"All right, to-morrow we go."
Richardson then related his Mindanao experiences. On his way south on the steamer he did all he could to prime himself full of engineering knowledge. He discovered among the passengers an engineer whom he put through a severe cross-examination. After seven days he arrived in Zamboango and, reporting to headquarters, was instructed to go to the Insular Penitentiary about twenty miles down the coast. At the prison his duties were outlined to him. What a drop from structural engineering they were! His "bridge building" consisted of acting as foreman in charge of one hundred and twenty convicts who were hauling wheelbarrow loads of sand and filling in a gulch near the prison buildings.
The penitentiary was situated on the shore of the island of Mindanao and was one of the Insular Government prisons. The institution consisted of several one-story, cement-walled and thatch-roofed houses which, in addition to containing the cells for the convicts, had rooms and accommodations for the guards and officers. The prisoners were largely recruited from the Moro tribe, nominal Mohammedans, with whom the United States has had much trouble. There were also a few Filipinos and a number of Chinese.
Richardson was comfortably situated in one of the cottages which were provided for the officials of the prison. The entire group of buildings was within a few hundred feet of the ocean and was buried in a luxuriant jungle of palms and evergreen trees of the tropics.
Each morning at six o'clock the convicts, attired in their striped uniforms, were conducted by a number of armed guards to a ravine across which the prison authorities had planned to build a bridge. The preliminary work of filling and grading was being done and it was to oversee this work that Richardson was assigned. All day long, under the tropical sun, he supervised the hauling, filling and levelling. It was a position a ten-year-old boy could have held. As the work progressed he, no doubt, would have had to use his knowledge of bridge construction. Fortunately, for those of posterity who are destined to use this bridge, he did not remain to complete the work.
Ten days on the job and he was notified that he was to be transferred to another part of the Islands. He was instructed to report to Manila for orders. His removal was due to the fact that the Manila office had sent six men to Mindanao when only four were needed and as he was the last to arrive he was naturally the first to go. He took a boat and reached Manila after an absence of one month during which he received one hundred and twenty dollars and expenses and two thousand miles travel, visiting many of the island ports en route.
As the Bureau of Education authorities had assumed that unless something extraordinary happened I was a fixture in my position, I expected to be thrown out when I notified them of my intention to leave. It also would look as though I were afraid that I could not pass the civil service examination which was scheduled for the next day and which I had to take to become a regular employé—for I was only a temporary man up to this time. The shortness of the notice might also cause trouble for, as we were to leave the Islands that day, I could give only a few hours' notice. On second thought I concluded that the Bureau could not justly object for I had come at a time when it was badly in need of a man to issue the annual report and I had finished this volume, having put in much overtime on it without extra remuneration.
However, everything passed off smoothly and, instead of being forced to stay or being kicked out, I was treated with the greatest kindness and consideration by every one from Director White down. I never before left a position with so much good will on the part of my employers. Mr. White expressed his regret and stated that he had planned to soon promote me and give me an increase in salary. He added that if at any time he could be of service to me I should not hesitate to call on him.
That evening Richardson and I sailed in the hold of a ship for Hongkong. After travelling through Japan, Korea, China and the Philippine Islands we left Manila with more coin than we had when we departed from Honolulu eight months before. We each were now worth about eight hundred dollars.