Britain, the Royal Arms of Italy,
the Imperial Checkerboard of Japan, and the
Double Eagle of Russia fluttered in the winter
wind as the Chinese troops, in formal line,
stood at attention while dignitaries of the
nations filed between them to salute the Stars
and Stripes, waving beside the Great Dragon of
China. In the evening, General Miles and staff
returned these calls, and were the recipients of
more courtesies from the officers of the allied
forces. Mr. Rouse and the writer started out to see
what we could of interest in the curious little
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town of Ching Wang Tao, and to discover, if
possible, some quiet tavern where we could eat
our Christmas supper and toast our beloved
ones at home. To our amazement and our
great delight, we chanced upon a little German
inn which looked as if it had been imported to
this Oriental frontier port from some quiet
corner of old Heidelberg or Berlin. No people
in the world keep Christmas with more devoted
fidelity than the Germans ; and when we had
taken our places at a little table, and called
for supper, a waiter, with beaming smiles and
Christmas greeting, set down in the middle of
our table a tiny " Weinachtbaum," gay with a
dozen wax-candles and sparkling with the tinsel
trinkets so dear to the memories of childhood.
And then over a bottle of dry Rhein wine we
kept our Christmas in the German tavern at
Ching Wang Tao.
In the cold gray dawn of the following day,
the train which was to carry us to Pekin pulled
up at the station, and the Emperor's car was
coupled, caboose fashion, at the end. A queer
combination indeed was this train. The first
three or four cars were built precisely like the
flat cars used in America for the transportation of
coal and iron or other heavy and imperishable
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cargo. But the freight in these cars was neither
heavy nor bulky, though, from our observations,
I should infer that it too was not perishable if
kept in a cold place. These barges were liter
ally packed with Chinamen, hundreds of whom
were stamping their feet on the hard floors, and
beating their chests with their hands, or rubbing
their frost-bitten noses in futile efforts to keep
up the circulation in their icy members. No
seats were provided, and no covering sheltered
them from the wintry wind and the falling
snow as the train crept on its way, mingling
clouds of smoke and showers of sparks and
cinders with the inclemency of the sky.
Immediately after these observation cars for
the rabble followed a few coaches, " first and
second class," after the manner of European
railroads, furnishing accommodations comfort
able in proportion to the price of fare. Our
car brought up the rear, splendid in the pro
fusion of its decorations, but, in spite of the
stoves which glowed at either end, as cold as
an old-fashioned horse-car.
Gladly would we have exchanged one of the
regal decorations which bedecked this car for
a few hot slabs of slate or some foot-warmer,
no matter how plain or commonplace. All day
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long we sat bundled in shawls and overcoats,
leaving open the door from the kitchen, which
occupied one end of the car, and from which
we derived some warming vapor, though un
questionably suggestive of culinary preparations.
About noon we stopped for a few minutes at
Ta-Ku or Tien-Tsing, the landing place of the
American troops at the time of the Boxer In
surrection. From this point the boys in blue
began their laborious and perilous march to
the relief of the beleagured legation at Pekin.
Thence on again we sped over the snow-covered
undulations of China. For miles in all di
rections, as we looked from the windows of
the train, we saw the ground corrugated, as it
were, by the unending stretches of graves where
the myriad Chinese dead of other generations
lie buried, awaiting the grand resurrection of
the last day.
The traditional reverence of the Chinese for
departed ancestors is carried to such a degree
as to be absolutely ludicrous to one of Occi
dental birth. Few families in America can
trace their families with any degree of authen
ticity for more than three or four generations.
Even in Europe, the " family tree " is a matter
of family pride rather than an object of reli-
12 177

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gious veneration. But the very peasantry of
China seem to cherish a genealogy which had
its origin in remotest antiquity, and the graves
of ancestors, dead for hundreds of years, are
preserved and tended with religious zeal. This
ancestor worship is, in large measure, the basis
of the static civilization of China, and the cause
of their unprogressiveness. The West looks
forward, and each generation takes up the work
of progressive effort where the last generation
left off. China looks backward, and regards as
a heretic and disturber of the Eternal Laws
whomsoever the spirit actuates to do other
wise than as the traditions of antiquity have
sanctioned. To the Chinaman, no festival is so delightful,
no celebration so sacred, as a picnic on the
grave of some departed progenitor, and the
antiquity of the grave lends added sanctity to
such observance. On more than one occasion
we saw the ridiculous and incongruous spec
tacle of a Chinese family, father, mother, and
little ones, making high feast over some well-
kept mound in the bleak and snow-covered
wilderness.

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PEKIN
A TROOP of United States soldiers were
standing at attention as General Miles
stepped from the platform of the
emperor's car at Pekin. Minister Conger, with
a party of American officers and attache's of the
United States legation, advanced to welcome
the officers to the hospitality of the American
compound. We hastened to the legation, and,
after the briefest of introduction ceremonies,
the Miles party was parcelled out, each of the
men being quartered on some officer of the
post, or some official of the legation. It was
the good fortune of the writer to be assigned
to the hospitality of Lieutenant Welburn, a
gallant young officer who, graduating from
West Point at the outbreak of the Spanish-
American War, won his laurels at San Juan,
where he was the first man to reach the
summit. For the conspicuous merit of his
conduct at that engagement, Congress voted
him a medal of honor. 179

¦WW«.W""ll.W ¦'

An Unofficial Attache

On arriving at our quarters we hurriedly
washed off the stains of travel, and dressed for
a dinner which Mr. Conger was giving that
evening in honor of General Miles. At this
dinner the guests consisted of the military
attache's of eight nations, doing service at
Pekin. The occasion was delightful, the ample
dining-room of Mr. Conger's house furnishing
a fitting stage for the romantic scene pre
sented by the officers of so many lands, re
splendent in dress uniforms of their native
countries. Though formal, the occasion was
in no sense stiff or stupid, the common in
terest of the soldier's profession serving as a
strong cord of unification to the party. Good
feeling pervaded all, and conversation never
lagged. The following morning, bright and early,
we assembled at Mr. Conger's house for the
greatest occasion of our trip, — an audience
with the Dowager Empress and the Emperor of
China, an honor never before shown the visitors
from any land excepting only the ambassadors
of foreign powers on official business of the
greatest import.

180

Arch in front of Main Gate, Pekin

An Unofficial Attache

AN AUDIENCE WITH THEIR MAJESTIES,
THE DOWAGER EMPRESS AND THE
EMPEROR OF CHINA
General Miles and his staff, and the com
manding officers of the American forces at
Pekin, Minister Conger and the official inter
preter of the American embassy, and the
three civilian members of the Miles party
made up the quota of those who were to be
admitted to the presence of their majesties.
The military officers were requested to appear
in full-dress uniforms, with all the insignia of
rank or honor to which they were entitled.
Mr. Conger instructed the civilians of the party
to attire themselves in evening dress, with
white ties and gloves, black vests, and high
silk hats. This is the conventional form of
dress officially sanctioned for all audiences
with their majesties, and any deviation from
it would be a violation of etiquette not to be
considered. Assembling at the Conger home at ten
o'clock, we found waiting, a retinue of royal
bearers, five men to each of the sedan-chairs
which were to convey us to the gates of the
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forbidden city. Taking our places in the
chairs, we were lifted on the stalwart shoulders
of our carriers, two men in front and two be
hind each chair, while the fifth attendant, a
captain of the squad, marched before with all
the pompous self-importance of a drum-major
in a country band. Minister Conger's chair
led the procession, followed by that of General
Miles, while the remainder of the party brought
up the rear. Our little pageant extended in
a long line, single file, as we were jogged along
the crowded streets of ancient and picturesque
Pekin. At intervals along our line of march
some of the bearers, tiring of the continued
strain of carrying their burdens, uttered sharp,
piercing cries, at which shrill signals the
entire procession came to a dead stop. The
bearers set their chairs unceremoniously on
¦the ground and jabbered loud with the most
astonishing lack of formality and deference.
After a brief rest the chairs were re-shouldered,
and, at a signal from the major-domo, off we
jogged again.
The streets were thronged with countless
thousands who viewed the unusual spectacle
of such a large delegation of foreigners passing
to the sacred precincts of the forbidden city
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and soon to come into the divine presence of
the children of Heaven, — the dowager empress
and the emperor. Deep-grained as is the
Chinese hatred of the foreigner, the population
of Pekin have learned a lesson from the ex
periences of the invasion of the allies, at the
time of the Boxer Insurrection, and their out
ward bearing is respectful and courteous in the
presence of the representatives of the various
powers. Especially is this noticeable in the
case of Americans, for the government has
impressed upon its loyal subjects the fact that
it was through the influence of the American
troops that the present dynasty was restored
to the throne and the probable partition of
China prevented. Moreover, in the flood-tide
of victory, the American soldiers alone, of all
the invaders, refrained from looting and plun
dering. Pekin, the seat of the government,
is far different from Canton, and here we saw
no evidence of the national hatred and con
tempt for the foreign devils.
After traversing a distance of perhaps a mile
and a half in this imposing style, we arrived at
the gateway of the walled imperial city, where
we were met by a delegation of court officials
who escorted us across a large open square to
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a most elaborate doorway of bronze in the
massive wall of the forbidden city. Here all
were requested to alight, and the chairmen took
their positions without the doorway to await
our return, like so many cabmen. At a word
of command from some high functionary, the
bronze door was opened by the soldier guards
who were stationed here, and we filed through
between the lines of soldiers, the imperial
guard, and into the sacred area of the for
bidden city, where the foot of foreigners had
never tread previous to the recent Boxer upris
ing. Within its holy precincts, two chairs of
regal splendor, reserved for the exclusive use
of royalty, or ambassadors of highest rank,
were reserved for Mr. Conger and General
Miles. The remaining members of the delega
tion, together with the reception committee
and the royal guard, walked in imposing state
behind the throne-like chairs. A few paces
within the walls of the forbidden city we were
met by the highest officers of the royal house
hold, who marched us through a long corridor
to the royal library building.
Here we were shown to a robing-room where
we removed our overcoats and made ourselves
ready for the formality of the court.
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Hence, hat in hand, we were ushered into
a small reception-room, where were served light
refreshments, tea, champagne, whiskey and soda,
and cigarettes. The appointments of the room
were sumptuous, but, judged from the standard
of Caucasian civilization and aesthetics, too
frivolous and unsubstantial to be of imposing
dignity. Everywhere was a great display of
gold and embroidery, while the Chinese dragon
greeted the eye at every glance. But the
excessive draperies, the fluttering of countless
banners, and the gay riot of color everywhere
gave the entire scene an appearance of light
frivolity, of carnival pageantry, most incongru
ous with the rigid formality and unchanging
regime of the royal household. We sat about
the beautifully decorated table, quaffing the finest
liquors of the world, and puffing our Chinese
cigarettes, as we chatted with the illustrious
Chinamen who were our entertainers. Few of
these dignitaries could speak any language but
Chinese, and our conversation was, for the most
part, carried on through the intermediation of
the interpreter.
Presently Prince Ching, the prime minister
of China, attended by his staff, — the royal cab
inet, — entered the room, and, in the name of the
185

