day of July,
nineteen hundred and one, not only placed a mile-stone on the road of
civilization, but also marked an epoch in the history of the world.

That day placed a mile-stone on the road of civilization because it
saw the culmination of one of the greatest movements ever attempted in
behalf of common school education. It marked an epoch in the history
of the world because, for the first time within the knowledge of man,
a conquering people, instead of sending battalions of soldiers to hold
the conquered in subjection, sent a carefully selected body of men and
women to carry to them the benefits of a highly developed society.

It was on this day that the United States Government sent from San
Francisco four hundred and ninety-nine trained men and women to
establish throughout the Philippine Islands a system of free public
schools.

The ball on the tower of the Ferry Building in San Francisco had just
fallen, announcing the hour of noon on the one hundred and twentieth
meridian, when the propellers began revolving and the United States
Army Transport "Thomas" swung out into the middle of the bay, where it
dropped anchor for a few moments while some belated boxes of lemons
and a few other articles were added to the equipment of the steward's
department.

The anchor was again on its way to the surface when a row-boat driven
by four oarsmen with drawn muscles and clenched teeth glided in under
the bow of the ship. Its passenger, a belated teacher who at the last
moment had wandered from the pier, was shouting for some one to throw
him a rope, and a few moments later our last passenger whose silvery
hair little indicated the probability of such a blunder was landed in
a heap on the deck. Our ship was now under way and soon passed out of
the Golden Gate bearing on and between her decks the largest number of
teachers as well as the largest cargo of pedagogical equipment that
any vessel in the history of the world ever bore to a foreign land to
instruct an alien people. Late in the afternoon five whales came up
and spouted and played around us. We passed on and as their fountains
of spray disappeared in the distance the sun sank down to pay his
wonted devotion before the shrine of night. We were alone.

By good fortune we went by way of the Hawaiian Islands and touched at
Honolulu. We entered the harbor in the first faint light of the coming
morn while the moon still shone with resplendent glory just above the
nearer