A Filipino would find himself ordinarily in the second of these two classes no matter how noble his character or how perfect a gentleman he might be in his manners and conduct, because his origin is indelibly stamped upon his countenance, visible to all, a mark that always carries with it painful humiliations for the unfortunate native since it for ever exposes him to the prejudices of the whites. Everything he does is minutely examined; a trifling error in the toilet, which would be overlooked in a shoemaker’s son that had acquired the title of baron, and might easily happen to a pure-blooded descendant of the Montmorencys, in his case excites amusement and you hear the remark: “What else do you expect? He is only a native.” But even if he does not infringe any of the rules of etiquette, and is besides an able lawyer or a skilful physician, his accomplishments are not taken as a matter of course, but he is regarded with a kind of good-natured surprise, a feeling much like the astonishment with which one regards a well trained dog in a circus, but never as a man of the same capabilities as a white man. Another reason for the mean opinion in which the Filipinos have been held by the whites is found in the circumstance that in the tropics all the servants are colored. They have the defects of their social class and of servants everywhere. Now, when a German housewife complains of her servants, she does not extend their bad qualities to the whole German nation; but this is done unblushingly by Europeans that live in the tropics, and they never apparently feel any compunctions but sleep the sleep of the just, undisturbed by conscience. The merchants also have contributed to the unfavorable judgment of the Filipinos. Europeans come to the tropics in order to get rich as soon as possible, which can only be done by buying from the natives at astoundingly low rates. The latter, however, do not regard this proceeding as a really commercial one, but they believe that the whites are trying to cheat them; and they govern themselves accordingly by trying, on their side, to overreach the whites while their dealings with one another are far more honorable. Consequently the Europeans call the natives liars and cheats, while it never occurs to them that their own exploiting of the ignorance of the natives is a conscienceless proceeding, or rather they believe that, as whites, they are morally justified in dealing immorally with the natives because the latter are colored.