LITMIR.BIZ

      A Victim of Yaws before and after Treatment with Salvarsan

      The discovery that salvarsan was a specific for the disfiguring disease known as yaws was made by Dr. R.P. Strong of the Bureau of Science. The effect of this drug is almost miraculous. A single injection usually cures completely.

      Not only was Blount perfectly familiar with every detail of this damnable crime, but he must of necessity have known of the torturing of friars to extort money, which preceded and followed it.

      The following statement seems to sum up his view of the whole matter:—

“It is true there were cruelties practised by the Filipinos on the Spaniards. But they were ebullitions of revenge for three centuries of tyranny. They do not prove unfitness for self-government. I, for one, prefer to follow the example set by the Roosevelt amnesty of 1902, and draw the veil over all those matters.”16

      The judge drew the veil not only over this, but, as we have seen, over numerous other pertinent matters which occurred in this land of “profound peace and tranquillity” just at the time Wilcox and Sargent were making their trip. My apologies to him for withdrawing the veil and for maintaining that such occurrences as those in question demonstrate complete and utter unfitness for self-government on the part of those who brought them about!

      If it be true that Blount knew more than one officer of the American army who did things to the Filipinos almost as cruel as Villa did to Lieutenant Piera, why did he not report them and have the criminals brought to justice?

      Such an attack on the army, in the course of which there is not given a name or a fact which could serve as a basis for an investigation, is cowardly and despicable.

      I do not for a moment believe that Blount speaks the truth, but if he does, then his failure to attempt to bring to justice the human fiends concerned brands him!

      It has been the fashion in certain quarters to make vile allegations of this sort against officers of the United States army, couching them in discreetly general terms. This is a contemptible procedure, for it frees those who make reckless charges from danger of the criminal proceedings which would otherwise doubtless be brought against them.

On arrival at Ilagan, the town where Piera was tortured to death, Blount says17 that Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent were

      “given a grand baile [ball] and fiesta [feast], a kind of dinner-dance, we would call it. … From Ilagan they proceeded to Aparri, cordially received everywhere, and finding the country in fact, as Aguinaldo always claimed in his proclamations of that period, seeking recognition of his government by the Powers, in a state of profound peace and tranquillity—free from brigandage and the like.”

      Within sight of the banquet hall, within hearing of the music, lay a lighter on which were huddled eighty-four priests of the Catholic Church, many of them gray-haired old men, innocent of any evil conduct, who for weeks had suffered, mentally and physically, the tortures of the damned.

      Of the events of this evening and the following day Father Malumbres says:—

      “From the river the convento could be seen profusely illuminated and the strains of music could be heard, an evident sign that they were engaged in revelry. This gave us a bad start, as we came to fear that Villa had returned from the expedition undertaken to come up with two Americans who had crossed the Caraballo range and were thinking of coming down as far as Aparri. It was late to announce to Villa our arrival at Ilagan, so that we were obliged to pass the night on the lighter. In the morning our boat was anchored in front of the pueblo of Ilagan, where we were credibly informed that Villa had returned. This accursed news made us begin to fear some disagreeable incident.

      “Our Matias went ashore and delivered the official communication regarding our transfer to Villa, while we waited impatiently for his decision. Sergeant Matias at length returned with orders for our disembarkation; we put on the best clothes we had and the rowers placed a broad plank between the lighter and the arsenal and we left our floating prison two abreast. Matias called the roll and the order to march, we were eighty-four friars in a long column climbing the steep ascent to Ilagan.

      “When we had arrived in front of the building used for headquarters, we faced about in front thereof, and the first thing we saw in one of the windows were the sinister features of Falaris, who with a thundering brow and black look was delighting himself in the contemplation of so many priests surrounded by bayonets and filled with misery. Any other person but Villa would have melted on seeing such a spectacle, which could but incite compassion. The two American tourists were also looking on at this horrible scene as if stupefied, but they soon withdrew in order, perhaps, not to look upon such a painful picture. It was, indeed, heartrending to contemplate therein old gray-haired men who had passed their lives in apostolic work side by side with young men who had just arrived in this ungrateful land, and many sick who rather than men seemed to be marble statues, who had no recourse but to stand in line, without one word of consolation; therein figured some who wore religious garb, others in secular dress limited to a pair of rumpled trousers and a cast-off coat, the lack of this luxurious garment being replaced in some instances by a native shirt.

      “For two long hours we were detained in the middle of the street under the rays of a burning sun and to the scandal of the immense crowd which had been gathered together to witness the denouement of the tragedy. The priests had hardly come into the presence of Villa when Fathers Isidro and Florentino were called out for the purpose of having heaped upon them a flood of insults and affronts. Father Isidro was ordered by Villa to interview Sr. Sabas Orros, who, Villa supposed, would wreak his revenge blindly upon him, but he was greatly mistaken, as said gentleman treated the priest with great respect; the tyrant remained talking to Father Florentino in the reception room of the headquarters building, and when it appeared that such talk would come to blows, the elder of the Americans left one of the rooms toward the reception room, and the scene suddenly changing, Villa arose and addressing the priest said: ‘I am pleased to introduce to you an American Brigadier-General, Mr. N.’ The latter returned a cordial greeting in Spanish to the priest who made a courteous acknowledgment; after this exchange of courtesies, Villa resumed his defamatory work, pouring out a string of absurdities and infamous insults upon the friars, going so far as to say in so many words: ‘from the bishop down you are all thieves and depraved’ he added another word which it would be shameful to write down, and so he went on from one abyss to another without regard to reputations or the respect due to venerated persons.

      “The American let his disgust be seen while Villa was talking, and the latter understood these protests and ordered the priest to withdraw, the comedy coming

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