History of Philippine press / Carson Taylor.

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History of the Philippine Press

minent among whom were A. Regidor and Mariano Ponce,
both now deceased. The eminent Prof. Blumentritt, of Austria, also collaborated.
A few citations of names of prominent men, still today
our contemporaries, will serve to gauge the calibre of the
newspaper writers of that remote period. Among the list
we find: Rafael Palma, who, with Speaker Osmefia and ExResident Commissioner de Veyra, was one of those that infused the revolutionary spirit into the El Nuevo Dia (The
New Day) of Cebu, and was the first director of El Renacimiento (The Renaissance); Fernando Ma. Guerrero, who
substituted the first named and whose example was an inspiration to many of our most brilliant newspapermen and editors, including Teodoro M. Kalaw, secretary of the Interior,
Fidel Reyes, Director of the Bureau of Commerce and Industry, Arsenio Luz, Ex-director of el Ideal, Dr. Pacifico Victoriano, Director of the famed institution of learning, Liceo
de Manila, the poet and publicist Claro M. Recto and the
poets Balmori and Bernabe; the late Luis Improgo, who was
the director of La Opinion; Francisco Varona, associate director of El Debate; and Buenaventura Rodriguez, director
of some publication in Cebu.
Recently Rosa R. Sevilla, a collaboratress of La Independencia, spoke in a florid style, of some, if not all, of
the editors of that paper, in a speech that was as pleasing to
hear as it is to read. Here are two paragraphs taken from
it:
" I have been asked to speak about that periodical (La
Independencia), the Champion of patriotism....; of that
paper, the joy of the public and the delight of its contributors who, like the good Don Quichotes and "bold knights"
that they were, went their way, pen in hand, undoing wrongs,
defending the lowly and weak and upbraiding and censuring
the haughty and overbearing, with that masterly and ingenius style which was wont to bring tears and frowns, laughter and scorn; of that messenger of minstrels and bards who
(like G. Solon), armed with a guitar, would besiege the fair
lady of their dreams, or, with their pen would defend the
rights of their helpless and sorrowful fatherland, in whose
honor they would sing their patriotic and inspiring ballads;
of that newspaper that represented the acme of journalism
of its time, whose director was a generalisimo, a hero, and
whose editors were young men of the highest intellectual attainments and the most popular of -that epoch-men of our
past, many of them still of our present, the bulwark of our
social structure, who, through their privileged intelect, have