An Unofficial Attache"

government, welcomed us to China and to the
imperial palace. After a few minutes' delay,
the announcement was made that their majesties
would receive General Miles and his party in
the throne-room.
At a sign from Prince Ching, all rose to our
feet and formed a little procession, Prince Ching
and Mr. Conger walking at the head, followed
by General Miles and his aides-de-camp. After
these marched the remaining members of the
party, each accompanied by a member of the
household staff. In this order we filed down
a long, magnificent corridor, through a series of
halls, thence out into an open court of vast
proportions, surrounded on all sides by the mag
nificent structures which make up the enormous
royal palaces. Rising tier above tier, the build
ings, with their massive columns and heavy
doors, lift high their gorgeous domes and roofs
of tile and marble, which shine and glitter in
the sunlight with indescribable luxury of color.
The queer double-curves of the roofs and the inev
itable elevations of their corners, surmounted by
the all-present dragon of the empire, or ornate
with fantastic gargoyles of stone, give to the
picture a color, tone, and touch of quaintness
incredibly fascinating. Across this court-yard
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we walked a distance of three or four hundred
yards, then up a gradually inclined approach
to the threshold of the throne-room.
Within this entrance a magnificent yellow
satin curtain, stretching the entire width of the
chamber, screened from us the sight of what
splendor was beyond. We advanced to within a
few paces of this curtain, vaguely conscious of
the fact that the audience-chamber was a very
spacious apartment, gorgeous in color and of bar
baric profusion of decoration. Moreover, beyond
the curtain there was a palpable silence, — not
the quiet of an empty hall, but the hush of a
throng of people held in some subtle spell of
reverence or of awe.
A slight rustling of the curtain gave us our
" cue," and, as the heavy folds were drawn, we
all cast our eyes upon the floor and bowed low,
never lifting our eyes to the sacred presence
which we knew was before us. Then we
advanced to the middle of the hall, where we once
more elaborately bowed before the persons of
their majesties. Then, at last, we lifted our
eyes. Before us, on a dais, sat the Dowager Empress
of China, a little, pinched-featured, wrinkled,
wizened old lady with incredibly bright eyes.
187

An Unofficial A ttachS

Her throne was at an elevation of about five or
six feet from the level of the floor. She .wore a
massive jewelled head-dress, glittering with a
wealth of treasures.
At her left, and several inches lower than her
position, was the throne of the emperor. A cal
low, feeble-looking young man, listless and with
an expression in which there was no gleam of
interest, the puppet emperor sat hke a man in
a dream, apparently little more concerned in the
scene before him than the chair in which he sat.
But from that little bundle of draperies beside
and above him, radiated intelligence, keen, ob
servant, sure, and every glance of her bead-like
eyes was expressive of force, capability, and the
pride of conscious power.
Though her majesty was the cynosure of all
eyes, we perceived that we were in the midst of
a great concourse of people. Standing in solemn
silence about us, as still as so many graven im
ages, a throng of men-at-arms lined the sides of
the apartment, and an array of functionaries of
the government stood in compact formation be
hind them, filling the long galleries at either side
of the room. The display of color, the gorgeous
costumes of rich silks and satins, and the gaudy
brilliance of a hundred banners were no less
188

An Unofficial Attache

astonishing than beautiful, and furnished a
fitting background for the comedy which was
about to be enacted in accordance with the
revered custom of the Manchoo Dynasty.
Our superlative salutations and genuflections
completed, Minster Conger stepped a few paces
in front of our party, and, addressing the dow
ager empress in English, of which she is unable
to understand or speak a syllable, announced, in
a neat and complimentary speech, that he had
the honor of presenting to their majesties, Lieu
tenant-General Nelson A. Miles, the command
ing officer of the United States army, etc., etc.
As soon as Mr. Conger had completed his
address, the official interpreter of the American
legation repeated in Chinese what seemed to
be a word-for-word translation of the remarks
of the minister.
Following this, General Miles made a happy
address, in English, of course, in which he said
all the courteous, nice things about the Celes
tial Kingdom and its pleasant and helpful re
lations to the other nations of the world, and
to the United States in particular. He spoke
briefly of the purpose of his present mission
to the Orient, and expressed his gratitude and
appreciation for the great courtesies extended
189

An Unofficial Attache

to him in his trip through the empire of their
majesties. In conclusion, the general expressed
the hope that the present amicable relations
existing between China and the United States
might long endure.
After the general's speech, the Chinese inter
preter of the royal court jabbered off an
astonishing conglomeration of nasal sounds,
interspersed with innumerable aspirates and
vocal gymnastics. This we intuitively under
stood to be the Chinese interpretation of the
general's graceful and urbane address.
Hereupon, Prince Ching, as the official head
of the government, stepped forward, and, with
courtly grace and fluent rhetoric, responded to
the remarks of General Miles. The courtly
grace we observed at first hand; the fluent
rhetoric and the tactful address we appropri
ated from the lips of our Chinese interpreter.
This second-hand exchange of metaphorical
bouquets was saved from absurdity only by
the formality and pomp with which it was
conducted, and the solemn reverence which the
presence of the Scions of Heaven imposed upon
the assembly. But the after act which fol
lowed this main performance was the very
essence of pantomimic drollery, appreciated by
190

An Unofficial Attache

the American actors, but in which the Celes
tials did not even suspect any element other
than that of dignity.
Scarcely had the interpreter completed his
translation of Prince Ching' s address, when a
slight move from the empress attracted the
attention of all. With the natural instinct of
the free-born Occidental, we Americans looked
directly at her majesty as she prepared to
speak. With the instinctive reverence in which
the Mongols regard their rulers, all the China
men, from Prince Ching to the lowliest man-
at-arms, cast their eyes upon the ground.
Prince Ching ascended the dais before and
below the thrones, and separated from the seat
of majesty by a small railing like an altar-rail.
He did not raise his eyes, but lifting his left
arm with graceful reverence, spread the long,
flowing robes of his sleeve before his face, thus
screening his gaze from the direct view of those
whom he was unworthy to look upon. Then,
reverently as a penitent at his orisons, he knelt
before the throne of the empress, resting his
elbow on his knee, and keeping the folds of his
sleeve between his face and their majesties.
Minister Conger and General Miles, at a
signal, advanced and ascended three or four

191

An Unofficial Attache"

steps to a position on the dais immediately
in front of Prince Ching, and a foot or two
lower. The imperial interpreter took his posi
tion between Ching and the Americans.
Amidst a silence such as awaits the verdict
of a jury when the life of a prisoner is at
stake, the quavering nasal voice of the empress
sounded distinct. Though the questions which
her majesty was about to put to General Miles
were practically the same as are asked of every
diplomat who is presented to her, the function
aries in the hall, and Prince Ching himself,
acted in a manner which seemed to indicate
matters of great importance.
In his attitude of self-abnegation, Prince
Ching listened to the momentous question
which fell from the lips of the empress. Then
he arose, and, addressing himself to the royal
interpreter, he in turn repeated the question to
that official, who, of course, had heard it from
the lips of the empress, as had every other person
in the audience-chamber. But it would be pre
sumption and sacrilege for any person of lower
rank than that of minister or cabinet officer
to appropriate the words of majesty without
the intermediation of some higher being, an
oracle, through whom the empress speaks.
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The interpreter reverently heard the message
from the illustrious Ching. Then he, in turn,
addressed General Miles. By this time we were
all alert to catch the purport of the remark
which had come through so much red tape
from the empress to the general, who stood
near enough her throne to have conversed with
her in a natural tone of voice. "How is the
health of the President ? "
This was the first question, and, coming as it
did, it almost caused us, who had waited with
such suspense for it, to laugh aloud. The
relations at that time existing between Miles
and Roosevelt were not of such a cordial
character as to cause either gentleman to
pose as solicitous for the well-being of the
other. But if General Miles was conscious of
the humor and the innocent irony of the situ
ation, no evidence of the fact appeared in his
expression or his words.
" The health of the President was good when
I left Washington," replied General Miles, and
the interpreter passed the glad tidings, though
something more than three months old, to
Prince Ching. That great man fell again to
his knees, once more screened his face with
his sleeve, and in tones of reverent regard
13 193

An Unofficial Attache

conveyed to her majesty the cheering in
formation. Her solicitude on behalf of the President thus
soothed, the benevolent old lady next turned
her attention to the bodily welfare of General
Miles. " How is the condition of your health ? "
was the somewhat garbled query which next
worked its tortuous way from the empress to
the general.
" My health is good, I thank you." As we
watched the progress of this second message
conveying the important piece of information to
her majesty, we wondered whose health would
be the next subject of inquiry.
We hoped that the empress had never heard
of General Egan or Mr. Alger. However, the
dowager fortunately changed the subject, de
manding next, " How long do you propose stay
ing in China ? "
The question was a doubtful compliment,
but General Miles tactfully assured her that
our designs on China were to be strictly limited
to a period of five days.
" Will you convey to the President my best
wishes ? " was the fourth demand.
Whatever charges his opponents may have
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An Unofficial Attache

urged against him, mendacity has never been
an accusation which has been successfully
charged against Miles. But in this instance
the general told a deliberate and barefaced
lie. "It will give me great pleasure to convey
to the President your best wishes," replied
Miles, though it is very doubtful whether Mr.
Roosevelt ever received the kind wishes of the
empress. " I wish you a safe journey to your home,"
was the fifth and last utterance of her majesty.
With this gentle hint that the audience was
over, she inclined her head in formal dismissal.
Mr. Conger and General Miles then performed
a marvellous acrobatic feat, bowing low and
backing down the stairs. Thence they con
tinued their crawfish manoeuvre across the
entire length of the apartment and out
through the heavy curtained door through
which we had entered. The remainder of the
party followed their example, bowing and
backing out at the doorway, all salaamed once
more, and the curtains were drawn.
In the foyer, we formed again in double line
and marched back to the reception-room, where
the luncheon-table was now spread for tiffin.
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Not only were chopsticks provided for our use,
but at each plate were knives and forks for
such as had not mastered the art of Oriental
table-manners. Luxuries from all parts of the
world were bounteously served in most exquisite
dishes of china, silver, and mosaic. The high
officials who had attended us at the audience
sat at table with us, and showed the Americans
every courtesy.
After tiffin we shook hands all round, and took
our departure. General Miles and Mr. Conger
went through the ceremony of changing chairs
at the entrance to the forbidden city. Pass
ing out through the bronze gateway we again
entered our sedan-chairs, and filed along the
ancient streets back to the legation quarters.
In the afternoon General Miles and his party
were the guests of the general in command of
the Chinese forces. One of the queerest customs
of Chinese official and social life is that of feast
ing a guest to the limit of his capacity before
entering on the consideration of other more
serious matters. Having dined at the royal
palace less than two hours before our arrival
at the military headquarters, we had lost the
keen edge of appetite and were somewhat dis
mayed when confronted with another banquet,
196

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which the sacred custom of hospitality obliged
us to despatch before reviewing the troops.
But the dinner was so unique and interest
ing that the time occupied there could not be
grudged. Birds' -nest soup, sharks' fins, chicken,
lichens, artichokes, wines, and tea, and a score
of other delicacies of mysterious nature and
unknown origin graced the ample table of the
chieftain. The dinner finished, we witnessed a drill and
review of Chinese troops, foot and horse, an
exhibition of military tactics of the highest
order. The skill and discipline of the infantry
was a revelation to most of us, who, judging
from the primitive civilization of the Chinese
in almost every other department of life, had
rather expected to find the military activity of
the natives on the same archaic basis.
Leaving the garrison, Mr. Conger directed
our course to a place where a steep incline
leads from the level of the street to the top of
the city wall, — the great stone fortification
which, in its ample embrace of some twenty
miles, folds old Pekin, Tartar city, imperial
city, forbidden city, and all, in fancied security,
the impotency of which the recent attack of
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An Unofficial Attache

