An Epoch in History | Page 6

be made and sent out.
Thus it can be easily seen that we were indeed pioneers. In many places no school-house was to be found, and in some cases it was even difficult to get the town council to provide a case in which to keep the supplies.
The work of the teachers was, in short; to "make the English language the basis of instruction in the public schools." On our arrival at Bacalod two schools were found in progress, for some soldiers had been detailed for the work here previous to our coming. One of these was for boys and the other, for girls. Thus the work here had been in a measure simplified, but complications that had arisen at Talisay, one of the largest and richest towns on the island, demanded a change of teachers and the writer was assigned to the place as superintendent. Here an attempt had been made to start a school but it had failed ignominiously and a system of education was to be put into operation from the very start.
The Filipinos are not strong advocates of co-education, so separate schools were to be started for the boys and the girls. The one for the boys was gotten well in hand before the one for the girls was attempted at all.
A few days after reaching the town and securing a home the presidente of the town had it publicly announced that the following Monday morning at eight o'clock a public school for boys would be opened in a building that had been rented for the purpose by the municipal council. About the middle of the afternoon of the same day a man beat a little drum throughout all the streets of the town to call the people out and the town clerk announced both in Spanish and in the native language that this public school would begin at the time and place mentioned above; that instruction would be free to all who came; that the government would furnish all supplies; and that instruction would be given in the English language. A native principal and assistants were employed and everything was ready to begin.
The official report of the result is as follows:
Boys' public school of Talisay, Negros, P. I., began November 4, 1901. Forty-three boys present at eight o'clock. Forty-one of them knew "good morning" and "good afternoon" but do not know the distinction between them. Two of them speak simple Spanish. At eight forty-five, eight more, who had been attending an early morning private school, came in together.
The books they brought were so varied and so different from one another that it seemed impossible to bring any reasonable degree of order out of such a chaos, and so, after struggling vainly for about a week with the problem, the superintendent by one fell stroke removed everything in use and put in a uniform system, and from that day on the English language has been the basis of instruction in the public schools of Talisay. The work was of necessity very slow at first, but by the end of a year two schools were going nicely and a number of the brightest boys and girls had made really excellent progress.
CHAPTER V.
A "BAILE."
Not long after the arrival of our party at Bacalod we received an invitation to a "baile" given in our honor by the inhabitants of Silay, a town some ten or twelve miles up the northern coast and one noted for its social life. The invitation was accepted with pleasure, and about the middle of the afternoon on the day appointed we were clad in the immaculate white of the tropics and steaming away up the coast on board a launch sent for our conveyance. Twilight was still lingering on the path of day when we anchored just off shore at the town. A row-boat containing the officials of the city came out to meet us and, in due season, we were ushered into a spacious drawing-room filled almost to overflowing with the élite of the town. The élite of towns in the Philippines speak Spanish, and, as only one or two of our party could at that time boast of more than a formal acquaintance with the Castilian tongue, the exchange of ideas that evening between us and the Filipinos was of necessity not very rapid.
The necessity of easy communication between us was rendered somewhat less indispensable by the announcement of supper as soon as we were rested from our trip. When we had taken our places at the table a young Filipino about twenty-five years of age arose and gave a lengthy toast to the recent union of the Philippines with the United States. But as we Americans were unable to scale the dizzy heights of his climaxes or sink to the depths of