A REMARKABLE CHANGE.

    Sunday night at the Congregational Church one of the largest and most intelligent congregations that the church has ever held listened to Rev. C. B. Carlisle's farewell discourse. The Christmas decorations had been preserved and the church presented a holiday aspect. Every seat was occupied and settees had to be brought from the vestry to accommodate latecomers. It was evident from the character of the assembly that the departing pastor had made admiring friends in all walks, and regardless of creed. In the congregation were noted men who were to say the least far from the habit of attending church.
    Rev. Githens, the new Episcopal minister, shared the platform with Rev. Mr. Carlisle and led a portion of the services. The first part of the sermon was from the text "Teach us O Lord to so number our days that we may learn to apply them to thee" and dealt eloquently with the briefness and transitoriness of man's life and affairs in the world. The latter part was a formal farewell. The reverend pastor said he had from the beginning tried to do his level best with brain and heart and body and if he had erred or departed from the beaten tracks of dogma it was in a leaning perhaps to the anthropological side; that the humanitarian part of religion had always had a charm for him, and his efforts had been to demonstrate not so much what had been the effect of Christianity upon the Roman Empire as what it could do for the men and women of Tucson. He expressed his regrets over departure and the hope that the Congregational Church of Tucson would continue and prosper under the direction of his successor.
    After the services a purse which had been made up by saloon men as a token of regard was presented to Rev. Carlisle, and after much farewell handshaking the large congregation departed.
Arizona Weekly Citizen, Tucson, January 7, 1893, page 3

    A correspondent of the New York Tribune says the Rev. C. B. Carlisle, chaplain of the Second Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, has a most interesting letter in a recent issue of The Christian Evangelist, in which he shows the real conditions in Cuba to be anything but inviting. Mr. Carlisle spent two months in and about Santiago, three months at Songo, high up in the mountain 18 miles north of the sea where Schley performed that great feat of naval surgery, and two months at Holguin, on the north side of the island. He was asked to study the general condition of the people as an American citizen and as a minister of the gospel, and report the unvarnished facts just as they presented themselves. This is what he has done, after six months' careful investigation. As a United States chaplain he had

    Rev. C. B. Carlisle, a missionary, formerly of Warsaw, N.Y., writes from Dagupan, in the Philippines, to a friend, and in his letter, says the New York Sun, describes the Igarottes [Igorot], a mountain tribe. He says:
    "Up in the mountains to the northeast there is a tribe of half savage people called Igarottes. They live in the mountains, hardly ever coming out into the valleys, except when hunger compels them. None of them wear any clothing, except a strip of cloth. They have a speech of their own. The Filipinos cannot understand them. They are fond of dog meat; so two days ago four of them came down here and in an hour had captured 16 dogs, tied them with ropes and started away. The Filipinos did not disturb them, letting them have all the dogs they could catch. They came right past my tent in the evening, stopped on the banks of the river a little way from the center of the town, built a fire, killed a dog, cooked and ate him. They skinned it, cleaned the body, ran a stick of green bamboo through it lengthwise, then two of them spitted the meat over the fire until it was brown. Then they laid it in the grass, and these four ate every bit of that dog, even picked the bones clean. They did not leave a scrap of meat. They had no other food with the meat; no knives or forks or plates. They just took the flesh in their hands, tore it into bits and devoured it. Some of our men offered them a bit of cooked beef and they refused it, but ate the meat raw. Then they sang some sort of a chant, beating on their stomachs the while. It sounded to me like:
    "They are rather taller than the Filipinos, black as night, and have kinky hair. As the sun went down they moved away out of the town, leading 15 dogs and carrying one they had to kill in order to get him. The sight made me sick and I lost all appetite for my supper. We could spare the dogs, out of the double scores that make things howl here in Dagupan, but I hope I may never see that sort of feast again, too doggoned beastly for me."
Pike County Democrat, Petersburg, Indiana, July 6, 1900, page 2

    Rev. C. B. Carlisle, for the past year pastor of the Congregational Church in this city, shook the dust of Buffalo off his feet Wednesday morning for New York, where as we are informed he intends to justify himself before the Congregational Missionary Board and to tell that august body what infernal heathens and hypocrites we Buffaloites are. The Voice has refrained, while Mr. Carlisle occupied the pulpit, from criticizing him for his many false steps, so as not to lay the least stone in his way of preaching the gospel of the lowly Nazarene, and we are not airing any personal grievance when on his departure we say he was not fit to preach the gospel to an independent people. His service in the army and his acquaintance with the methods in vogue in the Colonies, coupled with the innate selfishness of his natural makeup, would make him an ideal chaplain to his majesty the Sultan of Sulu, but not the guide and counselor to the souls of independent American citizens. He made the remark to several of our citizens that he intended to return to Buffalo. For the sake of Christianity in general and Congregationalism in particular, the Voice hopes he will not return, for his usefulness in this field is entirely gone. He is well along in years, yet he will have to learn someday that other people have rights which even a minister of the gospel must respect. The world was not made for preachers only.
The Voice, Buffalo, Wyoming, August 3, 1901, page 2

