THE PHILIPPINE EXHIBITION 129 



alike were glad to be taught English by the soldiers, who entered the 

 schools at once and carried on the work until the arrival of one thousand 

 teachers from the United States in 1900. The Filipinos also found 

 themselves in possession of a share in the government, not only in the 

 cities and provinces where two-thirds of the officials were elected by the 

 people's vote, but also in the central government, three Filipinos and 

 four Americans comprising the Philippine Commission. They gained 

 practical ideas at the government experimental farms where they flocked 

 in hundreds to see modern machinery and methods applied to the 

 growing of Philippine crops. Each man learned that he could cut 

 lumber free of charge from the public forests to build a substantial house 

 and a boat. Many hundreds of Filipinos gained work and good wages 

 in the construction of the new roads and railroads. ]Many an inland 

 farmer found routes opened by which he could market his produce. 

 The lepers and their [riends realized that the homes provided at the 

 Culion Island Leper Colony were better than any they had ever known. 

 Prisoners from Manila appreciated the fact that they were made "colo- 

 nists" on parole at Iwahig, with opportunity to work in the fields and 

 earn the privilege of being joined by their families. 



When these facts are borne in mind, the Philippine Exhibit assumes 

 new interest. It shows not only what the Filipinos were, and what 

 Philippine agriculture and commerce were, under Spanish rule, but also 

 what they are under American influence. It proclaims emphatically 

 that progress has been the keynote of life in the Philippines in these ten 

 years, despite calamities, and it suggests that in the future the prosperity 

 of the Philippine people is to be limited only by the great productive 

 capacity of the islands. 



The first section of the exhibit shows Negrito and Igorot huts with 

 accompanying life-size figures represented in the work of making fire, 

 carrying baskets of food, cleaning rice and weaving. The second section 

 leads from these most primitive tribes through the Moro and other lesser 

 tribes to the Tagalog and Visayan groups, the most highly civilized of the 

 Malayan Christian Filipinos. The cases are filled with metal work, 

 with pottery and basketry and with beautiful cloths woven from hemp, 

 pineapple fibre and silk; the pillars carry weapons of many kinds, 

 fishing and hunting outfits, busts of natives, and relief maps showing 

 the localities occupied in the islands by each tribe. 



Continuallv, however, the attention of the visitor is caught by the 



