Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Next-Door Neighbor to Give Up Social Frivolities and Become a Missionary Among the Savages of the Philippines M llS LORILLARD SPENCER, one of the most beautiful and charming as well as one of the wealthiest women in the fash ionable Newport colony, will close her lovely home on the harbor front and go to the Philippines as a mis- eionary. At present Airs. Spencer's nearest neighbors are Mrs. John Nicholas Brown, mother of the “richest boy in the world,’’ and Mrs. Elsie French Vanderbilt, the former wife of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, in the future her nearest neighbors will be the war like, ferocious and ignorant Moros, many of whom live on tree tops on the island of Jolo. Could any contrast be greater than that between Airs. Spencer’s present and future? The members of New York and Newport society are still dazed with •astonishment over her decision. Her only son, Lorillard, Jr., who married pretty Mary Sands, is aghast, but no Spencer one is able to make Mrs, change her plans. “Think of the opera you will miiss,” say her friends, to no avail. “Think of the loneliness of life away from all your friends,’’ say the junior Spencers, but to no avail. “Think of the money you will spend on wretched, dirty savages,’’ warn her financial advisers, but their warning, too, falls on stony ground. No worldly consideration weighs with this high bred, brilliant woman, who might lead the Newport set if she wished, and who has long been a brilliant member of what Ward Mc Allister named the “400.’’ Knowing her firm determination to go to the Philippines, at is interesting to dis cover her reasons for giving herself to such a mission; and equally inter esting to see what she gives up. Before her marriage, Mrs. Spencer was Caroline Berryman. Her parents were enormously wealthy, and her fortune far exceeded that of the man she married, the popular “Lardy” Spencer, a grandson of old Pierre Lorillard. Their combined fortunes placed them among the wealthiest members of the New York-Newport set. From the day of her marriage, which took place before her eighteenth birthday, Airs. Spencer became an important factor in so ciety. The Newport mansion, which had belonged to Mr. Spencer’s fathfer, fell to the bride and bridegroom, and their entertainments were lavish and delightful. As time passed, the Spencers be came more and more firmly en trenched socially. Their beautiful town house on Fifth avenue was a favorite place with the exclusive members of society, as was their Newport home. Their opera box always held the gayest parties. From a social viewpoint, Mrs. Spencer could desire nothing else. Three years ago Air. Spencer died, and his fortune was left uncondi tionally to his widow. This, with her own fortune, made Mrs. Spencer one of the richest widows in New York. To fill in her period of mourning she took a companion and went for a trip around the world. On this trip she visited the Philippines. Because of her wealth and social position, she was entertained in as elaborate a fashion as the Manila and other posts could devise. One day she expressed a desire to see the fierce Aloros in their native islands. She was taken to the Island of Jolo, which is the farthest south of all the Philippines. There she met Bishop Charles H. Brent, the Protestant Episcopal head of that wild diocese, and there she saw savagery at its worst. Generously she gave to the various missions, but she returned to New York overcome with the feeling that there was some thing more for her to do. When the Newport season opened she threw herself into its gayeties. It seemed as though she wanted to test herself, as though she must see just how strong a hold the Philip pines had on her imagination. But even at the gayest dance she would •ou nds i “Hod, tch AH.' Mrs. Lorillard Spencer. From Miniature by Amalia Kussner. mortem 1 iew trial large re] rief anc Saturda; agh M. >n the a for a new sfenae B i dgepodge les the o i Tied by t > and Jur i •ye will I before th J ly it 9 o e made i ension of y is git J to the it .1 likely th J asked 1ji| WmSm '■’tost. The Village Where Mrs. Lorillard Spencer Will Live Among the Wretched Natives. Instead of cruising in Alediterranean waters on a perfectly equipped steam yacht, as in the days when her hus band was living, this beautiful widow, who is still youthful in face and spirits, will cruise in and out among the southern islands in rude native canoes, facing danger every day of her life. Danger? Yes. Not alone the pas sive danger of disease, engendered by the filth of the people and the heat of the islands, but the active dangers, due to the warlike charac teristics of the Moros, the wild men of the hills, as they are sometimes called. When the United States took over the Philippines, it assumed charge of their more than 8.000,000 natives. Of these, more than 1,000,- 000 are Moro Mohammedans. They have caused the Government more anxiety than all the other 7,000,000 combined. They are divided in groups, each group dominated by fierce and lawless leaders. One group of 350,000 are the descend- ization. Of tlie 300,000 children of her Aloro neighbors, only 1,000 are receiving even the crudest education. The United States Government pro vides schools, under military rule, for these children, but naturally the Moro takes to schooling no quicker than to bathtubs or soap. Mrs. Spencer’s aim is to teach the parents of these children the wisdom of sending them to school. But per haps the greatest need in all this island is the social. In spite of their warlike aggressiveness and their prowess in treacherous war, these Moros are a sickly race. Hospitals must be established where the peo ple can be cured of chronic ailments such as malaria, hookworm, black fever and other tropica! diseases which come mainly from unhygienic habits. A large share of Airs. Spencer’s fortune will be devoted to develop- finicality.” fen-lngr tuj demonitr i: •wd wer s lntlmld. e rank’s L. ,-J fere laying a on wi tching at e nted ltef if.i Boat Used by the Missionaries to Reach the Natives far Up the Rivers in the Interior. uneel tr j xrtators bej :he trial, sra now being J re antic ipaJ little incoj ind tecbnid overed. ■plain, bscl affirmative rd show: . 'G ■at they i-.i t for the t ne action.’ ] hey show I lurt eotne i •er had any] >n he gave 1 m the roqii 3ne of the Unconverted Natives settlement will cost will be no greater than the annual expenses of her Newport house, her season in New York and her trips abroad. Mrs. Spencer has figured every thing out. Instead of leasing an opera box for the season, she will equip a hospital for the Moros. In stead of opening her Newport man sion and lavishing money on her friends, she will support, a school where Moro children will be taught the three R’s and habits of personal cleanliness. Instead of spending thousands of dollars o’fl*' gorgeous clothes for herself, she will spend that money clothing the savages. iomplilnt :her ’post-n tother trial fudge Ri ■ Dors*: A Native Tree House, A Poem That Offended a Poet matter of pronunciation, and had nothing to do with the poetic feeling. I admitted the matter of pronuncia tion, but argued that as authorities, as well as poets, differed on that, and as poetry was sublimated eu phony, why make a trisyllabic word of it and get a cacophonous result that was harsh to the ear. “Wine” to rhyme with “Proserpine!” Alight I not as fitly have written; To thee alone. Lost Persephone. Of course, I might, for Persephone is the original Greek of it, and a poet who would make a rhyme like that ought to have his feel sawed off. The Latin of it is Proserpina, and it doesn’t rhyme with hyena, either. He sat before me wagging his head and crooning the lines of Lang to himself ecstatioally. But I kept right aheed, putting the plain facts up to him. Following Mr. Lang’s pronunciation—he’s dead and it isn’t his fault that he isn’t here to defend himself—I handed out this classic bit: I might adore Sid I not hope That Penelope Would be my fate; Unless Hecate Or something worse— That she-cat Circe— Got in her curse And fired my shades Plumb down to HAdes. Bui to proceed. Among the last six lines—of Mr. Lang’s, not mine— I find these three: So gladly from the songs of modern speech, Alen turn and see the stars and feel the free Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers. “Which gets my goat,” as the Satyr said to the Dryad. Nothing short of a search warrant or a magazine edi tor could get the meaning of that, in my judgment. What is a shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers? What shrills the wind and closes the heavy flowers? I am inclined to think the late Andrew, who was something else besides a poet, was he said he didn’t know; that it just swept him on. When I asked him what the “pale of Proserpine” was, and how far from the gardens of Circe it was located, and where were the gardens of Circe, he wms stumped. Then I wanted to know how an island could forget the main, seeing that everybody in this coun try remembers the Maine—which is no joke—and why the low lutes of love should complain, in view of the fact that Circe wasn’t a married lady and Proserpine didn’t want to be; and how the shadows of wan lovers, or any other kind, could pine; and why one should be especially glad to know that brine was salt on his lips, when brine never is any thing else but salt—except possibly in unusually saccharine verse—to all of my insistent queries he failed to reply, and gloried in his failure. When I asked him at last about the “large air,” he merely threw his arms around like windmills and made no answer. Next I asked him why “Proserpine” should be made to rhyme with kJ that Fib d these O: sir real 1m t the tac, the moth :i acluslvely f : he did no- to the drn laid on the that the' •atlons ref Lang’s poems, The uuys»ey, to ue- light his readers. But Air. W. ,T. Lampton, who is himself a poet, read the editor’s poetry column and had something to say. This particu lar stanza especially attracted Mr. Lampion’s eye: As one that for a weary space has lain a Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine in gardens near the pale of Proser I>ine* , Where that Aegean isle forgets tne main, . , And only the low lutes of love complain, And only shadows of wan iovers pine, As such an one were glad to know the brine Salt on his lips, and the large air again. A poetry poet read this to me m rapturous tones, writes Mr. Hampton and with bated breath, and when I of Christianity in These Homes the Sultan of Sulu shock the sensi bilities of the former society leader, with his lack of clothes, his habits, his customs and his cruelties? Or will he be shocked at her temerity, her "immodesty” in attempting to meet him. a Aiohammedau ruler, un veiled and garbed in what he believes to be indecent clothing? There are. many among Mrs. Spen cer’s friends who believe that her going personally to the Philippines is a sheer waste. Some students of economics would call her going a great economic waste. These friends and students believe that more good would be done by sending trained workers, paid from her great w’ealth. Their contention is that her culture, her beauty, her education will be of no great use in the taming of tha Aloro. But Mrs. Spencer believes, very ing such a hospital in the city of Jolo, where resides the Sultan of Suiu, head of the Mohammedan faith in the islands, the same Sultan who gave to the then Alice Roosevelt a pearl necklace. Jolo is the capital of the Sulu group of Moros. many of which are the so-called “Irreconeila- bles” of the Philippines. They are perhaps the most bar barous of all the Moro groups. They are highly immoral, their women are little more the* slaves. Unless in timidated by the presence of the United Stale soldiers, a husband wil. beat his wife whenever he feels like it. Among the subjects of the Sul tan of Sulu are men and women who have never worn clothes, who fignt and who live like wild animals. It is among these unfortunate women that Mrs. Spencer hopes to most cases, wretched filthy huts of straw and mud, so indescribably un hygienic that words fail in the por traying of them. There are terrible Oriental diseases among tlie women, there are scarred and blind babies, crippled children. Among such as these, Airs. Spencer will spread the gospel of cleanliness. The mothers will be taught how to care for their babies, nurses will be provided to attend these mothers in the wilder ness. They will learn the efficacy of certain drugs in the prevention of blindness. These savage Moros kill blind babies. They are looked upon as something evil and even those in authority over tlie groups order the speedy kiltiug of these unfortunate babies. What will happen when this bril liant product of a modern eiviliza- + ~ >inf. Evidence, brief are nil m the adniis i teetlmor i of Frank 1 m In his stj mmltted in I In the re d ourts of A mj eh greatrv l] this sort t'rj and extendi jt, apprei latl n order to i