    SYRACUSE, June 2.--The Rev. C. B. Carlisle, formerly an army chaplain in the Philippines, shocked the members of the Presbyterian Club of Central New York today by declaring that the Protestants had better keep out of the Philippines and make no attempt to do missionary work, as the Catholics are the only effective moral agency on the islands, and will be until the American troops are removed.
    No good, he says, can come from religious antagonism there. The Americans, he says, are the most immoral residents of the islands, and the actions of the soldiers are disgusting.
The Washington (D.C.) Times, June 3, 1902, page 5


    The question of proselytizing in the Philippines has been discussed in many of our exchanges. Without investigating, they take for granted all that bogus correspondents write. The Milwaukee Citizen is an honorable exception. Without condemning principals of schools, their assistants or their methods, the editor writes to reliable sources regarding the creed of those who hold high positions in the schools at Manila and other parts of the islands. These holding such positions were dubbed Revs. by correspondents who wrote to Catholic papers on the question of education. The answers received show that only one had the prefix "Rev." to his name, and that, furthermore, none of those were known as religious zealots.
    Rev. Mr. Carlisle, a chaplain, both in Cuba and the Philippines, and a strong adherent of the Presbyterian Church, addressing his fellow ministers recently, does not show any prejudice or wish to do an injustice to the natives. His advice contains more truth than poetry. He tells of the exaggerated ideas that exist in the minds of many, that imagination worked up to its greatest height by falsehood and misrepresentation can never judge aright, and to change the current of thought in such brains is like running up against "a mud bank of stubborn facts." In the lecture referred to, he says:
    "To be serious, it was this mud bank that I found there in the Philippines. Nothing particularly soft about it, either. I found it in Cuba, where I served a year as a chaplain. I found it in Egypt. The missionaries there pointed it out. I found it in Ceylon, where there are five million people, and less than 16,000 Christians.
    "Perhaps there is quite a mud bank here in our own land, since reliable statistics, not given to untruth, tell us that there are 53,000,000 people in this country with no church relations.
    "I have a penchant for getting at the core of things, and so with great interest and care I studied the religious problem both in Cuba and the Philippines. As a chaplain I enjoyed exceptional opportunities for doing it.
    "It has been stated that the best intellect and the best conscience among these people show increasingly hostile to Roman Christianity. I made it a point of study.
    "I found the natives in Cuba intelligent and ignorant. In rebellion not against the Catholic Church or the Catholic faith, but against the Spanish priests, who, under Spanish rule, were intolerant to a degree beyond the apprehension of our people. The profligate vices of these Spanish priests brought their authority into hatred and
contempt, and in their dealings with the people they usurped all authority. Hence the churches were abandoned.
    "When America came in as a factor, then Spanish priests quit the island with the Spanish army, the bond between the church and state was broken, the churches were supplied with Cuban or American priests, and the archbishop in a pastoral letter made it clear to the natives that thenceforth they would have the same religious status as the American members of the Catholic Church. With what result? There was at once a rehabilitation of the churches and the people; intelligent and ignorant thronged these churches; that, too, with what to me was a significant heartiness and enthusiasm. In Santiago and several other large towns and villages I found the better class as regular in church attendance as the commoner class. The intelligent minds had rebelled against the Spanish priests and the masses followed. The intelligent returned and the masses followed."
    There is no rebellion against church doctrine. If the human side of the church has not been all it should be, and that reformation is needed, who knows but in the designs of Providence the means now used are the best. In the old law when the Jews stepped aside from the observance of the law, God permitted their punishment by His enemies. Both in Cuba and the Philippines the great majority of the people are Catholics and will remain so to the end. This Rev. Mr. Carlisle tells.
    "Fully 98 percent of all the people in Cuba are Roman Catholic, and it is my belief that they will remain Catholic to the end. Making an estimate, as I did, of the population of towns and of church attendance, and coming into personal contact with each class, as I did, in the pursuance of my duties, I am assured that fully 95 percent of all these people are active communicants of the Catholic Church. The passive Catholic holds to his faith. In the presence of the great churches in the Philippines, churches whose bells are scarcely ever silent; churches whose great doorsteps are worn thin by the well nigh continuous pressure of the naked feet of devotees; churches in which there is always the voice of intoning and the pungent odor of burning incense, you realize the mighty pedigree of this faith, but in the spectacle of the entire population almost of towns and villages eagerly passing into these places of worship, twice of Sunday, several times during weekdays, and on half a hundred feast or saint days in the year, you realize how deeply and firmly this faith and love of the Catholic Church is mortised into the being of these Filipinos. They are Catholic to a man. It has been their faith always. It is their religion today, and, as I believe, will be their religion in all the future. In the Philippines you see Catholicism at its highest point of influence; the middle age idea of loyalty and enthusiasm."
    He does not regret this fact. He admits that a people devoted to their faith should not be disturbed. If they are satisfied, and violate no law, what right have others to interfere with their sacred right? In the following story, related by Rev. Mr. Carlisle, all fair-minded persons will find food for reflection:
    "But here I am tempted to repeat what an English-speaking Buddhist churchman at Colombo, Ceylon, said to me in an interview. It may serve a purpose. He said: 'Why should our people of Ceylon desire what your missionaries here call Christianity? They have a religion that is adapted to and meets their necessities and capabilities. It fits into their lives. They have never known any other religion. Have no wish in that direction. If our people will follow out in daily life, and tens of thousands of them do, the teaching of our temples, they will be good men and good women. These teachings will elevate them to as high a moral plane as any people occupy. I think the percentage of our people who make an everyday application of the teachings of our religion is fully as large as the percentage among your Christians. With them faith and practice are expressed together. Our temples are open all hours of the day and every day, and are thronged at each service. I see your Christian churches are closed except on Sunday. I think we are wiser than you in this--our service is made very impressive and [as] beautiful on weekdays as on Sunday. Your missionaries tell our people that our religion is not a sacred thing, but one of mere form and ceremony; that if our people will simply observe these forms they can be as lax in morals as they care to be. This is not true. Again, it is one religion, one custom, one faith. Among your people there are hundreds of systems of faith, many creeds and statements, which seem unexplainable even to wise men. Our people can never be made to understand one God to love and worship. They realize the meaning of a clean, worthy life."
    As the subject treated by the reverend gentleman covers a large field and embraces many practical points on the solution of the religious difficulties, we will return to it in our next issue [below].
Intermountain and Colorado Catholic, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 28, 1902, page 4


