264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



front of their huts. When they have accomphshed this then 

 they have reached the highest point of honor in their code. 

 Like the Roman Senator who, having performed a great serv- 

 ice for his country, and having been thanked pubhcly in the 

 Roman Senate, is thereafter entitled to retain his seat, and no 

 one can supplant him. These head-hunters were pure savages, 

 and although rather small in stature, and rather degraded in 

 looks, yet from their earnest eyes and general aspect they 

 showed vigor and power and intelligence if only directed in the 

 right way. I never shall forget one instance that occurred dur- 

 ing our stay. We were there in April, about two weeks, at the 

 dedication of the Connecticut building, and again three weeks 

 in October. In April everything was new. The savages were 

 out with the worst kind of instruments, kettle drums, and pans, 

 and dancing the most grotesque dances imaginable around a 

 few embers of a fire burning in the center. Men and women 

 alike. It was a scene which I had heard described, but which 

 I had never seen. I thought then that they represented the 

 worst and the most degraded elements of the Philippine Islands. 

 In October I passed through this same village. I visited their 

 schools. At that time I saw seven of these same degraded 

 children of the Filipinos sitting upon a log, partially clothed, 

 and attempting to sing "America." They were not on the key, 

 I assure you, but you could tell what they were attempting to 

 sing, both in the music and the words. I declare it was a reve- 

 lation. They had seen for the first time civilization in all of its 

 departments. They had seen something better. They had 

 seen the exact discipline as given out under the government of 

 Uncle Sam, and they were true to the lesson. I never saw such 

 a thirst for knowledge and such intense desire to learn as was 

 pictured upon the faces of some of those children of the Filip- 

 inos in their school. I thought what a revelation it was, what 

 an object lesson for America. 



From the top of the Ferris wheel, or the tower, one could 

 look over and beyond any one of the large buildings, and 

 could locate the old St. Louis slave market, where only a few 

 years ago, as we know, the institution of slavery was in exist- 

 ence and practiced ; yet in sight of that old slave market beings 

 a hundredfold more degraded than were the slaves, beings who 

 had never sat at a table, who had never eaten anything except 

 with their fingers, and whose highest ambition was to slay 



