Paz. I was charged with striking a Filipino, pleaded guilty and was fined ten pesos for the offense.
My
mess-mates, who had heard of my being taken down to the court-house,
came into the justice's room and remonstrated with him. But he said
the law was the law and the fine must stand, although he realized that
I had received great provocation owing to the prevalence of cholera.
But to show his own disapproval of the man's trick, and that he was not
at all prejudiced against the white gentlemen, he took off his collar
and coat and called the unsuspecting mess-boy outside on to the porch.
The judge invited the boy to step up close and slapped his face
vigorously, once on the right and once on the left cheek. Then he
leisurely put on his collar and coat and, followed by all, re-entered
the Justice Chamber and fined himself twenty pesos—ten pesos per
smack! After which we adjourned to Don Pedro's saloon and drank to the
mess-boy's better understanding.
In
due course the epidemic subsided like a fire that has burned itself out
for want of fuel. The figures may not be correct, but it was said that
one-tenth of the native population on the island had been wiped out.
Four thousand out of forty were a big slice.
After
that, conditions returned to normal, as they always do if you give them
time. The next exciting event on the island was the killing of Tuan
Charlie (Charlie Schuck), the white man who was as much a Moro as any
of them and was regarded as one of their chiefs. He was the same
fellow whom the American soldier had shot in the thigh when he had been
suspected of treachery on a punitive expedition.
I
had seen a great deal of Charlie, for I had equipped his pearling boat;
but he never sold me any shell or pearls, except once, when he got much
the better of me—good luck to him! He had also managed my lumber
company: I was the chairman and got the pains; he was the contractor
and got the plums. Finally he had leased me the land on which I had
fooled about with automatic hemp-stripping gear, when again he had got
the sweets and I the bitter. Now he was dead,
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