    In our last issue reference was made to Rev. Mr. Carlisle's address to his fellow ministers who sought for information regarding the Filipinos. The reverend gentleman is a Presbyterian minister, and was chaplain both in Cuba and the Philippines. He is animated by a Christian spirit, that is, charity in all he said. If the object of our overzealous missionaries is to save souls, and prepare them for heaven, why not devote their time and means to home missionary work? Rev. Mr. Carlisle tells that "reliable statistics, not given to untruth, tell us that there are 53,000,000 people in this country with no church relations." Of these 53,000,000 who never enter a church it may be safely said that 99 percent do not believe in the divinity of Christ, which is the foundation of Christianity. Whether classed as agnostics or infidels, their creed certainly is Mammon worshipers. At best, they are less Christian than the Filipino is at his worst. In warring against the religion of the latter arguments used are not honest. It is simply an appeal to the daily lives of the friars, who, if they violate the laws of the church are as responsible as would be an official or citizen of the United States should he violate the laws of his country. What proves too much proves nothing. Rev. John Jones was guilty of gross immorality. Therefore the church represented by Rev. John Jones stands condemned. Absurd conclusion, yet this is the conclusion of the propagandists in the Philippines, as shown in Rev. Mr. Carlisle's address. He says:
    "One of the stock arguments of the religionist is that the Catholic religion, as a religion, is responsible for the low standard of morals and civilization in Cuba and the Philippines; that the ignorance and illiteracy and immorality of these natives are the natural fruits of Catholicism as a religion. A criticism like that is is unworthy of any civilized human being. I do not imagine that one Filipino in a hundred thousand ever thought of any connection between the despotism of the Spanish friar and the religion of the Catholic Church, or Catholicism as a religion. The clergy of the Catholic Church whom I met in the Philippines are educated and in every way worthy men, and are no doubt doing all they can to uplift their people in the character of life they live in and out of the church."
    The natives of those islands were no higher in the scale of civilization when Catholic missionaries went there than were our American Indians 300 years ago. A contrast between the results obtained will show that the influence of the Catholic Church in those years has been productive of more good than that of Protestant missionaries among the Indians. Those who survive are still at zero. Their primitive instincts are unchanged. They are held as wards beyond the confines of civilization, and if they no longer go on the warpath it is because they are too few in number, or are restrained by the law of fear. It is not so in the Philippines. We again quote from the address of Mr. Carlisle to his fellow ministers:
    "In any consideration of this question we must take into account the material on which the work of the Catholic Church has been done. I have found a marked difference in the morals and character of the people of Manila and the people of Dagupan, 120 miles north of Manila. The Catholic Church has been at work for two centuries or more in Manila, while its influence at the other point is of comparatively recent date. As an illustration of the ethnical material, take the Negrote (little negro) [Negrito], a semi-savage of North Luzon. I may have some conception of the probability of the Negrote being wrought into a Catholic Christian and of the time and labor expended in doing it, or a Christian plus episcopacy. Perhaps, too, a Christian plus rivers of water. Mayhap a Christian plus a discipline. But even the possibility of working this nature into an accredited Presbyterian appals me. If, instead of the friars and the class of ecclesiastics, the Catholic Church had had in all these years such men as now constitute its army of churchmen in these islands, the Filipinos would be noted for their intelligence and progressive spirit."
    This is a candid admission. It is true, too. Mr. Carlisle brings in the "if" as a saving clause. The friars to whom the "if" is applied are free agents, and the Catholic Church cannot control man's free will. That is a gift of the Almighty and cannot be controlled by the bayonet. Judas, when he betrayed his Master, was a free agent, and Jesus left him free. So were the friars whose faults are exaggerated.
    "The evil that men do lives after them;
    The good is oft interred with their bones."
    The Catholic, following his instinct and guided by the teaching of the church, would apply that convenient little word "if" differently from Rev. Mr. Carlisle. He would say, "If the friars," who made a vow of poverty, which meant selling all they had and giving it to the poor, "instead of accumulating property, followed the spirit
of the law, remained poor in reality as well as in name, the Filipinos would today love them." Their mistake was in laying "up treasures which sooner or later will be consumed by the moth, or taken by robbers." Wherein is the Catholic Church responsible for this? Neither in her creed nor system of morals does she sanction greed or avarice. Why not stop it? Why did not Christ stop the avarice which forced Judas to betray him? But supposing the allegiance of the Filipinos is weakened for or drawn away from the Catholic Church, what will be the result? Regardless of consequences, that is the hope of some zealots who consider their mission fulfilled if they succeed not in making converts, but in unmaking Catholics. They are a disturbing element who consider themselves specially commissioned to reform the world, remodel society and set themselves up as the only true ideals to be followed. To attain their end they will not only exaggerate, but tell falsehoods. A pious missionary from Utah once told in a public lecture in the East that he "went into the pulpit with the Bible in one hand and a pistol in the other to save his life." But Mr. Carlisle, who aims to be fair and would not, if possible. add one discordant note to the efforts of the civil authorities to secure peace in the islands, says:
    "This thought of expediency impels me to say. and frankly and candidly, that in these present conditions, I am assured that any Protestant missionary campaign, aggressive in its attitude, as it must be necessarily, to the prevailing religious status, will prove a very disturbing element at a critical moment in the settlement of difficult civil and governmental problems.