This city wall is of colossal proportions, being
about twenty-five feet in height, and wide
enough for two carriages to pass easily on the
broad, flat surface of its top. The extreme
thickness of this masonry at the base gives the
wall the appearance of being much less lofty
than in reality it is.
On this vantage-ground we strolled for sev
eral miles, looking down into the city within its
confines and catching a thousand glimpses of
the ancient home of the Mongolians. At one
place we came to a great break in the wall, a
huge pile of broken masonry and crumbled
concrete. This was the opening made by the
attacking troops of the powers, as they forced
their way into the city to the relief of the
beleaguered legations.
Pekin : unattractive ; many, low, rambling,
dilapidated buildings; streets wider than the
alleys of Canton, but quite as filthy ; all carries
with it the appearance, as well as the odor, of
decay. Except the several legation compounds, the
temples and the government and imperial fam
ily buildings, I did not see in Pekin a single
structure worthy of being called a decent build
ing, — the one exception being the French
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church erected a few years ago as a penance
by the Chinese, upon demand of the French
government. That evening Mr. Conger gave a dinner to
the members of the diplomatic corps of all the
nations represented at Pekin, General Miles
being the guest of honor. The affair was gor
geous and elaborate, and in its way as interest
ing as any of the official functions which we
had yet attended.
The following day being Sunday, no public
ceremonies were held in honor of the American
guests. We deemed it not inconsistent with the
respect due to the day, however, to make it the
occasion for a trip to the " Centre of the Uni
verse," the " Temple of Heaven," and other
places dedicated to the offices of religion and
the care of the soul.
Our course lay along some of the principal
thoroughfares of the city, and the team of mules
which drew us jogged complacently along among
the caravans of camels and the helter-skelter
crush of sedan-chairs and litters and Pekin carts
which crowded the people on the streets. At
one place, near a beautiful triumphal arch which
spans the street, our guides pointed out the spot
where Baron Von Ketteler, the German ambas-
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An Unofficial Attache

sador to China, was assassinated at the outbreak
of the Boxer insurrection. A short distance
from this place we came upon another evidence
of Chinese law, a sight very similar to that
which, at Canton, had so shocked and revolted us.
In the open square a rude scaffold extended
its ugly arms or crossbeams, into which were
fixed a number of pegs, like so many hooks on
a giant hat-rack. From seven of these pegs
hung as many human heads, dangling by the
braided strands of their hair. On the ground
around this framework lay the decapitated
bodies of the wretches whose lives had paid the
forfeit of violation of the law of the land. A
group of little children were playing almost
under the shadow of the execution block, and
the appearance of our party attracted their at
tention, and held their interest, to the complete
exclusion of the gruesome objects to which their
eyes had become so well inured.
From this repulsive sight we drove rapidly to
a gateway in the city wall some distance away,
and passing through this, we took to the open
pike which runs from Pekin to the " Centre of
the Universe," a magnificent park dedicated to
purposes of public worship and consecrated to
the sacred religion of the empire.
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Here the aesthetic genius of the Chinese had
unfolded itself in its noblest expression, creating
the most notable contribution of the Mongolians
to the artistic and architectural treasury of the
world. Scattered about the ample area of the
garden a number of pagodas and temples of
transcendent beauty lift their graceful domes
and pinnacles into the azure sky. Of these the
Temple of the Sun is the most magnificent, and
he who looks upon this marvellous creation can
not wonder that the judgment of ages had
pronounced this temple one of the wonders of
the world. Rising flight after flight, with ample
terraces between, their balustrades ornate with
colossal urns and titanic vases, the broad white
stairways ascend gradually to the temple, which
glistens like a carven block of ivory at the sum
mit. Marble, tile, and porphyry, onyx, and agate,
red, green, blue, yellow, and white, the treasures
of a hundred quarries adorn and embelhsh this
shrine which merits the title it bears. Rich
mosaic patterns, slender pillars, graceful scrolls,
and a perfect lace-work of mural decorations
give to the yielding stone those soft and delicate
effects which defy the skill of the narrator.
Unlike most of the buildings of China, the
" Temple of Heaven," the " Temple of the Sun,"
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and the " Temple of the Moon " are ornate with
out being barbaric; their beauty is not modified by
any undue display of the frivolous or the gaudy.
It is difficult, with the miserable stagnation
of the Chinese people, and their complacent
self-satisfaction and immobility, to understand
how it has been possible for them to rise to such
height of achievement in architecture and art.
Almost the sole ground for a reasonable faith or
hope for the ultimate salvation of the Chinese
from eventual extermination by the more vigo
rous, virile, and progressive races of the West is
to be found in such national achievements as
these. Here, at least in the artistic and aes
thetic realms, China has the germ, which, if
properly nourished and given a chance for
healthy development and fruition, should some
day bear a harvest of richest accomplishment.
Moreover, there is to be found, lurking deep
down in the consciousness of many a native of
the Celestial Kingdom, a keen sense of humor,
a delicate and discriminating appreciation of
what is good and what is genuine in literature,
in art, and even in the subtleties of metaphysi
cal thought.
But the iron mask of tradition screens from
the world all outward expression, its glassy
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eyes peering backward into the immobile past.
He who through contact with the energy and
progressive force of the nations of Europe or
America would dare to exercise his influence
for reform at home, to exert on the decadent
civilization of China a revitalizing spirit by
which alone the ancient empire may hope even
to preserve herself from annihilation, — he who
would dare to do this must take his life in
his hands and abandon hope of favor or pre
ferment. Almost invariably those who have served as
Chinese ministers to foreign lands, returning to
Pekin with new ideas, broadened conceptions of
life, its possibilities and its responsibilities, and
filled with patriotic ambition to serve their
country as they know that she needs to be
served, are received with cold disfavor. That
the vanity of their dreams may be rebuked,
they are reduced in rank to minor clerkships
or offices in which they are obliged day after
day to eat the bitter bread of insult and humil
iation at the hands of those who are in every
way their inferiors. Such is the reward of
patriotic zeal in China.
On the day of our visit to the Centre of the
Universe, Mrs. Miles, Mrs. Maus, and Mrs.
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Conger were the guests of the dowager empress
at tiffin in her private apartments, — a dis
tinction unparalleled. This audience was en
tirely informal and free from all the ridiculous
ceremony which had characterized the reception
of General Miles. The dowager empress enter
tained her guests in true woman fashion. She
showed them the interesting features of her
household, talking with as much freedom and
naturalness as was possible where an interpreter
was necessary for every sentence.
Among other matters of less significance, the
subject of the " Boxer intrigue "was mentioned,
and her majesty took great pains to impress
upon her guests that neither herself nor the
government had been in any sense party to the
acts of lawlessness which attended that insur
rection. Moreover, she affirmed that the Amer
icans and their interests were very dear to her,
and that the debt of gratitude which the Chi
nese people owe to the United States for their
part in the relief of Pekin, and their noble stand
in reference to the adjustment of the troubles,
was one which the Manchu dynasty especially
hold sacred.
Before departing from their delightful visit
with the marvellous old woman who holds the
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lives of millions in her tiny hands, the Ameri
can ladies were loaded with presents from her
majesty, interesting souvenirs from the private
life of the woman who rules the land of the
Chinese. During the entire period of our stay at Pekin
we were kept busy to meet the engagements in
which the hospitality of the representatives of
many countries involved us. Sunday evening
we were the guests of Captain Brewster, United
States military attache* at Pekin, from whose
delightful dinner-party we repaired to the
English Club, where the attache's of the British
and other legations make merry the long,
dreary winter evenings at Pekin. The area
occupied by the English Club is large, and
is equipped with all the appointments which
render club life pleasant. The great feature of
this organization at the time of our visit was
the skating rink. The ingenious Briton had
availed himself of the severity of the climate,
flooding the entire ground floor of the main
structure of the club, and allowing the bleak
winter air to convert the area thus prepared
into a large sheet of smooth, clear ice whereon
the revellers could glide rhythmically on glitter
ing skates to the music of an orchestra.
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Monday, the Russian legation made us their
guests, and General Miles reviewed a detach
ment of their troops on the parade ground.
The Cossack drill which followed was a mar
vellous equestrian show, and made us all think
of Buffalo Bill and the circus. But the troop
of bearded horsemen from the northland are
no mere show actors. They constitute an im
portant factor in the Russian military scheme,
and are warriors, first, last, and all the time.
Their feats of daring horsemanship, their
agility and -skill in mounting and dismounting
at full gallop, picking articles off the ground
without slacking speed, or standing erect in
their saddles, hewing and slashing with un-
yieldy sabres as they tear at breakneck speed
over the frozen earth, their juggling tricks
with the huge rifles which they handled like
so many reeds, — all these feats and a hundred
more are to them the pastime as well as the
pride of the Cossack brave.
The icy blasts of wind which blew over the
parade ground gave us a foretaste and a warn
ing of the bitter cold which was to enwrap us
when, in a few days, we should be speeding over
the bleak wastes of Siberia. We profited by
the hint, and spent several hours of that after-
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noon purchasing stores of heavy clothing, wraps,
and furs for our northward journey.
Our last night at Pekin was marked by a
ceremony, the unique character of which was
second only to the audience with the dowager
empress and the emperor. This was the din
ner given by Minister Conger to ten of the most
distinguished officials of the Chinese imperial
government. The American guests were at Mr. Conger's
house some time before the hour stated for
the dinner, in order to witness the ceremo
nies attending the arrival of the splendid
Orientals. Evening had scarcely spread her dark veil
over the city, when among the throng of paper
lanterns which flitted hither and thither on the
poles of sedan-chairs appeared a gorgeous pag
eant like a float in a Mardi Gras carnival. In
the front marched two giant torch-bearers in
splendid liveries, carrying magnificent opalescent
lanterns, subdued and soft. Immediately behind
these lucifers, a regal chair, elaborately carved
and inlaid with glittering gold, swung pendent
from the shoulders of eight stalwart men who
strode along with majestic tread and haughty
demeanor. At each side passed two armed
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guards, whose presence proclaimed the passing
of a personage of highest rank, and kept the rab
ble at a respectful distance from the chair. Two
more armed men and another ligbi>bearer
brought up the rear, as the little procession
halted at the door of Mr. Conger's residence.
As the chair was set down on the stone-paved
court an elderly man in robes of gorgeous satin,
which peeped out from the folds of rare sables,
his fingers glittering with jewels, stepped into
the light of the lanterns and was ushered into
the reception hall.
" His excellency, Hu-Yu-Fen, governor of
Pekin and chief of the department of rail
roads," was the imposing appellation by which
the splendid man was introduced. His excel
lency greeted every member of the company
with courtly grace and that ease of manner
which reveals the accomplished and experienced
man of the world. His handshake was appar
ently as natural as that of any person in the
room, and differed in no way from that of any
European or American gentleman.
Almost before Hu-Yu-Fen had been presented
to the last of the group of Americans, another
arrival was announced, and from a pageant much
like that of the first Chinese guest appeared a
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second apparition, if possible more imposing
and gorgeous than the first.
" His excellency, Wang-Wen-Shao, imperial
grand secretary and member of the cabinet,"
was the distinguished nobleman, and he in
turn was presented to each of us, greeting us
with dignity and formal grace, precisely as his
predecessor had done.
" In Rome do as the Romans do," was evi
dently the maxim of these Oriental gentlemen,
and their deportment toward the American trav
ellers was such as would have passed as unex-
ceptionably proper at Washington or in New
York. The salutations to the foreigners completed,
however, the Mongolians addressed themselves
to one another, a lightning change of character
taking place. In an instant the statesmen and
diplomats facing each other, became again Chi
nese from head to foot. The air of formal dig
nity with which they had greeted us gave place
to that extravagant deference and consideration
of manner which characterizes the Oriental peo
ple in their social customs. The two bedizened
dignitaries fell on each other's necks in fond
embrace, and in the exuberance of their mutual
respect and affection each sank to his knees be-
i* 209

