been rented for the purpose by the
municipal council. About the middle of the afternoon of the same day a
man beat a little drum throughout all the streets of the town to call
the people out and the town clerk announced both in Spanish and in the
native language that this public school would begin at the time and
place mentioned above; that instruction would be free to all who came;
that the government would furnish all supplies; and that instruction
would be given in the English language. A native principal and
assistants were employed and everything was ready to begin.

The official report of the result is as follows:

Boys' public school of Talisay, Negros, P. I., began November
4, 1901. Forty-three boys present at eight o'clock. Forty-one
of them knew "good morning" and "good afternoon" but do not
know the distinction between them. Two of them speak simple
Spanish. At eight forty-five, eight more, who had been
attending an early morning private school, came in together.

The books they brought were so varied and so different from
one another that it seemed impossible to bring any reasonable
degree of order out of such a chaos, and so, after struggling
vainly for about a week with the problem, the superintendent
by one fell stroke removed everything in use and put in a
uniform system, and from that day on the English language has
been the _basis_ of instruction in the public schools of
Talisay. The work was of necessity very slow at first, but by
the end of a year two schools were going nicely and a number
of the brightest boys and girls had made really excellent
progress.

CHAPTER V.

A "BAILE."

Not long after the arrival of our party at Bacalod we received an
invitation to a "baile" given in our honor by the inhabitants of
Silay, a town some ten or twelve miles up the northern coast and one
noted for its social life. The invitation was accepted with pleasure,
and about the middle of the afternoon on the day appointed we were
clad in the immaculate white of the tropics and steaming away up the
coast on board a launch sent for our conveyance. Twilight was still
lingering on the path of day when we anchored just off shore at the
town. A row-boat containing the officials of the city came out to meet
us and, in due season, we were ushered into a spacious drawing-room
filled almost to overflowing with the elite of the town. The elite of