    "There is, as we know, a complicated state of things in these islands, and the adjustment of the questions involved, in consonance with our declarations as a people, is taxing the skill and tact and patience of the representatives of our civil and military authorities. It is certainly inexpedient, to say the least, to thrust into it the hindering, disturbing elements attending a religious campaign. If it is anything,  the Protestant church is a moderator of passions, and an arbiter of peace. As Christians here at home we have intense contempt for the Protestant who, in speech or act, reproaches the Catholic or his religion, and we utterly despise the religious kidnapper in the Protestant church; nor making any great difference in the principle of stealing $10 or the theft of a proselyte.
    "The very fact that, as Protestants, we have kept away from these islands until now, when our missionaries go there under protection of our guns, has given force to a widespread suspicion among all classes of religious conquest. You may say that the priests have used this religious conquest idea os a gilt-edged lie. I do not believe they have. The Filipinos believe that religious conquest is our object."
    Naturally the Filipinos believe that, since everything points in that direction. Catholics in America, to a certain extent, believe it when they see schools placed under the direction of Protestant ministers. Some of these are so meddlesome and noisy that they could not for the life of them keep quiet and do their legitimate work. They seek notoriety and glory in disseminating discord. In America, it is true, that the 53,000,000 who never enter a church, "have intense contempt for the Protestant who in speech or act reproaches the Catholic or his religion." The Catholic religion the world over is the same, and naturally Catholics will resent any insult offered to it. Why try and rob the natives of their faith? Will it make them better or more loyal citizens? No such claim is made. No religious interference was the first promise made by Admiral Dewey. Catholic dignitaries were perfectly satisfied with the change of governments, provided the faith of their flock was not tampered with. To all of this Rev. Mr. Carlisle testifies in his address. He said:
    "Catholic Christianity prevails in these islands. It has prevailed there always. It has, as I have said, grown so deeply down into the hearts of these people as to defy extirpation at the hands of anyone.
    "Catholicism has been wrought into every fiber of the being of the natives. Its existence there has become a political and social necessity. And from my study I believe that this existence is based on conditions negative of all compromise. By the right of its Christian homestead, its long self-sacrificing service, the Catholic Church and the Catholic constituency is naturally zealous of any religious encroachment. This encroachment cannot be made without causing serious trouble.
    "Among the very first assurances Admiral Dewey gave the archbishop of Manila was that there was to be no organized interference in these religious affairs.
    "There is nothing promising or significant to the Protestant cause, that the high prelates of the Catholic Church are in favor of the United States control. In a pastoral letter which I read in Manila, the prelate said: 'We are convinced that the change of sovereignty is for the good of the country, because it was done by the word and deed of God, who always ministers with those who love him, and we do not believe it necessary to say more to our Catholic people to secure their entire devotion and adherence to the church under the new conditions,'
    "These dignitaries are simply looking, as is their right, to the safety of their church interests.
    "I have good reasons for saying that this part of the world is no place for men who, under the stimulus of religious delirium or moral hysterics, go there with the avowed purpose of making an aggressive fight against the prevailing religion. If such men possessed a decently working conscience it would question both right and motive."
    But they do not question. They claim the right to abuse, misrepresent and even tell falsehoods. That seems to be their only stock in trade. That it is done cannot be denied. Mr. Carlisle, speaking from personal experience, says:
    "While I was in Cuba a man of this class, representing one of the numerically large denominations, came to Santiago, and his first pulpit effort was a bitter denunciation of the Catholic Church and Catholic faith. General Lawton had to summarily squelch him in order in avoid serious trouble. In March, 1900, preachers of this same denomination filled the columns of the Manila daily papers with articles bitterly venomous and vituperative against the Catholics. Manila is no place for religious geniuses lacking sanctified common sense."
    The revilers see the mote in their brother's eye, but cannot see the camel in their own, or if they do, why are they silent? What Mr. Carlisle says of the conduct of our officers and soldiers in Manila proves that "what with the character and conduct of the average soldier of the regular army, the drunkenness that flows out of more than 300 American owned and operated saloons in Manila, as I counted them, the habitual Sunday chicken fighting and horse racing by army officers, some of them on the staff of the commanding general; races publicly advertised in the Manila papers, the beastly and infamous manners of the soldiers in the presence of native females, old and young, a licentiousness that shames every sense of justice and of honor; the villainies of the soldiers of Erasmus repeated and the disgusting profanity of both officers and men, we are not making an enviable impression on the mind of the Filipino as to the character of either our moral or religious Americanism.
    "Looking at all this, an intelligent native school teacher said to me, and with infinite contempt in his tone, 'Is that the civilization you want to give? Is that a sample of your boasted American civilization? We had better keep what we now have.'"
    The chaplain felt like the man who was kicked by the mule--done up. Facts were against him, and he might wrestle with the Lord in prayer all his life, and the only answer he could give in the end was vanquished. He admits this, hence his sound judgment gave this advice:
    "Personally, as a minister and a Christian, I would not vote a dollar or man or sympathy for any Protestant religious campaign in the Philippines. In saying this, I am not open to the charge of being an apologist for the Catholic Church. Behind these statements lies the sense of Christian justice and the wish for the best good-willing towards these people.
    "There is Catholicity enough in me to say that I am willing to look beneath the differences which separate me from these other people, and to believe that they may love truth and work righteousness acceptable to God; that the sweetest Christian character may be outside of my particular church. This is a live world, a growing world. If things grow, some things must give way. We know in part; we prophesy in part. All our knowledge and teaching is mixed with ignorance and weakness. 'When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. That which is perfect is love.'"
Intermountain and Colorado Catholic, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 5, 1902, page 4