An Unofficial Attache

fore the other. In this posture of humility the
resplendent ministers paused for several seconds,
bowing their heads and apparently endeavoring
to outdo each other in this formal expression
of esteem. Ridiculous as such extravagance
seemed to us, the limit was reached when the
two great men attempted to arise. Each took
the other by the arms, and thus, face to face,
each assisted his companion to his feet. The
sense of courtesy which forbade either to arise
before the other, demanded that they show
each other that consideration which makes
each deport himself as the servant to the other's
comfort. That absurdly superlative show of deference
and ostentatious humility which prevails at the
imperial court of China is re-enacted with modifi
cations at every meeting of the aristocracy or
official functionaries. In the course of the even
ing we were treated to a multiple exhibition of
Chinese politeness, in which the degrees of cere
mony varied in proportion to the rank of every
new arrival, though to us of foreign birth the
greetings were of unvarying formality.
The party which sat at Mr. Conger's table
that evening was without doubt the most unique
and the most gorgeous with whom it has ever
210

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been my fortune to be identified, the severe
black and white of our conventional evening
dress serving to accentuate the brilliancy, rich
ness, and magnificence of the Orientals. Mr.
Conger, as host, sat at the centre of the table
facing General Miles, the guest of honor. To
the right of Mr. Conger was Prince Ching, the
virtual prime minister of the empire, and to his
left his highness, Prince Po-Liin, the prob
able successor to the present emperor. To the
right and left of General Miles were seated
respectively, his highness, Prince Chun, brother
of the emperor, and his excellency, Wang-Wen-
Shao, imperial grand secretary. On the follow
ing page is given the arrangement of the guests
as we took our places at the hospitable board of
Mr. Conger.
Naturally the gentlemen who were conver
sant with both tongues carried the burden of
the conversation, though the urbane manner
and easy grace of these gentlemen of the East
were such as to smooth over any slight difficul
ties in the way of social intercourse. More
over, the Chinaman has a fluency of gesture as
suggestive and vocal as a language, — a national
trait with which he is almost as richly endowed
as the Frenchman. The lifting of an eyebrow,
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An Unofficial Attache

Q>
CO g

Captain Brewster, TJ. S. A.,
Commanding Legation Guard, at
Pekin.
Lieutenant-Colonel Maus,
TJ. S. A.,
A.D. C., Gen. Miles.
His Excellency, Lien-Fang,
Minister and Member of the
Foreign Office.
H. H., Prince Po-Lun,
Probable successor to present
Emperor.
Mr. Conger,
U. S. Minister.
H. H., Prince Ching,
Chief Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. One of the
most prominent living Chinamen.
Dr. Headland,
Methodist Missionary, accom
plished linguist, particularly in
Chinese language.
His Excellency, Na-Tung,
Vice-President of Foreign Office,
Secretary of Finance.
His Excellency, Hu-Yu-Fen,
Governor of Pekin, and Head of
the Department of Railroads.
f

¦al O

m fc r*

o < ^

a &

02

Me. Cooledge,

Secretary of the American

Legation under Mr. Conger.

H. H., Prince Tsai-Chen,

Son of Prince Ching, Secretary of

State.

Mr. Williams,
Official Interpreter of the Ameri
can Legation.
H. H., Prince Chun,
Brother of the present Emperor.
Lieutenant-General Nelson
A. Miles, TJ. S. Army.
His Excellency, Wang-Wen-
Shao,
Member of the Cabinet, Imperial
Grand Secretary.
Mr. Tseng,
Chinese Court Interpreter.

Lieutenant-Colonel Whitney, TJ. S. A.,
A. D. C. General MUes.
Mr. Chun Sen,
Official Interpreter of the Chinese
Office of Foreign Affairs

a
§3

M SI
K"o 1

. a

212

An Unofficial Attache

the shrug of a shoulder, the deprecatory move
ment of a hand, or even the hooking of the
little finger flicking the ash from a cigarette
becomes as intelligible and as fraught with
significance as any word. The smile with
which one of these courtiers of China took up
knife and fork, setting chopsticks aside, was
as tactful a compliment to the customs of
America as any word uttered in the after-
dinner speeches which concluded our meal.
The tenor of General Miles' toast was com
plimentary to the empire of which we were the
guests, and flattering to the gentlemen whose
presence honored our host and our flag. At
the same time the general's remarks were
guarded and scrupulously free from anything
which might be interpreted as an official
opinion with reference to the "Eastern ques
tion." The toast of Prince Ching, on the other
hand, was not only flattering, but it bordered
close upon the subject uppermost in the minds
of all loyal Celestials, and it was clearly in
tended to convey to our party the idea that
China regards the United States as her closest
friend, and looks to America as the power most
to be relied upon in resistance to the encroach
ments of other nations. But the expressions of
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affection and esteem which come from the
smiling lips of Chinamen are not to be re
garded seriously. It is to be feared that truth
is a word not to be found in the Chinese
code of ethics, and the entire system of gov
ernment which the Manchu dynasty represents
is Machiavellism pure and simple. These per
sonal opinions and beliefs, however, did not
detract one iota from the enjoyment I derived
from that illustrious conclave at Mr. Conger's
dinner. Above all things else, a Chinaman hates and
fears the night, a characteristic which the
Boxer insurrection has intensified. Night in
China is beset with all the evils and perils of
mediaeval Europe, and who walks abroad after
the darkness has descended does so at his own
risk. It was therefore still early, not more
than nine o'clock, when our party broke up, and
the august Mongolians departed from the Amer
ican compound in a body, their bearers, fight-
carriers, and outriders furnishing an escort of
no mean proportions as they took their phan
tom way back to the safe haven beyond the
walls of the forbidden city.

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FROM PEKIN TO NEW CHWANG
AT six o'clock in the morning of Tuesday,
December 30th, before the breaking of
*" the day, we boarded the Emperor's
car at Pekin for our northward journey across
the vast reaches of Manchuria to Siberia. Our
host, Mr. Conger, was at the depot to see us
off, and the greater part of the residents of the
American compound were assembled to give us
a cheerful and home-like farewell. There were
officers and attache's of the legations, the officers
of the American guard, and a goodly squad of
soldiers drawn up in formal line.
And so, amidst great shaking of hands, we
puffed out into the cold, gray mist of the
dawning day, bearing back to loved ones in
America the greetings of those doing foreign
service. For several hours our train retraced the
course by which we had come to Pekin. At
Tien Tsin, an attache of the viceroy presented
himself, and proffered his services to General
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Miles as a companion for the journey, explain
ing that he had been commissioned by his
excellency the viceroy to assume the responsi
bility of being our guard and interpreter so
long as we should remain on Chinese soil. Our
pleasure at having this addition to the party
increased as we came to know the gentleman
better. An accomplished scholar, he had spent
several years in America, having taken a degree
at Yale. His English was pure and accurate,
and his information, not only on subjects of
local interest, but on matters of international
politics, was of a rare order. During the
two following days, as we traversed the vast
stretches of North China, we grew to appreciate
and to respect this gentleman whose courtesy
was untiring and whose knowledge of the
country through which we were passing, its
people, its political and social status, its history
and its probable destiny, gave added meaning
to all we looked upon.
One evidence of the strained relations exist
ing between the Powers and China was visible
to us at every railroad station in the Tien Tsin
province and in Manchuria. In the former,
a detachment of British troops was quartered
near every railway station, and in the latter
216

Russian Soldier. Taken at a way-station in Manchuria

An Unofficial Attache

territory, Russian forces guarded every station.
In each case the explanation given was the
necessity of protecting the property of the rail
way, in Tien Tsin, English, in Manchuria,
Russian. Our companion, however, was one
of those who could " tell a hawk from a hand
saw," and in the security of private conversa
tion he confessed to the fear that the ultimate
partition of China could not be far re
mote, and that he could see no hope for his
land nor his people between "Scylla and
Charybdis." At nightfall we arrived at Shang-Hai-Quang,
where the train remained until the following
morning. It seemed queer to behold Sepoy
soldiers at this place, doing picket duty in the
snow up to their knees. We wondered if these
sons of the torrid zone did not feel a sense of
brotherhood for the poor camels who were ban
ished from the sunny clime of their nativity to
the bleak winters of North China.
Our train had not been long at Shang-Hai-
Quang when a brass band from the English
garrison appeared and serenaded General
Miles in his private car. Some British officers
then came aboard and invited the general and
his military aides to be the guests of the English
217

An Unofficial Attache"

officers at dinner later in the evening, an invi
tation which was accepted.
Colonel Maus was suffering from a vicious
felon on his left hand which rendered him unfit
for social or official duties. As the general and
his remaining aide were leaving the car for the
sleigh which was to convey them to the post,
Lieutenant-Colonel Whitney slipped on the
sleet-covered step of the car and fell some ten
feet upon the iron trucks below. The vio
lence of the fall was so great as to render the
colonel unconscious for a few moments, and he
was hurriedly carried into the station, suffer
ing acutely. An examination revealed the fact
that his back was seriously injured, and his
condition was grave. Thus deprived of both
aides, the general found himself charged with
the care of two crippled attendants. The
urgent appeals of both his aides, and the as
surances of all our party that the invalids
would be well cared for in his absence, could
not induce General Miles to leave Whitney in
his alarming condition. The only remaining
soldier of the party was the general's messenger,
— an enlisted man and not one qualified for the
discharge of social business. In this emergency
the "unofficial attache" was delegated to
218

An Unofficial Attache

convey to the British officers the information
that General Miles would be unable to share
the hospitality of their mess. The dashing
ride in an open sleigh certainly proved exhila
rating. Returning to the train, I had scarcely
opportunity to warm myself at the stove when
we were called upon to solve the complex
problem of our night's lodging. Shang-Hai-
Quang is not much of a town, and boasts of no
hotels. The Emperor's car, while sumptuous,
was not spacious, and no cars in China are
provided with sleeping quarters. With Colonel
Whitney on a stretcher in one end of this
coach, and Mrs. Miles and Mrs. Maus in their
quarters at the other end, every available space
was pre-empted. The remaining ones of our
party, including General Miles, were obliged
to wrap blankets about us, and seek such
shelter as the hospitality of a well-nigh de
serted railroad yard afforded. Colonel Maus,
we insisted, had us all at an advantage, because
he could not sleep anyhow, the felon on his
hand compelling him to walk backward and
forward through the weary watches of the
night, an occupation calculated at least to keep
the blood from freezing in his veins ; fortu
nately, among the score of box-cars on the
219

