hostilities. Excitement ran high among all classes of people, but the
Filipino Government, which had assumed responsibility for the acts
of the people, by the constant issue of prudent orders succeeded
in calming the excited populace and maintained peace, advising all
sufferers to be patient and prudent pending the arrival of the Civil
Commission.




CHAPTER XVII

Impolitic Acts


At such a critical juncture as this, and before the anxiously-awaited
Civil Commission arrived, it occurred to General Otis, Commandant of
the American forces, to commit two more impolitic acts. One of them
was the order to search our telegraph offices in Sagunro Street, in
Tondo, where the searching party seized the apparatus and detained
the officer in charge, Sr. Reyna, in the Fuerza Santiago [6] under
the pretext that he was conspiring against the Americans.

How and why was Sr. Reyna conspiring? Was not this sufficient for
the Filipino Government to give the order to attack and rescue Reyna
and thereby we (eight thousand strong) be plunged immediately into
war with the United States? Was there any reason for conspiring when
the power was in our own hands? And, above all, would a telegraphist,
be likely to interfere in _affaires de guerre_ when there was an army
near by to attend to such matters?