    It was stated this morning that the committee appointed to visit Jordan with a view to investigate the case of the Rev. C. B. Carlisle, who, it was claimed, was a Congregationalist, occupying a Presbyterian pulpit, and whose alleged sensational writings and preaching was not liked by some of the clergy, will report in the near future to the Syracuse Presbytery.
    The chairman of the committee appointed by the Presbytery for that purpose has already visited Jordan. It may be that Mr. Carlisle will not be allowed to continue in the pulpit at that place.
Syracuse Journal, June 1, 1903, page 6

    A marriage ceremony under somewhat unusual circumstances was performed by the Rev. C. B. Carlisle of Jordan on the afternoon of June 16th last. The reverend gentleman enjoys a day's fishing above any other sport, and on the morning of the day mentioned he started for an angling excursion on the Seneca River. Close beside his boat was moored the craft of a young fisherman with whom Mr. Carlisle got into a conversation, in the course of which the fact happened to transpire that he was a clergyman.
    "Is that so?" said the young man. "Say, I shouldn't be surprised if I might need your services pretty soon. Are you down here for all day?"
    Mr. Carlisle answered in the affirmative, and the young man went ashore. Some time later he returned and said:
    "I expect that perhaps my girl will come down here fishing about 4 o'clock, and as long as there's a minister here, I guess we might as well get married."
    The clergyman questioned the young man about his position, prospects, habits, etc., and every query received a satisfactory reply. Promptly at 4 o'clock the bride-elect appeared. Mr. Carlisle is not certain whether the state of affairs had been explained to her beforehand, but at all events she made no strong demur against being wedded and at once. The party stepped onto the riverbank and the ceremony was performed.
    The groom gave his name as Lawrence W. Madden and his occupation as "railroad man"; the bride gave her name as Ida M. Steele. Both gave Syracuse as their place of residence. The groom said that his father was a plumber and the bride declared that hers was a building mover.
    Mr. Carlisle was requested to keep the marriage a secret for a fortnight, so nothing was said about it until he handed the record to the Registrar of Vital Statistics this morning.
    Efforts to discover the residence of Mrs. Madden were unattended by success. The father of the groom was located in the person of Lawrence W. Madden, foreman at the Jamesville Reservoir Ice Company. Mr. Madden was seen this noon by a Herald reporter, engaged in the discharge of his duties.
    "Have you got a son Lawrence who was recently married, Mr. Madden?" he was asked.
    "I have a son, Lawrence, but whether he's married or not I couldn't tell you," was the answer.
    "Is he a railroad man?"
    "No, he lives up across the lake somewhere--I couldn't exactly say where--and catches fish."
    "Has he been paying attention to a young woman named Ida Steele?"
    "I shouldn't be surprised if that was her name. He goes with some girl around here or up at Baldwinsville."
    "Was there any reason why the marriage should have been kept secret?"
    "I couldn't tell you anything about it. I haven't seen the boy in more than two months, and you know as much as I do."
Syracuse Herald, July 5, 1904, page 7