An Unofficial Attache

siding, we discovered a second-class passenger
coach, an ugly, barn-like affair, unheated, and
containing no other furniture than the hard
board benches which served as seats. The
temperature was several degrees below zero,
and the wind blew in fitful gusts, forcing its
way through the cracks in the floor and walls
and about the windows and sashes. If ever we
were glad of heavy overcoats, wraps, and furs,
this night was the time. General Miles, inured
to any inclemency of weather, and any priva
tion of the comforts of civil life, was the only
member of our company who seemed to derive
any rest from his contact with those hard
planks. The attache* of the viceroy of Tien
Tsin proved to be a most excellent companion
for " roughing it," and if he experienced any of
the sufferings which the rest of us underwent
that bitter night, he gave not the slightest
evidence of the fact. Stretching himself on a
bench, his satin robes incongruously out of
keeping with the barren poverty of our shelter,
he shared our misery with stoical calm. Sleep,
for most of us, was an impossibility, but some
how we managed to live through that wretched
night. With the dawning of the next day an engine
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appeared from somewhere, gathered together its
straggling retinue of cars, backed noisily to
where our coach stood waiting, with a bump
and clang coupled that splendid refrigerator to
the rear. Then, reversing her lever, the locomo
tive pulled slowly away from Shang-Hai-Quang,
heading northward.
A few miles further we caught our first glimpse
of the Great Wall of China, that colossal monu
ment, the very antiquity of which proclaims
the primal hatred of China for all that is not
Chinese, and the eternal resolution of the Mon
gol to shut himself in from all influence of the
outside world, and to bar out every encroachment
of those who would bring new ideas to bear
upon his static civilization. But the course of
western energy has penetrated the very vitals
of this mummy land. A great arched gateway,
hewn out of this ancient fortification, furnishes
egress and ingress for the unholy invention of
the barbarian, which snorts and vomits fire in
derision of the Celestial ideal as it rattles
through the vast masonry partition which
frowns in impotent defiance to the West and
North. Looking back from the windows of
the car, our eyes followed the serpentine
course of this colossal folly of a nation, rising
221

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and falling as it threads its way over un
dulating Mongolia.
All day long we rattled through the populous
districts of North China, stopping frequently at
quaint old cities with walls and turrets, and tak
ing on fresh stores of wood at every stop. Night
had already set in when we arrived at Ying
Chow, on the south bank of the Lian-ho River,
the northern terminal of the British railway
system of China.
Ying Chow, which is but another name for
the railroad yards of the greater city of New
Chwang on the other side of the Lian-ho, con
sists of a few straggling cottages of the railroad
employees, and a miserable aggregation of Chi
nese huts. With some dismay we contemplated
the inevitable repetition of the refrigerating influ
ences of the previous night at Shang-Hai-Quang.
But by this time we were becoming inured to
Chinese modes of travel. The English popula
tion of the village, however, tendered us the full
est measure of hospitality which the meagre re
sources of their frontier life afforded. Our party
was divided among the homes of the railroad
people, who furnished us such refreshment as
their larders contained, and though it was but a
cold joint of mutton, a dish of rice, and a glass
222

An Unofficial Attache

of tea which constituted my supper that night,
a hearty appetite furnished the sauce and
British hospitality gave flavor to the meal.
After supper, with perhaps a few long, linger
ing looks behind, we once more bundled our
selves in furs and retired to the bleak security
of an empty box-car.
All agreed that the heat of the tropics is less
of an affliction than the bitter cold of North
China. Early the following morning we betook our
selves again to the houses of the good people
who had served us with supper the previous
evening, and we again taxed their hospitality
for the morning's breakfast. The day was still
young when a Russian officer from New Chwang
presented himself at the car which by night
served as hospital and ladies' quarters, by day,
as General Miles official residence.
This gentleman came to proffer to General
Miles the services of the Russian government
in facilitating his journey from Ying Chow to
Moscow. At this juncture we virtually became
the guests of the Czar, our Chinese friend from
Tien Tsin taking leave of us as the Russians
took us in charge.

An Unofficial Attache

CROSSING THE LIAN-HO RIVER
THE Lian-ho is one of the great rivers of
the Orient, a majestic volume of water
which sweeps with incredible force its.
irresistible course to the sea. At New Chwang
the stream is more than three-quarters of a mile
in width, and exceedingly deep.
"Thus far shalt thou go and no farther,"
— this seems to be the dictum of the kingly
flood. Here the British railroad of North
China abruptly terminates at one side of the
river, and the southern spur of the Russian
railway comes to a stop on the other side.
Whatever obstacles nature has put in the way
of modern engineering at the Lian-ho, chal
lenging the genius of the bridge-builder, inter
national jealousy has multiplied many fold, and
the mighty river rolls unspanned and unhar
nessed on its way.
During the warm months of the year, the Lian-
ho is navigable even by vessels of large draught.*
After winter has fairly set in, the river becomes
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clogged with ice, which, rolling down from the
north, gradually masses itself, blocking the chan
nel of the stream from shore to shore. It was
our fate to arrive at Ying Chow when the river
was at its most impassable stage. The sight
which met our gaze as we stood on the south
shore and looked out on the seething flood was
calculated to strike awe to the heart. Grinding,
crushing, groaning like a herd of titanic mon
sters of the deep, great floes of ice fought and
struggled in their mad force. Each moment
sheets of ice and snow, flat and unbroken, swept
majestically past, their edges coming within a
few feet of the banks.
To effect a crossing amid such a crush of ice
was manifestly impossible, and the Russian
officer who had come to superintend our passage
bade us wait the turning of the tide, which was
now running out. There is one brief interval
when the tide is just at the turn, and before it
is at flood, when the returning waters from the
sea check the impetuous rush of the ice. At
half-past ten o'clock we readily saw that the
struggling mass of ice was slackening its pace
and resting, as it were, from the ferocity of its
onslaught. Then began what was really the
most perilous undertaking of our entire trip
is 225

An Unofficial Attach^

around the world, — the crossing of the ice-
jammed Lian-ho.
Along the bank of the river a band of fifty
or more native river-men were busy in prepara
tion for the fight before them. They worked
in groups, each group pulling with a long, stout
cable a frail-looking sampan which seemed like
a chip-basket among the masses of floating ice.
From the landing place these rugged boatmen
dragged their craft up stream perhaps a quarter
of a mile, picking their way along the frozen
shore. Now and then straggling sheets of ice
would collide with one of these little boats,
nearly jerking the hawser from the hands of
the boatmen, and pulling the hardy fellows
almost into the river. Bracing themselves
firmly, the crew would give a concerted tug
at the rope, lifting the boat clear of the water,
and allowing the ice to glide underneath it,
while they held tight to the cable.
At last a place was reached at which it was
deemed prudent for us to begin our passage.
One passenger only was allowed to each boat,
and four boatmen took their places at the oars.
At last one of the boats set out from shore
with its solitary passenger seated in the stern,
undisguisedly fearful lest he should never again
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set foot on land. The native boatmen knew
their business, however, and silently, steadily,
working like one man, they piloted their
sampan among the threatening masses of ice.
At one moment it seemed that the slight barge
must surely be crushed between two great bulks
of ice, but the expert oarsmen shifted her with
incredible dexterity, so that she rode broadside
against a third mass remaining in this treacher
ous haven until an opening was formed through
which she could thread her perilous way.
Bumping and slipping between ice-floes which
threatened instant destruction, the brave little
sampan finally arrived at her destination, and
the passenger heaved a sigh of relief as he
finally set foot on terra firma.
In this perilous manner, our entire party
effected the crossing of the Lian-ho.
Hazardous as it seemed for those of us who
were most perfectly able to help ourselves, the
journey across the river was tenfold more
dangerous for Colonel Whitney, whose crippled
back still kept him prone on a litter, in which
posture he was carried to the water's edge, and
laid on the floor of a sampan, unable to lift his
head or to turn a hand for his own assistance.
An accident to the fragile bark which bore him
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would have meant certain death beneath the
icy flood, for he would have been unable to
swim a stroke, or even cling to the edge of his
boat, should it have been overturned.
The last of the party had safely landed on
the Manchurian side of the river, when the
guides called attention to the swiftly-changing
appearance of the flood. The tide was now
returning, bearing the masses of ice back with
it, and as the on-rushing torrent hurled its
batteries against the encroaching tide, the two
floods met in violent struggle. But with every
moment the tidal crest gained headway, and the
floes of ice, hurled back upon themselves, ground
fiercely over one another, churning the waters
to a savage foam in which no sampan could
have survived.
At the landing at New Chwang a number
of the Russian military officers met our party
and escorted us to the local army headquarters,
where a light tiffin was served, and we were
made to feel that we were actually partaking
of the hospitality of the Russian army.
It is not the policy of the Czar to direct
traffic toward the British railway, but rather to
divert all possible freight and passengers from
Ying Chow, thereby increasing the business of
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the Russian lines toward Port Arthur and
Dalney. Perhaps it is for this reason that
the terminus of the Russian railroad is not
directly opposite the village of Ying Chow at
New Chwang, but it is located at Inkoo, a
suburb at New Chwang some six miles remote.
Entering waiting carriages at the door of the
military headquarters, we were driven through
the streets of New Chwang, catching glimpses
of the frontier Manchurian's life. Arriving
at Inkoo, the Miles party was conveyed im
mediately to a special train provided by the
government for their accommodation. The car
reserved for the personal use of General and
Mrs. Miles was the private coach of Admiral
Alexieff, the viceroy of the eastern possessions
of the Czar. In addition to this, three private
cars and a dining-car, together with a baggage-
car, made up the limited special which was to
convey us from Inkoo to Manchuria Station,
en route to Irkutsk, a journey occupying eleven
days and nights. The subordinates of Admiral
Alexieff had overlooked nothing which could
add to our Comfort.
Our arrival at the train was made the occa
sion of an elaborate celebration, in which the
leading officers of the military district to which
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Inkoo belongs participated with the utmost
friendliness. After an informal reception, the
whole party filed into the dining-car, where a
banquet was served at the big table which
occupied almost the entire length of the
coach. With Russians, eating and drinking is a fine
art, and the skill with which a Russian gentle
man manipulates and alternates the courses
of food and liquors is almost a science. To
the average American, the " zakousky " or hors
d'oeuvres of pickled fish, caviare, olives, and sand
wiches which precede dinner, and are intended
merely as appetizers, would prove sufficient
for a banquet. The vodka and other potent
drinks intended to whet the appetite would
serve to put him under the table. We did our
best, however, to keep up the appearance of
following the pace set by our hosts, though
none of us attempted to compete with the
Russians in those accomplishments in which
their national genius and the climate of their
land have rendered them unequalled. A mili
tary band, remote enough not to be distracting,
and near enough to be altogether pleasing,
added its mellowing influence to the subtle
magic of champagne. Toasts were proposed,

