Club-house Chaff--Christmas Customs and Ceremonies--New Year's
Calls--A Dance at the English Club--The Royal Exposition of the
Philippines--Fireworks on the King's Fête Day--Electric Lights and
the Natives--The Manila Observatory--A Hospitable Governor--The
Convent at Antipolo.
December 26th.
"'A young Bostonian, in business in the Philippines,' that is you,
isn't it?"
"'Trembling like a blushing bride before the altar.'" "Well, blushing
bride, how are you?"
"'The bells in the old church rang out a wild, warning plea.' They did,
did they? And did, 'The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea?'"
"'The fishermen's wives were sitting on their saucepans, furniture,
and babies, to keep them from sailing off skyward.' Poor things! Quite
witty, weren't they?"
These were some of the expressions that greeted me as I entered the
Club the other evening, about two hours after the last mail arrived.
My attention was called to the bulletin-board where the official
notices were posted, and there, tacked up in all its glory was
a printed copy of my letter on the typhoon, while on all sides
were various members of the English colony, laughing boisterously,
and poking me in the ribs with canes and billiard-cues. Some of the
brokers had apparently learned the contents of that fatal letter by
heart, and stood on chairs reciting those touching lines in dialogue
with unharnessed levity.
To say that I was mildly flummuxed at hearing my familiar verbiage
proceeding from the mouths of others would be mild, but it was
impossible not to join in the general laugh, and digest, in an offhand
way, the jibes and jokes which were epidemic. It seems my cautions have
been of no avail, and the letter which you so kindly gave the Boston
editor to read and print was sent out here to my facetious friend the
American broker, whose whole life seems to be spent in trying to find
the laugh on the other man. Somebody else also sent him a spare copy
to give to his friends, and down town at the tiffin club next noon,
my late entrance to the breakfast-room was a signal for the whole
colony to suspend mastication and with clattering knives and clapping
hands to vent their mirth in breezy epithets. But jokes are few and
far between in this far Eastern land, and somebody or other might as
well be the butt of them.
Just as surely as the 24th of December comes around, all the
office-boys of your friends, who have perhaps brought letters from
their counting-room to yours, all the chief cooks and bottle-washers
of your establishment, all of the policemen on the various beats
between your house and the club, and all the bill collectors who
come in every month to wheedle you out of sundry dollars, have the
cheek to ask for pourboires. Imagine a man coming around to collect a
bill, and asking you to fee him for being good enough to bring that
document to hand. But that is just what the Manila bill-collector
does at Christmas-tide. Then all of the native fruit-girls, who each
day climb the stairs with baskets of oranges on their heads, come in
with little printed blessings and hold out their hands for fifty cents.
Once out of the office, you go home to find the ice-man, the ashman,
the coachman, and the cook all looking for tips, and you are compelled
to feel most religiously holy, as you remember that it is more blessed
to give than to receive.
Christmas-eve, somehow, did not seem natural, though the town was
very lively. Some of the shops had brought over evergreen branches
from Shanghai to carry out the spirit of the occasion. The streets
were crowded with shoppers, everybody was carrying parcels, and if
it had been cold, we might have looked for Santa Claus.
There are but half a dozen English ladies in our little Anglo-Saxon
colony, and each of them takes a turn in giving dinners, asking as
her guests, besides a few outsiders, the other five. On Christmas-eve
took place one of these rather stereotyped feasts, and afterward
the guests went down in carriages to the big cathedral, that cost a
million dollars, inside the old walled town, to hear the midnight
mass. Accompanied by a large orchestra and a good organ, the mass
was more jolly than impressive. The music consisted of polkas, jigs,
and minuets, and everybody walked around the great building, talking
and smiling most gracefully. A few of the really devout sat in a small
enclosed space in the centre of the church, but they found it hard to
keep awake, and their eyes were red with weeping, not for the sins of
an evil world, but from opening and shutting their jaws in a series
of yawns.