    News that the Cubans have called the national game of insurrection will not surprise anyone conversant with the people and the conditions on that island. Indeed, it is later in announcement than most intelligent Americans who studied the situation on the ground just after the Spanish-American War had reason to expect. That the game will go on until it reaches its utmost point of hilarity, the annexation of Cuba is plain enough to these Americans.
    At the close of my chaplaincy in Washington and my departure for Cuba as chaplain of the Second Regiment, United States Infantry, the late Speaker Henderson invited me to his rooms and asked me to make a disinterested study of the Cubans and Cuban affair, and write him frankly. He added: "Neither Mr. McKinley nor myself has any notion that if we shape a republic for these people they will maintain it; it will result in annexation. A very few years of a trial, then insurrection will come out of that annexation."
    During fourteen weeks of my stay at Songo--a place of recuperation for the regiment after Santiago--I quartered with a district judge, who for forty years had lived in and about Santiago, and who was one of the best informed men on the island as to the character of the people and the conditions prevailing. In the many talks I had with him in relation to the natives and the political conditions he impressed me as being unprejudiced and familiar with all the features of the situation at that time and portending events in case of the organization of a republic. I verified many of his statements in one way and another and found them true and of value. My search included two quiet talks with the late General Lawton and General Wood's adjutant, who in his expressions reflected General Wood's views, and a Cuban lawyer, who was a near relative of Gen. Quentin Bandera, and who practiced law in the district court where my friend of Songo was the judge. It was not, however, until the regiment went round to the east side of the island to fight a smallpox epidemic running riot at Holguin that I finished my investigations and wrote to Speaker Henderson the letters he had asked for and which, as he told me on my return home, he had given to President McKinley.
    I know that Holguin was the birthplace of that Garibaldian patriot, Calixto Garcia, and I had hopes of having a talk with him. For one thing I had some curiosity to see a man who had placed a revolver in his mouth and fired, the ball coming out through his forehead, and yet had lived to die in his bed years after, and to have a military funeral in Washington.
    I did not see Garcia, but one day soon after the establishment of a money order office in Holguin I met his brother, who had come over to the post office to begin the sending of $100,000 in gold to banks in New York. He was one of the richest merchants in Cuba and a man well informed upon all that related to the people and the political and economical conditions of the island, having spent his life in Holguin and Gibara, over on the coast. He invited me to share the splendid hospitality of his home a number of times during my stay in Holguin, and during these visits he talked freely of Cuba and Cubans.
    Summarizing his expressions, he was of the belief that once the United States abandoned Cuba, left her to herself to organize and administer a government, there would be a failure and finally a revolution. He said: "We have no strong or capable men in Cuba; men equal in intellect, in stable and courageous principle and in morals to meet such an emergency. The illiterates, of whom there are about 200,000, are factional and will look upon any taxation as an outrage and resent it. The jealous and envious leaders among the insurgents would have no difficulty in inciting these illiterates and other classes to insurrection." These illiterates are not of the wage-earning class, but live out in the villages and the country, where they pick up a precarious existence. It was this class that lived largely at Uncle Sam's free lunch counter during the year following the close of the war. They made the bandits of that period.
    Mr. Garcia said further: "We have no money and once the republic is organized we shall have to borrow. Nine chances in ten we shall have to repudiate the debt in ten years. We shall unless capital from the United States comes in to develop our resources. Our people will never do it. They are either too indolent or too ignorant or too poor. One class will get into office, civil or military, and strut about like peacocks, and the large class will go on as now, living without a thought of tomorrow's needs."
    Looking ahead to what is today actually taking place, Mr. Garcia was even then sending his surplus money to deposit in New York. He was, as a Cuban, unqualifiedly in favor of annexation. He was not a politician, and, while a rich man, one of the people, and in saying what he did he simply expressed the views of the great majority of both Cubans and Spanish. And his views were the candidly expressed views of the district judge, the prominent lawyer, and others who were in a position to give an intelligent view of the situation.
    Except among the small number, comparatively, who make up the official class, the cry of "Cuba for Cubans" has no weight and little interest, as against the facts of debt and taxation and consequent poverty. Under this regimen the average Cuban is even worse off than the native Egyptian. That this minority will give way to the demand of the people for the security and well being in all ways for Cuba, in annexation, especially since it is abetted by the voice behind millions of foreign capital invested, seems a foregone conclusion. The authorities may squelch the present incipient insurrection, but the flames will burst out again. All talk about the patriotism of the Cuban is the merest folderol to those who know the masses. There is no such thing as real patriotism among the masses. Very true, they have some race prejudices and some racial traditions, but none of these are strong enough to overcome the natural inclinations to indolence, and what promises to provide food and rum and tobacco without labor.
    The Cuban is more interested in his stomach than he is in his morals. He has a land of wonderful resources and with little effort with a hoe can raise enough to richly provide his table, and yet I have seen big, hearty, healthy Cubans straddle a small, miserable specimen of the horse and ride five miles over as rich a soil as the Creator ever spread out on the earth to get a bit of food at Uncle Sam's free lunch counter. Talk as we may about Palma and his Congress, it is this class which will control in the long run. They will be marshaled by the leaders like Bandera, and will neither work nor be compelled to pay taxes to support the official class, whom they hate. In the 46,000 square miles the soil is a marvel of richness and when it is fully occupied will be one of the richest spots on the globe. The development will come through the operation of American capital and American brains, when annexation promises stability. The island is one thing and the islanders another, but they go together. No just view of the future of Cuba can be taken which does not include a character study of the Cuban as a man of toil and a desire for peaceful progress. And that, as a characteristic, he does not present at all. He does not show any disposition in either direction. Steady toil, frugality and the economical virtues common to the white man are foreign to the Cuban, and possess nothing attractive to him. By character, disposition, habit, inclination and experience the Cuban is a factionist and a revolutionist.
    No doubt all this was foreseen by President McKinley and the framers of the Platt amendment. That Speaker Henderson had this view of it I personally know. That they all anticipated what is now occurring in Cuba no one can doubt. It is no surprise.
Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, August 25, 1906, page 4