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and many clever responses called forth gener
ous applause.
When the time came to bid farewell to our
convivial companions, we felt a sense of regret
that our stay with them must be so brief. The
cordiality with which they wished us a safe
and pleasant journey to the North and West
was undoubtedly genuine. At a signal from
the train despatcher, the regimental band,
which had by this time taken its place on the
platform just beside the car, broke into the
exulting strains of the " Star Spangled Banner,"
a graceful and tactful expression of inter
national courtesy. All the Russian officers in
and about the depot and all the railroad at
tache's removed their hats in salute. The bell
sounded, and our train glided out from the
station amidst a waving of hands and fluttering
of handkerchiefs, and we were once more on
our northward course. That no courtesy might
be lacking, two Russian officers, one represent
ing the army, the other the navy, were dele
gated to accompany the Miles party as far
as Manchuria Station. Both these gentlemen
speaking English as well as Russian were of
assistance to us in arranging the details of the
journey, shipping and transferring baggage,
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and in interpreting such communications as
passed between us and the railroad officials.
The day of our departure from Inkoo, reckon
ing by our calendar, was New Year's day, 1903.
In spite of the Russian calendar, which is
thirteen days later than our own, we exchanged
New Year's greetings and good wishes, although
the people through whose domain we were pass
ing had not yet celebrated Christmas. The few
days' ride from Inkoo to Manchuria Station,
through a vast expanse of snow and ice, was
interesting and instructive, though the extreme
cold penetrated to the very marrow of our
bones, despite the steam-heating apparatus with
which the cars were equipped. The thermome
ter registered as low as twenty-eight degrees
below zero by night, moderating to fifteen
degrees below zero at noon. At no time did
the mercury rise as high as the zero-mark. At
night we added our overcoats to the blankets
and comforts provided for our beds ; but with
all the covering we could pile upon ourselves,
we shivered and shook in vain search for sleep.
Another phenomenon of this clime which added
no little to the discomfort of travel was the
briefness of the daytime, — sunset occurring
soon after three o'clock in the afternoon, and
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night following almost immediately upon day,
with no twilight. The long evenings thus
thrust upon us we employed as best we could
in social chat, relieving the monotony by occa
sional games of chess or stud poker in the gen
eral's car. The country of Manchuria is well
populated, towns occurring at short intervals
along the railroad. The soil appeared to be
fertile, and the frequent patches of forest,
groves of northern pine and other hardy ever
greens, gave evidence of the healthy productivity
of the earth.
The roadbed boasted no ballast of broken
stone between ties, as do American fines ; but
the track was fairly even and smooth, and well
laid, though the speed of the train was limited.
No experienced traveller in the cold clime of
Manchuria or Siberia ever fails to keep well-
stocked with tea, which serves as one of the chief
staples of sustenance. By governmental edict,
every station-master on this vast system is
compelled to serve boiling water to any passen
ger who may ask for it. This is done without
cost to the traveller, and is a provision of the
utmost beneficence, particularly to the poor.
Hot water in this bleak region is the great
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other and more elaborate potations may be
desired. At every stopping-place of import
ance the passengers flock from the cars to the
hot- water dispenser, where they fill their glasses,
first carefully placing the spoon in the vessel
to prevent cracking. From overcoat-pockets
appear tea-canisters of all sorts and conditions,
and the air is savory with the aroma of hot tea.
The dining service aboard our special train from
Inkoo could scarcely have been improved upon,
and the chef who presided over the kitchen was
a past-master in the art culinary. Our larder
was stocked with an inexhaustible supply of
meats, poultry, fish, and abundance of the
staples and luxuries of the table. In addition,
we had individually, and as a party, brought
with us no inconsiderable provision. The
great calamity of this trip was the sad fate
,of several cases of table-water which we had
provided against the possible contingencies of the
long overland journey. The entire supply was
frozen solid, and all the bottles were broken.
The hospitality of Admiral Alexieff, while it
afforded every convenience and luxury, was to
terminate at Manchuria Station. Although the
government had provided a car to carry us all
the way to Moscow, no provision was made for
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our sustenance. The personal attention of
Admiral Alexieff alone had secured the excel
lent and bounteous service which graced our
table during the journey through the regions
over which he is the viceroy. Acting on his sug
gestion, we took the precaution of laying in a
supply of provisions at the various towns along
the road.
On Sunday, January 4th, after a day of
very rough riding, with the thermometer reg
istering twenty-nine degrees below zero, we
arrived at Manchuria Station. A three hours'
stop here gave us an opportunity to visit some
native shops, where we invested heavily in more
clothes and mufflers. Returning from this
little foray, General Miles produced a mild sen
sation by proudly displaying a pair of coarse
felt boots with clumsy, heavy soles, — a gear
indispensable to the Russian peasantry. These
boots were half an inch in thickness, and the
general assured us that he never suffered from
cold feet so long as he wore them. At Moscow,
these pedal adornments disappeared, although
we all urged General Miles to preserve them as
a souvenir of the Siberian trip.
The express from Manchuria Station to Lake
Baikal was equipped with two private cars fur-
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nished by the Russian government. Our cook
and larder we provided for ourselves. There
was nothing exciting in the slow, monotonous
clanking of the wheels as we crawled north
ward toward the steppes of the Trans-Baikal
Province. Oddly enough, as it seemed to us,
even the finest coaches on the Siberian rail
road are constructed on the primitive four-
wheel pattern, double trucks being practically
unknown. This crude construction renders the
cars very inflexible, and emphasizes the inevita
ble jolting. Fortunately, there are almost no
curves, the road running as straight as a
die. After rattling along for three days over the
gently undulating steppes, dotted here and
there with groves of pine and birch, whistling
through quaint, barren-looking Siberian towns
with their Greek churches invariably painted
green and surmounted by dull copper-sheeted
domes, we awoke, on the morning of January
7th, to find ourselves running into the teeth
of the wind, face to face with a northern
blizzard. At breakfast every member of our
party found at his plate some trinket or souve
nir, for this day was, by the Russian calendar,
Christmas day, and the ladies of our party had
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taken this means of reminding us of the festival
to which we had scarcely done justice at Ching
Wang Tao. All day long the storm increased
in fury, and the snow piled higher and higher
over the frozen ground. The locomotive
struggled, bravely plunging from drift to drift,
but making little headway against the encroach
ments of the storm. At sundown we were
barely moving, and at nine o'clock in the even
ing we came to a dead stop, snowbound and
unable to move. By midnight the track had
been cleared sufficiently for our train to crawl
on, and in another hour we arrived at Lake
Baikal. This great sheet of water, — the " Inland Sea
of Siberia," — a fresh-water lake containing
forms of life usually found only in salt water,
long marked the eastern terminus of the dreary
convict route.
In the summer-time it is said to be a most beau
tiful and placid lake, too huge to be spanned by
a bridge. The Czar's mandate that his railroad
should run straight was inviolate, even at Lake
Baikal; a monster vessel, in comparison with
which an ocean-liner is a mere yacht, was
designed and constructed with special reference
to the peculiar demands of the situation.
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Built in England, and carried piece by piece
over the vast reaches of Russia, and finally
assembled at its destination on the shore of
Baikal, this colossal ferry has a capacity suffi
cient to carry a locomotive and eighteen coaches
with perfect ease and safety. In fair weather,
this is comparatively a simple matter ; but when
the whole surface of the lake is locked in the
embrace of winter, the proposition is not so sim
ple. To this end the vessel is equipped with an
ingenious device for ploughing its path through
the frozen mass. In addition to the propeller, a
second screw is located well to the fore of the
keel, and at a position in which it is never very
deep below the surface. The prow of the vessel,
instead of being sharp and designed for speed,
is broad and enormously heavy, and rides low
and flat. The rapid motion of the forward
screw acts as a pump, sucking the water back
from the front of the boat, and creating a partial
vacuum under the ice before the vessel. The
weight of the ship being propelled against and
upon the ice crushes the frozen mass, thus
weakened, like an egg-shell, and the sea-giant
grinds its way slowly but steadily through
the ice and over the water.
It was long past midnight when our train
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arrived at Lake Baikal, where the great ice
breaker stood in her slip awaiting us. But it
happened that some accident to one of the piers
rendered it unsafe for our train to go aboard.
The members of our party, however, were
escorted to the vessel, leaving the train and
the less-favored passengers behind to await the
morning and the completion of repairs. Here
once more we had the distinction of being the
sole passengers on board a Russian vessel,
though this boat was many times larger than
the little draft which had carried us across the
Gulf of Pechili.
Aboard, we retired at once to our comfortable
state-rooms, where the luxury of the bath, after
so many days on the railroad, was a delight.
A few winks of sleep while our titanic ferry
crunched the heavy ice, and we landed on the
west shore at six o'clock in the morning, where
we boarded a special car and steamed off for
Irkutsk, a journey of some two hours.
The Siberian town of Irkutsk is across the
river from the railroad, and in the winter all
travel thither is by the ice, which renders the
surface of the stream as solid and firm as a
highway, and over which even the heaviest
traffic can be conducted in perfect safety.
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From time immemorial Irkutsk has been the
asylum for convicts from the penal colonies of
Siberia, whose terms of punishment have ex
pired, and for whom all return to Western
Russia was manifestly impossible, owing to the
perils of the long overland journey, without
guides and with no supply of food. The com
pletion of the Siberian railroad is altering these
conditions, making possible a more or less rapid
communication between Moscow and the penal
colonies in the Ural mountain mines. But
Irkutsk was built under the old re'gime, and it
retains, and probably will retain until the end
of its history, its primal characteristics of a
brutal, murderous, lawless, convict settlement.
Crossing the frozen river, we visited many
shops and bazaars in Irkutsk, although, owing
to some religious festival, there was a semi-
sabbath quietude about the city, and industry
was at low ebb. An excellent hotel offered an
attractive menu at rates of charge which were
ruinous. Being obliged to tarry some twenty-four
hours awaiting a train for Moscow, we found
the city anything but fascinating. Moreover,
our official guide instructed us to return to our
private car across the river for the night, as a
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matter of safety, the city of Irkutsk being a
dangerous place for strangers, and treachery and
nihilism, robbery and murder lurking on every
hand. Precautions had been taken to render our
train safe from any possible intrusion, no one
being permitted to approach after we had
retired. At eight o'clock the following morning the
semi-weekly train-de-luxe, electric-lighted and
up-to-date, drew out for Moscow. Eight more
days and nights we rattled over the bleak, cold,
snow-covered landscape through innumerable
villages and towns with unpronounceable names,
passing here and there caravans of camels
plodding knee-deep in snow, with their heavy
loads on back. At some stopping-places,
Burist and Kirghiz women and girls surrounded
our car, offering for sale the products of their
squalid farms, or trinkets and cheap jewels
culled from the waste of the Ural mountain
mines. Some of these latter were very ex
quisite, spheres of crystal of a soft green lustre,
and something between agate and cat's-eye in
appearance. These found ready sale among us,
and coaxed many rubles from our pockets.
These half-mendicant venders at the railroad
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stations were somehow suggestive of the Ameri
can Indians in the far western part of our own
country. In type of feature and other racial
characteristics they were very dissimilar to the
high cheek-boned, copper-skinned natives of
the New World, but in general appearance and
manner they did not seem to be materially
superior to the American Indians. If not
savage, the Siberian serfs are at best scarcely
more than half-civilized.
At one way- station we overhauled a Httle
band of fanatic zealots, with religious fervor
tramping their weary way to the distant
shrine of some " holy, blissful martyr," like
the Canterbury Pilgrims of Chaucer's time.
Dirty, unkempt, miserable beings they were,
four hundred years behind the time of Europe
or America, plodding along the same old ruts
in which our ancestors floundered in their
course toward modern civilization.

