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The National Geographic Magazine 



mountain goat, wild mountain goat, 

 and one of the shots of this gentleman's 

 rifle struck a rock on the mountain side 

 and ricochetted back, and by the merest 

 chance inflicted a very serious wound. 

 But," he said calmly, "I never told 

 that ; he never knew I was hurt because. 

 I put my heavy fur cap that the Per- 

 sian's wear over my head, and it bled 

 inside until we got home and he never 

 knew it." I said to him, "What was 

 the name of the gentleman who shot 

 this hole in your head," and he said 

 very proudly, "It was His Excellency 

 Sir Henry Mortimer Durand." (Ap- 

 plause.) I only mention this to illustrate 

 the innate hospitality and character 

 of this savage tribe. And we learned a 

 lesson which is the same the world 

 over; if we have to be shot in the head, 

 we prefer to have it done in a careful 

 and diplomatic way. (Applause.) 



Further on we were engaged in sev- 

 eral fights with different tribes— pro- 

 tected always by an escort on this jour- 

 ney — and I could tell you many things 

 that would increase your interest. And I 

 recall on one occasion when we were in 

 the middle of a very unpleasant fight, 

 being shot at from all sides, my wife 

 was ill and being carried in a litter, the 

 old chieftain who was at the head of our 

 escort begged me to mount my horse 

 and fly quickly over the mountains. 

 He said escape was easy. I pointed out 

 that my wife could not escape this way, 

 and refused his suggestions. He turned 

 to me rather sadly, stroked his beard 

 and said, "Well, sir, you indeed are a 

 very young man. When you have 

 reached my time of life you will know 

 there is only one of you, but there are 

 as many wives as there are sands in the 

 desert." (Laughter.) 



I could go on and tell you about 

 these people, but I have a better 

 method than that of letting you know 

 what they are. I have only to recom- 

 mend to you the delightful book by 

 Lady Durand called "A Northern Tour 



in Western Persia," wherein she de- 

 scribes far more conclusively and far 

 more beautifully these people and this 

 country, and in all sincerity I recom- 

 mend you to read this book. And now 

 if you will permit me to leave the toast 

 which has been assigned to me, I can- 

 not help thinking of Kipling's lines 

 where he says "West is West and East 

 is East, and never a twain shall meet," 

 and I feel very strongly he might re- 

 write this if he had occasion to visit 

 the Far East during recent years — 

 certainly it must be very largely modi- 

 fied. He perhaps does not appreciate 

 what even one great traveler can ac- 

 complish ; but there are several classes 

 of travelers and there is only one class 

 in particular which I admire ; I admire 

 a man who travels for the purpose of 

 bringing closer together two great peo- 

 ple, I refer to the American people and 

 the Philippine people. I have seen in 

 the Far East the effect of one man's 

 work. I am sure you already suspect 

 to whom I am referring, for there is 

 one name in the Philippines, the name 

 of one American which will go down in 

 their history as long as there is a 

 Filipino people in existence, and that is 

 the name of our distinguished guest 

 this evening, the Honorable William H. 

 Taft. (Applause.) 



Now Mr Taft has done more than 

 travel a hundred thousand miles. The 

 geographies showed that when we took 

 the Philippines from Spain, or acquired 

 them from Spain, there were 1,100 

 islands in the Philippines, and now our 

 census shows that at the time Mr Taft 

 left the Philippines there were over 

 3,000 of them. I am tempted to ask, 

 like District Attorney Jerome, "Where 

 did you get them ?" Now Mr Taft has 

 sought for virgin soil, and I can assure 

 you he has found a place — found, dis- 

 covered, occupied, and taken possession 

 of a place which no man had sought 

 after before — I mean a place in the 

 heart and affection of the Filipino. It 