    C. B. Carlisle, formerly of The Herald, has been appointed secretary of the Huntsville, Ala. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Carlisle was engaged with the special view of spreading abroad the advantages of Alabama as an agricultural and manufacturing state and one which should attract a good class of European immigrants.
    Mr. Carlisle has had considerable experience in this line and several years ago served the state of Oregon in a similar capacity. He is a man of wide experience in the newspaper and publicity lines. Mr. Carlisle was the managing editor of Mackay's paper in Virginia City, Nevada, during the Comstock bonanza days and since then has traveled pretty well over every state in the Union.
Syracuse Herald, August 21, 1907, page 7

    A week or so ago I wrote Mrs. Carlisle about the change in the color of my hair resulting from the daily use of the water here, and she seems to have taken it as a sort of Carlisle joke, or merely "hot air," as the boys say. Well, it isn't, not by a long shot.
    We get the water for all purposes from the Big Spring, which is at the bottom of a rocky ledge on the west side of the city, and a stone's throw from the main business street. You will remember, probably, that I was quite gray while in Jordan. Well, I was somewhat gray at 30 years of age. It was hereditary in a measure. I came here about six months ago. I have always had the habit of pretty thoroughly wetting my hair three or four times a day when combing or dressing it. Three months or so ago I began to notice a change in the color of my hair; a disappearance of the gray, especially on the top and sides of my head. Within a month the change has become so marked that my friends here speak of it. My hair is assuming a dark brown.
    I have been hoping that some of the ingredients in this water would fertilize the bald place on my head and induce an average crop of hair. So far I have been disappointed. The ordinary fly can still get his feet on my scalp and tickle.
    What with the water and the ideal climate this particular region seems to be favorable to health and longevity. Men and women of 80 and 90 years of age, engaged in the active business of life, are common here. There are a dozen colored people here who were born 120 years ago.
Syracuse Herald, March 30, 1908

    C. B. Carlisle, who left Syracuse the first of June to accept the position of manager of the publicity bureau for a town-building firm at Muskogee, Okla., and who is there now, gives The Herald the following item as showing the character of the surprises that now and then occur in real estate deals in this new Southwest.
    Just twenty years ago, a man in Oklahoma City, in order to help a pessimist move out of the then-little town, gave him $28 for a lot that is now the center of the business district. Ten days ago he sold that lot for $150,000 cash. Two days after the sale the buyer was offered $5,000 [sic] for his bargain.

    Kenneth H. Wayne, whose book "Building the Young Man" has just been published by McClurg, is a name borrowed from his grandfather by the author, whose name in real life is C. B. Carlisle.
    This is not the first time Mr. Carlisle has gone under an alias. At the outbreak of the Civil War, when he had just completed a theological course, he in spite of the opposition of friends joined the Union army under an assumed name [Frank Rashleigh] and served three years.
    Following the war he went into newspaper work, was associate editor of the Oregonian, served as secretary of the State Board of Immigration and then entered the Congregational pastorate. He was sent as chaplain to Cuba by President McKinley and afterward to the Philippines in charge of the Helen Gould library tents and other gifts for the soldiery there.
    Upon his return to the United States Mr. Carlisle resumed the work of the ministry together with an active part in public affairs.
New York Sun, October 5, 1912, page 14


    Charles B. Carlisle, chaplain, 2nd U.S. Vol. Inf., S.A.W., and 20th Independent Battery, O.V.L.A., Civil War, was admitted from Cincinnati Tuesday.
"Soldier's Home," Sandusky Star-Journal, June 27, 1916, page 12