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A TRAGEDY
ACCOMPANYING the Miles party as valet
to Mr. Henry C. Rouse was a man
L by the name of Charles Svensen, a
pleasant-mannered fellow, always accommo
dating, and zealous in his efforts to please. A
good cook and mixer of drinks, Charles often
stood in the breach, supplying the needs of our
company when hotels and the comforts of home
were merely pleasant recollections. Whenever
baggage was to be transferred from one route
to another, or when trunks or parcels became
lost in the crush of the baggage-cars or depots
or custom-houses, Charles was always the man
to find the lost and to start the stray articles
along the proper path.
A vigorous, clean, healthy young man,
Charles Svensen seemed the last person to be
singled out as a mark for sickness or disease.
On leaving San Francisco every member of
our party had been vaccinated, and this man
was the only one of the number with whom the
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vaccination seemed to be effective, though it
was at no time so violent as to render him un
able to be about his duties. In the Philippines,
and in China and Eastern Siberia, we were all
more or less exposed to contagious diseases
which ceaselessly rage in the filthy Orient, but
we all came as far as Irkutsk unscathed.
At Irkutsk Charles Svensen complained of a
slight indisposition, but as he was able to be
about, and showed no signs of fever or other
alarming symptoms, little attention was given
the matter. The following day, on board the
train, his condition Was so much worse that
Mr. Rouse, after giving him some simple physics,
sent him to his compartment with instructions
to go to bed and take a good rest. The man
continuing to grow worse, we telegraphed ahead
for a physician, who came aboard at the next
station, and pronounced the case to be one of
influenza, and reassured us, stating that the sick
man would soon be better. A day or two later
another physician was called to the train, and
his examination caused immediate alarm, the
doctor hinting at small-pox or scarlet fever, and
ordering that we carry the sick man to Moscow,
as to leave him at any of the small Siberian
towns for treatment would mean certain death.
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All this time the general's messenger, Private
Bardeman, an enlisted man from the ranks,
shared the sick man's compartment in a car
immediately in front of our coach, nursing him
and attending to his needs with the patient
fidelity of a brother, and acting as a quarantine
agent, keeping all others from coming into direct
communication with the sufferer.
The night before our arrival at Moscow,
the train stopped at a station for fuel and
water, and the faithful Bardeman, almost
worn out by his constant vigil, left the car for
a brief breath of fresh air and a glass of hot
water. As I lay asleep in my compartment, the door
was quietly opened, and in a moment I felt
somebody pulling at my sleeve, endeavoring to
arouse me. Opening my eyes, I was horrified
to find Charles bending his face over mine, his
eyes glowing with fever, and his handsome face
one mass of black eruptions, terrible to look
upon. Instinctively I realized what it meant.
The man in his delirium had taken advantage
of the absence of his attendant, and, his body
covered with the pestilence of black small
pox, he had sought me out in my bed. Piti
fully he begged for some medicine from my
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little travelling-case, the efficacy of which he
did not doubt, even at the gate of death.
When the other members of the party learned
of this episode as we sat at breakfast, the
gravest concern seized all, for we had all been
exposed to the dreadful contagion. Again we
telegraphed ahead to Moscow for medical aid,
and to the American vice-consul, apprising
him of our situation.
At ten o'clock in the morning of January
17th, after travelling steadily nineteen days
from Pekin, and eight days from Irkutsk, we
arrived at Moscow. Late as was the hour, it
was deemed best to leave the train and to repair
at once to the hotel. A number of Russian offi
cers had assembled at the depot, and at the
entrance awaited an ambulance for Charles.
The poor fellow supported his feeble body on
the strong shoulders of his comrade, who had
nursed him faithfully and fearlessly through all
those long days and nights, with no other com
mand than that of humanity and fraternity, and
the hope of no other reward than that of a clear
conscience. No others were permitted to come
near them for fear of the contagion. As they
passed under the glaring lights in the depot at
Moscow that desolate night we paused, thrilled
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with pity and those emotions which surge
through the soul when we are in the presence
of inscrutable and merciless fate. Thus we
caught our last glimpse of Charles Svensen, who
died a day later in an isolation hospital at
Moscow. It was four o'clock in the morning when we
were finally ensconced in quarters at the "Sla-
vinsky Bazaar." Almost immediately, the
authorities, learning of the contagion to which
our party had been exposed, proceeded to take
precautions against the spread of the disease.
At first it appeared that we were all to be
placed in quarantine, but the intervention of Mr.
Smith, United States vice-consul at Moscow, suc
ceeded in rescuing us from this ordeal. Our bag
gage was all fumigated, and our entire party
was revaccinated. For prudential reasons, it was
deemed wise for our company to disband at Mos
cow, and for the same cause all the proposed
official receptions in Moscow and St. Petersburg
were given up. As individuals the party departed
from Moscow, and two days after the death of
Charles Svensen, General Miles' company con
sisted only of himself and Mrs. Miles and the
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Our stay in Moscow occupied but a few days,
but these few days were fraught with that
pleasure which one never fails to find in re
visiting scenes which have previously impressed
themselves upon the mind. We had all been
in Moscow before, but the charm of the Krem
lin, that most beautiful architectural master
piece of the Russian people, had lost none of
its fascination for us.
On Sunday morning an army officer escorted
us to the Cathedral, where we were held en
tranced by the wonderful choral music, — a
chorus of men and boys whose voices swelled
in a great volume of sound, unsupplemented
by any form of accompaniment.
Before departing from Moscow for St. Peters
burg, we indulged in a relaxation without which
no visit to this city of the North is complete.
The sleighing of Moscow is proverbial, and in
its way it is unique. The troika itself is a
large sleigh very elaborate in its finish and
general style.
Three powerful stallions — a trotter and two
runners — are hitched abreast in the picturesque
harness, with the large, hoop-like shaft-arch
forming a graceful loop over the shoulders of
the trotter, which occupies the middle position.
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But the crowning glory of the Moscow sleigh
is neither the vehicle itself nor the steeds which
drag it; but it is the magnificent personage
who, seated high on the driver's seat, urges
the sleek-coated chargers on their untiring way.
The bigger the driver, and the more colossal
his headgear, the greater is the prestige of the
turn-out. To judge by this accepted standard,
it is safe to assert that a more stylish equipage
never appeared upon the snows of Moscow than
that in which we sped for three hours on our
sight-seeing tour of the city.

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ST. PETERSBURG
IT so happened that the day of our arrival
in St. Petersburg was the great national
festival of the " Blessing of the Waters,"
an observance which, combining the elements
of religion and of state, is the most purely
Russian of any celebration of fete in the
calendar. The religious rite had its origin in remote
antiquity, and the simplicity of its conception
is as beautiful as that of many ancient rites of
pagan Egypt or classic Greece. Even as the
native dwellers in the valley of the Nile were
wont to look upon the spirit of that majestic
stream as the giver of all good and perfect
gifts, and to offer sacrifices of supplication and
thanksgiving to the mysterious Nile god, so the
swarthy Slavs of the frozen North, while their
streams are locked in the icy fetters of winter,
call down upon their waters the blessings of
the Most High. The rivers are the visible
symbols of the infinite source of life, their
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waters descending " as the gentle rain from
heaven upon the place beneath." Thereby
the fields are fructified, giving life to the torpid
seeds, and calling forth the harvest. Each little
creek and rivulet meandering through the
meadows blesses the ground it flows through,
and the mighty rivers, sweeping majestically
to the boundless ocean, are merged at last in
the infinite. The sun and wind take up again
in mist and cloud the atoms of moisture, to be
returned in dewdrops and in showers unto the
grateful earth. Therefore, to render thanks to
the Gracious Giver of waters is to invoke the
blessings of God upon His world. This, in
brief, is the origin of the most beautiful observ
ance of the Russian people which, though the
pomp and formalism of ecclesiastic and official
ceremony have well-nigh obscured its primal
purity, is at base as sweet and spontaneous as
any rite of nature-worship or of pantheistic
cult. Unfortunately, some confusion in the trans
mission of the telegrams from Moscow had led
to a misunderstanding of our intended arrival
at St. Petersburg. In consequence of this, we
were unable to view the ceremony from the
royal pavilion occupied by members of the
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imperial household and diplomatic corps, where
seats had been reserved for us. Mingling with
the unnumbered thousands who thronged the
banks of the Neva, we unofficially witnessed a
part of the ceremony.
The great winter palace of the Czar stands
in imposing massiveness within a stone's throw
of the river. From a wing of the palace a
beautiful peristyle extends, in graceful span, to
a pavilion erected upon the solid ice of the
Neva. The Czar, as the chief pontiff of the
Greek Church, usually performs the religious
rite of the blessing of the waters, assisted by
the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, the ecclesi
astical dignitary next in rank. Owing to the
illness of the Czar at this time, his brother,
the Grand Duke Michael, acted in his place.
Amidst the booming of cannon, the blare of
trumpets, and the clash of drums, the grand
duke and his attendants took their places on
the platform at the end of the pier, surrounded
by members of the royalty and church officials
of rank. The crowds on shore and on the ice
of the Neva, held at respectful distance by
lines of imperial troops, surged and thronged in
noisy but good-natured struggle for positions
of vantage, and the foreign sight-seer might
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discover very much the same degree of religious
deference among them as is to be found at a
Thanksgiving football game in an American
college town, though our national holiday was
also one of religious origin.
The observance of this ceremony is not con
fined to St. Petersburg, but every city, town,
and hamlet in the vast domain of the Czar
makes festival, the chief local official of the
Established Church presiding over the religious
functions, and the people making merry in gala-
day attire.
After the completion of the formalities at
the river, the crowds scatter, hurrying to places
of amusement or to family dinner-parties, or
surging along the Nevski Prospekt, the great
avenue of fashionable promenade. Here the
snow-covered boulevard is thronged with sleighs
of the aristocracy, — gorgeous equipages these,
with their powerful black stallions, three
abreast, and liveried footmen bundled in furs
worth a king's ransom.
Within are seated the scions of nobility, the
peers of the land and their ladies. The favored
elite pass on to the palace, where, on this day,
their majesties hold receptions. Others speed
away over the snow on social errands, or merely
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for the pleasure of the sleigh-ride and the ex
citement of the day. Greetings are called from
droshky to droshky, and the rabble gaze in ad
miration as the vehicles of notables in gay
costume whirl past in endless procession.
The Nevski Prospekt and the shores of the
Neva on this day present a pageant which is
fascinating to behold. Though winter wraps
and overcoats prevent the display of gold lace
and splendid uniform so dear to the Russian
eye, dashes of color are not wanting to brighten
the scene. Many of the laprobes are of great
beauty and elaborate pattern, and on almost
every sleigh a net of brilliant green or blue, or
other bright hue, is spread from the backs of
the horses to the dashboard, to catch the snow
which the hoofs of the steeds throw up in their
swift course, and which else would pelt the faces
of those within the vehicles.
Five days we tarried in St. Petersburg, where
General Miles was kept ceaselessly occupied
with official business and the social demands
made upon him by members of the Russian
war department.
Those were busy days for the writer, but
they were the freest days of the entire trip.
All formal receptions and audiences had been
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abandoned, owing to the small-pox episode in
Moscow. I haunted the National Museum, Sts.
Isaacs and Peter and Paul, and a score of other
places of equal interest. Mrs. Miles accom
panied me to the Grand Opera, to the circus,
and to concerts ; we took long rides, and en
joyed St. Peterburg with all the freedom of
unofficial tourists.

