No word about the islands can be complete unless it touches upon the wonderful beauty of this country. This is a great part of the good inheritance of the people. It ought to quicken the pleasure and pride of every Filipino in his beautiful land. Its lofty mountains, its lovely plains and noble rivers, the rich verdure that clothes the country, all go to make up beautiful pictures everywhere. There is much that can and must be done to make the cities and towns more fit and beautiful places for people to live in; but for the outside country nature has done great things.
The banana plants and the nipa and cocoanut palms are beautiful as well as useful. So are the great mango trees and the fields of growing rice. In all nature there is nothing more graceful than the giant bamboos that grow by every stream. Their beauty is of a very perfect sort. This plant does more than delight the eye; of all tropical growths it is the most useful to man. In a little composition which was written by a Chinese schoolboy in his own country, a fine account is given of the many uses to which the bamboo can be put. He says:
MANILA SCHOOLBOYS.
“We have a bamboo hedge in our grounds, and nothing could be better. I am writing with a bamboo-handled pencil; I have seen bamboo masts on vessels. On the whole, the bamboo is one of the most precious possessions of China. Its tapering stalks supply joists for houses, ribs for sails, shafts for spars, tubes and buckets for water, fishing-rods, and the handles and ribs of our fans. The great bamboo, split, makes an excellent roof. Rafts are made of the bamboo; baskets are woven of it. The Chinaman sits in a bamboo chair at a bamboo table; and he may rest himself, in the heat of the day, beneath the bamboo tree, with a bamboo hat upon his head. When I have been all about the edges of the world, and have seen all kinds of strange people, I ask nothing better than to come back home and sit under the shade of a bamboo veranda, and when my life is finished, to go to heaven from a bamboo bed.”
To how many other uses than even these do the Filipino people put bamboo! They make the sails of ships from it; they build bridges of it; boats, rafts, water-pipes, scaffolds for building houses, and all kinds of baskets and furniture. Indeed this plant, with the India rubber plant and the bijuca, would enable almost any Filipino to build and furnish a house that would answer all the needs of the climate.
We have now studied the main facts in the history of these islands. The Story of the Philippines has many sad chapters, but there need be no more such. The Filipino people have been patient under trial. They have been forbearing through much injustice and misrule. They have been brave and patriotic always. Now we may hope that a new day has dawned upon the land. What this day will bring forth depends, to a great extent, upon the Filipino boys and girls who are now growing up. They must learn to be good citizens. They must be able, when they are men and women, to take a wise part in governing the country.
The night before José Rizal was shot, he said to a friend: “What is death to me? I have sown; others are left to reap.”
Rizal would have been glad to see this new day. He would have been glad to see schoolhouses opening everywhere in the country, for he knew that knowledge is power. The seeds which he helped to sow are those of liberty, justice, and peace. The Filipino people must be wise enough to cherish these seeds into strong, healthy growth. If they do this the country will surely reap the harvest which he foresaw, of peaceful days, full of hope and happiness.