    "The Chaplaincy Service in Cuba," says Rev. C. B. Carlisle, now a member of the Home, "was freely coppled" with a great variety of episodes and incidents, some of them brimming with pathos, some tragic, some grotesquely amusing. I had, too, occasions to make good my telegram to President McKinley, in asking for the commission: 'I can stay or shoot as may be demanded.'
    "An amusing incident occurred when I had the honor--if honor it was--of marrying the first American business man to one of Santiago's '400' women.
    The young New Yorker had opened a 'Woman's Shoe Parlor' in Santiago, following our deportation of the Spaniards and, in the course of his business of fitting pretty Cuban feet with stylish American shoes, he had fallen in love with his young lady customer, affluent in her beauty of face and figure, the daughter of a  wealthy wine merchant. The Spanish priests had left Cuba with their army. The father of the young lady and Archbishop Chappelle were at 'outs' and the American padre was asked to officiate at the wedding.
    "In the palatial home of the bride, several hundred of the fashionables of the city had gathered as guests on Sunday evening and, as customary, I took the bride, her parents and the groom aside from the reception room for a little 'drill' in the ceremony. Then, I discovered that the New Yorker could neither speak nor understand Spanish or its equivalent, Catalina, nor could the fair bride either speak or understand English. I interpreted and we went through the 'drill.' A few moments later, in the presence of the guests, I made them  husband and wife. After some refreshments, the bridegroom took me aside and gave me a big gold coin.
    "I said to him, 'I am a little curious; you can't speak nor understand either Spanish or the Cuban language, nor can that lovely young woman yonder, now your wife, speak or understand English. Won't you tell me how you managed to court her up to the marriage point?'
    "He was a jolly sort of fellow. Laughingly he poked me in the side, and half whispering said, 'I did it by signs, and gestures, and a little squeezing.'
    "When I gave this incident in an address to a union gathering of church people on my return, the youngsters, 'caught on' and wanted to 'try it out.' The girls were, as 'Barkis' a 'willin.' Even the 'oldsters' present, had a reminiscent twinkle in their eyes as they slyly winked at their wives, who smiled back at them."


    "How are the babies, chaplain?"
    "For awhile, that was the salutation of the Colonel, as we grouped about the officers mess table for breakfast, at Songo, Cuba," says ex-Chaplain Carlisle, now a member of the Ohio Home.
    "A part of my duty was feeding the hungry Cubans, and ministering to their sick, in the absence of native priests.
    "One night, in Songo, after Taps, a Cuban came to my quarters and begged me to go to his home, a couple of blocks distant, and recite the Catholic prayers for his dying baby. It was a time to be cautious. The man might and might not be all right.
    "I roomed in the house of a Cuban district judge, who knew most of the Songo people, and I took the man and his request to 'His Honor,' who assured me of the character of the man. However, as a bit of 'preparedness,' I buckled on my Colts, and followed the man.
    "In his home, a smoke-begrimed clay-floored cabin, a home constructed out of the very wreckage of poverty, I found three or four neighbor women, kneeling with the moaning, sobbing mother, beside a rude bunk in which lay her baby, apparently dying.
    "The scene was one to make the heart cry--the utter lack of comfort, the grief of the women, the mute sorrow of the father, the pitifully wasted form of, the baby, showing in the dim light from the fire on the clay floor.
    "One look at the baby satisfied me that it was dying of starvation. I knelt at the side of the bunk and recited the Catholic prayers; adding one my own heart offered Concluding, I told the man to heat a cup of water, that I would be back in a few moments and hurried to my quarters. In less time than it takes to write of it here, I was back in that wretched cabin with a jar of malted milk, a dish and a spoon, and feeding that starving Cuban baby. Before midnight I had fed it two or three times.
    "The frantic struggles of that child to grasp and hold the spoon with the food in it to its lips convinced me that I was right in my belief of starvation. I was there again at daylight and before noon had fed the baby into restful sleep.
    "Episodes like that traveled fast in Cuba, and in a week I had about twenty babies on my hands. As I could not trust even the hungry mothers with the jar of malted milk, I had to personally visit and feed the babies. Best of all I saved them--I did not lose a baby. Hence the salutation of the Colonel.
    "It remained for a member of the church--an unctuous individual, whose religion was evidently On and not Of him, to stick a thorn in the incident. Snivelingly, he criticized my reading the Catholic prayers.
    "'You, a Protestant minister,' he said.
    "He got his answer:
    "When my soul becomes such a spiritual tightwad as your criticism indicates, it is ready for the pit," I replied.
    "When I related the Cuban incident to President McKinley the lashes of his eyes were wet. He was a Christian."

    In Chas. B. Carlisle, Erambert Case Camp, No. 77, U.S.W.V. here claims the oldest Spanish war veteran in the United States. Mr. Carlisle is 80 years old and also is a veteran of the Civil War.
"Soldier's Home," Sandusky Star-Journal, November 7, 1916, page 11




    The funeral of the late Chaplain Charles Carlisle, who was exceptionally honored for his unusual war service, will be held Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, with burial in the Home cemetery.
"Soldier's Home," Sandusky Star-Journal, April 27, 1917, page 14