255

An Unofficial A ttache"

BERLIN
THERE is nothing exciting or partic
ularly novel in the trip from St.
Petersburg to the German capital.
It was rather surprising for me, however, to
find that we were the only English-speaking
persons on the train, and our linguistic attain
ments were of no rare order. None of us spoke
Russian, and the writer's smattering of German
stood us in good stead, as it was our only means
of making our wants known to the railroad
attaches. Colonel Maus met us at the depot in Berlin,
and the following morning General and Mrs.
Miles and Colonel and Mrs. Maus went on to
Paris. Left thus to myself in Old Berlin, with
the charming Bristol Hotel as headquarters, I
revelled in the fascinating haunts of the historic
city. It is not within the province of this book to
dwell at length upon the sights of Berlin or of
London or of any of the cities of modern Europe
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which are commonly on the itinerary of the
tourist. My narrative, which concerns itself
only with that which was unique and out of
the daily course of events, may not tarry to
describe the wonders of this treasure-ground
of German achievement. Galleries, museums,
palaces, and cathedrals, the pageantry of concen
trated militarism, the stress of Teutonic energy
which surges along the ancient streets, — all
these are tempting subjects to lure the writer
into devious paths of dalliance.
The particular mission which had induced
me to remain in Berlin, rather than to accom
pany my friends to the French metropolis, was
purely personal; the desire to renew one of
the most valued friendships of my life, — that
with Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, whose
acquaintance I had formed several years before
while touring in the land of the midnight sun.
It was through his courtesy that my family and
myself had been received into the private hospi
tality of his majesty, the Kaiser. The prince
and his charming wife, who had been Princess
Ypsilanti of Greece, were spending several days
of this week in Berlin, to be present on the
occasion of the Kaiser's Geburtstag, the great
national festival which brings together at
" 257

An Unofficial Attache"

the Schloss all the royalty of the German
empire. Owing to the number of official duties and
social obligations of the week, Prince Hohenlohe
was free to spend comparatively little time with
me, but we did manage to dine together thrice,
and one morning we drove together the length
of the beautiful Unter den Linden to the Schloss,
where we were registered and where we left
cards for his majesty.
January 27th, the emperor's birthday,
dawned clear and beautiful, and with the
awakening day the city became resplendent
with the gorgeous accoutrements of the royalty
of the empire. From a window in the Bristol
Hotel, with Mr. Rouse and Mr. Hoyt, who had
joined me that morning, we looked down upon
a magnificent spectacle. The hotel lodged many
of the members of nobility, and every royal
equipage passed here on its way to the castle.
On this his natal day the emperor publicly
gives thanks to God for the blessings which
have been vouchsafed to him. This ceremony
is observed in the royal chapel, in the presence
of his kinsmen, his royal vassals, the kings and
princes of the petty principalities which make
up the German empire, and the members of the
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official staff of the government. The ceremony
completed, his majesty receives the congratu
lations of his retainers in the throne-room.
This is the day of Vanity Fair. In seeming
endless procession, those who were " born great "
sweep by. The imagination of the on-looker
reverts to the fairy tales of childhood, and the
wonders of the courts of " Once upon a Time,"
the Sleeping Beauty, and the romantic prince
who showered the diamonds at the feet of
Cinderella. A prosaic American, with the in
stincts of the democratic New World, regards
such a scene as almost an unreality or a spec
tacular production which will cease at the falling
of a curtain when the lime-lights are turned
down. The German, with centuries of tradi
tional reverence behind him, regards it all with
awe, and as the symbol of that which is most
abiding and fundamental in the life of the
nation. Chivalry, the spirit of the feudal age,
this day pranks itself in all the golden panoply
of yore, and the fervid patriotism of the Teuton
forgets for the moment the enfranchisement
which the centuries have wrought, and yields
spontaneous homage to the rehabilitated past.
Gold lace and trappings, jewels and badges
of honor, robes of velvet and ermine, silken
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sashes, rainbow-hued, coaches ornate with the
handicraft of silversmith and herald, and drawn
by supernumerary horses, outriders in the splen
did liveries of ancient families, — these are the
elements which go to make up the retinue of
those who do homage to the Kaiser. Kings
and princes, fiirsten and grafen, and the ladies
of their courts, this is their day.
To-morrow, the Socialists in the Reichsrath
will kill a favorite measure of the Kaiser.

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LONDON
ON the eve of our departure from Berlin,
after all plans had been completed,
tickets secured, and reservations made,
the writer received a courteous note from Count
"Von Eulenberg, master of ceremonies at the
German court, stating that the Kaiser would
be pleased to receive me the following Sunday.
This signal mark of favor came as a great
surprise, my call at the Schloss having been
purely incidental. I was surprised that his
majesty remembered me, an American tourist
whose presentation to the emperor had been
brought about through the love of Prince
Hohenlohe for my children. The prince at
that time took upon himself to present the
children to the emperor on board the royal
yacht, and this episode, several years before
the occasion of the visit of the Miles party,
had brought about an informal introduction to
his majesty, and the consequent interchange of
several purely personal civilities. My chagrin
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at being unable to tarry long enough in Berlin
to present my compliments in 'person to the
emperor therefore was great.
The following morning we caught a few
glimpses of the spires of Cologne from the
windows of the railroad coach. A rough
passage from Ostend across the Channel to
Dover consumed all the afternoon, and at ten
o'clock the next morning we rejoined General
Miles and his retinue at the Hotel Carleton in
good old London town.
How bully it seemed, after those months of
sojourn among peoples of divers nations and
the discordant clacking of alien tongues, to
find ourselves again amongst Englishmen, to
hear the familiar accents of our own Anglo-
Saxon speech, and to feel ourselves among the
people whose language, customs, manners, and
traditions are the same as ours, whose history
is our history, and whose destiny is linked with
that of our own land.
On Sunday morning we awoke to the chimes
of London, and, acting on the impulse of the
hour, we hied ourselves to Westminster Abbey,
to the Sabbath services in that historic pile
about which cluster the memories of centuries
of English history. 262

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The charm of London is perennial, and the
writer fain would dwell at length upon the
sights which here beguile the traveller ; but
again the scope of my narrative forbids. West
minster and the Thames, Piccadilly and Pall
Mall, the Tower and London Bridge, and all
the haunts of those who from the beginning of
England's history have added to her greatness,
— all these I must pass unchronicled or depart
from the path I have set before me. Narration
rather than description is the mission of these
pages. On Sunday evening General Miles was the
guest of King Edward at Windsor, whither he
departed in the middle of the afternoon. All
guests of the king who dine at Windsor Castle
are supposed to remain over night and to share
the hospitality of the ancient seat of royalty
for a part of the following day.
What occurred at Windsor that night the
writer cannot report from personal observation,
the general being unattended on that occasion.
Moreover, General Miles is not always com
municative on subjects which involve a great
deal of personal reminiscence. He told me,
however, of a family dinner-party with the
king and queen and the Prince and Princess of
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Wales, there being but few guests other than
himself. A hand at bridge after dinner, and
such conversation as might take place at any
cosy family party rounded out the evening.
Kings, after all, are but men, and when they
are not sitting in that " fierce light which
beats upon the throne," they are not essentially
different from other men.
One anecdote of that night at Windsor
General Miles did not relate to me, and, but
for the courtesy of one other guest on that
occasion, it would never have been chronicled.
The formal evening costume prescribed by
his majesty, and that which he himself wears,
consists of the conventional swallow-tail coat
with low-cut vest, knee-breeches, and silk hose.
In anticipation of the visit at Windsor, General
Miles had procured the requisite garments from
a Paris tailor, though he refused to give us a
private exhibition or dress rehearsal. His pro
portions were evidently adapted to this formal
dress in a degree superior to that of most men,
for it is authentically reported that Edward
himself, the great arbiter of fashion, remarked
to the Prince of Wales, in the hearing of our
informant, that the American general has
imposing calves. 264

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Lord Roberts, familiarly dubbed " Bobs," and
various other men of note made our visit
at London the occasion for marked civilities
to General Miles. But the most picturesque
dinner-party tendered the general during his
stay, and one at which all the members of our
party were present, was that of the Honorable
William F. Cody, an American of international
fame, commonly known as " Buffalo Bill."
Colonel Cody's company was performing at the
Olympia, and his dinner-party was held at his
hotel at an hour early enough to allow ample
time for adjournment to the " Wild West."
A delightful occasion it was. The banquet was
served in the most exquisite style, and the droll
humor and genial hospitality of the veteran scout
and showman added a sauce piquante to every
course. Colonel Cody, in evening dress, left
the table only a few minutes earlier than his
guests, for whom the royal box was reserved
at the Olympia. A lightning-change artist is
Buffalo Bill, for scarce had we taken our places
in the box, when, mid the blare of brass, the
picturesque old showman, in cow-boy attire,
his long gray curls fluttering out from below
his sombrero, came dashing across the arena
on his fleet and graceful steed. An instant
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later the beautiful horse stopped short and
stood like a statue before us. The grizzled
Buffalo Bill, with majestic sweep of his thin
right arm, removed his broad-brimmed hat and
in stentorian tones announced the opening of
the "Greatest Show on Earth " — " Buffalo
Bill's Wild West and the Rough Riders of the
World," — precisely as he had done thousands
of times before, and as millions of people had
seen him. 'T is thus he plays his double part :
Colonel Cody — Buffalo Bill. During the per
formance our party was augmented by one
whose fame is equalled only by her beauty and
whose beauty only by her charming gracious-
ness of manner — Mary Anderson Navarro.
On another occasion we lunched at Johnson's
old tavern, " The Cheshire Cheese," off Fleet
Street, which to the present time presents very
much the same appearance as when that famous
coterie of English men of letters made it their
rendezvous. But of all the wonders of London none can
compare with the marvellous spectacle of the
city's streets. The resistless energy of the
Anglo-Saxon race is typified in the surging mul
titude which throngs the pavements of Lon
don. The versatility of the nation, the aggres-
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sive force, the boundless determination, the
resourcefulness of the British empire, — all seem
to be concentrated in the activity which makes
up the life of London's thoroughfares.
All sorts and conditions of men and manners,
busy merchants, sedate financiers, the host of
laborers, scurrying messengers and clerks, car
riages and wagons, trains, hansoms, drays, and
carts, here they move along in devious and mazy
course, — the most cosmopolitan aggregation in
the world.
Prosperity in all things material is evident in
England, and especially in London, where the
display of wealth and of the solid stability of
industrial activity is impressive to a degree
found in no other city. Yet side by side with
sturdy progress stalks lean poverty. Even as
the wealth of the British empire is concentrated
in London, so the want and destitution, the
hunger and desolation of the submerged tenth
is herded and congested in the streets and alleys
of the metropolis. A dozen times, in walking
about the city, I encountered processions of the
unemployed, — ragged squads of from thirty to
one hundred and fifty men, slowly filing along
the streets in orderly lines, huge transparencies
proclaiming them unemployed and destitute.
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Those marching nearest the curb carried tin
cups which were held out for alms from the
hands of their more fortunate fellows on the
sidewalks. Several policemen usually accom
panied every such parade, acting as escort rather
than as censors, and this official regulation of
parading want went far toward adding to its
ugliness. It was a tacit acknowledgment on the
part of the government and society that, with
all her wealth and majesty, with all her national
and intellectual greatness, England has not
solved the problem of the distribution of the
world's goods, — the feeding and sheltering of
her poor.
On Saturday, February the 7th, our party
boarded the steamship " Lucania," at Liverpool,
for New York. On Sunday, out of sight of land,
General Miles sent a message of greeting, by
the Marconi system, to King Edward at Wind
sor, and within a short time the instruments
aboard recorded the answering civility of his
majesty. For another week we tossed on the
stormy bosom of the February Atlantic, a
rough passage, and pleasant only because we
knew that at its end we should be again on
native soil.
On the fifteenth we steamed into the " Nar-
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rows," up the most imposing harbor in the
world, between Fort Wadsworth and Fort
Hamilton. The ships of many nations crowded
the anchorage on either side the vessel's course.
A moment later we sighted the great statue of
Liberty on her island pedestal. Then the beauti
ful sky-line of New York city, shining in the light
of a winter morning, broke clear and beauti
ful upon our gaze. Slowly our vessel glided
past the ancient "battery " of antique pictur-
esqueness, Castle Garden and Bowling Green,
thence up the wide channel of the North
River, dotted with unnumbered craft and alive
with the industry of two continents.
Presently a little tug, a pygmy boat com
pared with our monster ship, puts her flat nose
against our side, grunts and puffs and pushes,
now here, now there, now two or three places at
once. There is a shouting of signals and com
mands, a commotion among all hands, crew and
passengers crowd about the railing, and in a trice
the " Lucania " is safe and fast within her slip.
Before the ship had come to a stop, the
writer, anxiously scanning the crowd of people
looking upward from the dock, discovered four
familiar faces, and the wandering "unofficial
attache" " was at home again.
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That night we were all guests of Mr. Rouse at
dinner at Sherry's. I dare say we all talked
at once, and everybody laughed a great deal and
was very happy. And so our journey came to
an end, where it had begun, in the best country
under the sun, and the freest, cleanest, happiest,
healthiest land on the circle of the globe.

THE END

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