tives of real ability.

Rev. Dr. George W. Wright of Manila, who has charge of a large
Presbyterian seminary for training young Filipinos for the ministry, and
who has had much experience in teaching, said: "In the old days only the
sons of the illustrados, or prominent men of the noble class, had any
chance to secure an education and this education was given in the
Catholic private schools. With the advent of the Americans any boy
possessing the faculty of learning quickly may get a good education,
provided he will work for it. I know of one case of a boy who did not
even know who his parents were. He gained a living by blacking shoes and
selling papers. He came to me for aid in entering a night school. He
learned more rapidly than anyone I ever knew. Soon he came to me and
wanted a job that would occupy him half a day so that he could go to
school the other half of the day. I got him the job and in a few months
he was not only perfecting himself in English, but reading law. Nothing
can keep this boy down; in a few years he will be a leader among his
people. Under the old Spanish system he never would have been permitted
to rise from the low caste in which fortune first placed him."

[Illustration:

Imperial Gate, Fort Santiago, Manila.
This is the Main Entrance to the Old Fort,
Built Into the Massive Wall. This Wall
Was for Spanish Defense Against
Warlike Native Chiefs]

More than a thousand American teachers are scattered over the Philippine
Islands, and for ten years these men and women have been training the
young of both sexes. Some have proved incompetent, a few have set a very
bad example, but the great majority have done work of which any nation
might be proud. They have not only been teachers of the young, but they
have been counselors and friends of the parents of their pupils.

The work done in a material way in the Philippines is even more
remarkable. Of the first importance is the offer of a homestead to every
citizen from the public lands. So much was paid for the friar lands that
these are far beyond the reach of anyone of ordinary means, but the
government has large reserves of public land, which only need
cultivation to make them valuable. Sanitary conditions have been
enormously improved both in Manila and throughout the islands. In the
old days Manila was notorious for many deaths from cholera, bubonic
plague and smallpox. No sanitary regulations were enforced and th