Just before the hour of midnight, comparative quiet ensued with the
reading of a solemn prayer or two, but just as the most reverend father
who was conducting the ceremonies finished bowing behind the high gold
and velvet collar to his glittering gown, thirteen bells wagged their
tongues that broke up the stillness of the midnight, and everybody
wished everybody else "Felices Pascuas!" (Merry Christmas!) The organ
tuned up, the boy-choir sang itself red, white, and blue, the priestly
assistants swung the censors until the church was heavy with fragrance,
and all those who had nothing else to do yawned and wished they were
in bed.
After staying a little longer, our party left, and went over to the
Jesuit Church near by, where a very good orchestra seemed to be playing
a Virginia reel. Here were similar ceremonies modified somewhat to
suit the rather different requirements of the Order, and after staying
long enough not to appear as intruding spectators, we made our exit.
And now that Christmas is all over, everybody seems to be wearing a
new hat, the most appropriate present that can be given in this land
of sun-strokes and fevered brows.
January 5th.
The new year has come and gone, though out this way no one believes
in turning over a new leaf.
It seems to be a custom to start the year by calling on all the
married ladies of the colony, who make their guests loquacious with
sundry little cocktails that stand ready prepared on the front
verandas. Everybody makes calls, till he forgets where anything
but his head is situated, and then brings up at the club out by the
river-bank more or less the worse for wear. In honor of the day, the
menu was most attractive, but many of the party were in no condition
to partake, and spent the first day of the new calendar in suffering
from the effects of their morning visits.
With the new year came the dance, which we bachelor members of the
club gave to the English ladies in particular and to Manila society
in general, as a small return for hospitality received, and it was
declared a huge success. The club-house was decorated from top to
toe. Two or three hundred invitations were sent out, and the crême de
la crême of the European population were on hand, including General
Blanco, the governor of the islands.
The English club rarely gives a dance more than once in five years,
and when the engraved invitations first appeared there was much talk
and hobnobbing among the Spaniards to see who had and who had not
been invited. All the greedy Dons who had ever met any of the clubmen
expected to be asked, and considered it an insult not to receive an
invitation. One high official, who had himself been invited, wrote to
the committee seeking an invitation for some friends. As, of course,
only a limited number could be accommodated at the club-house, the
invitations were strictly limited, and a reply was sent to the Spanish
gentleman in question, stating that there were no more invitations
to be had.
"Do you mean to insult me and my friends?" he wrote, "by saying that
there are no more invitations left for them? Do you mean to say that
my friends are not gentlemen, and so you won't ask them? I must insist
on an explanation, or satisfaction."
For several days before the party one might have heard young women and
girls who walked up and down the Luneta talking nothing but dance,
and the Spanish society seemed to be divided up into two distinct
cliques, the chosen and the uninvited.
The chosen proceeded at once to starve themselves and use what
superfluous dollars they could collect in buying new gowns at the
large Parisian shops on the Escolta. Most of the Spanish women in
Manila can well afford to be abstemious and devote the surplus thus
obtained to the ornamentation of their persons, since they are so
fairly stout that the fires of their appetite can be kept going some
time after actual daily food-supplies have been cut off. The men,
however, seem to be as slender as the women are robust, and they, poor
creatures, cannot endure a long fast. Nevertheless, the cash-drawers
of the Paris shops got fat as the husbands of the wives who bought new
gowns there grew more slender; and just before the ball came off these
merchant princes of the Philippines actually offered to contribute five
hundred dollars if another dance should be given within a short time,
so great had been the rush of patrons to their attractive counters.
To make a long story short, after a lot of squabbles and wranglings
among those who were invited and those who were not, the night of the
party came, and only those who held the coveted cards were permitted
by the giants at the door to enter Paradise.
Japanese lanterns lighted the road which led from the main highway to
the club, and the old rambling structure was aglow with a thousand
colored cup-lights that made it look like fairyland. Within and
without were dozens of palms and all sorts of tropical shrubs,
and the entrance-way was one huge bower-like fernery. Around the
lower entrance-room colored flags grouped themselves artistically,
and below a huge mass of bunting at the farther end rose the grand
staircase that led above. Upstairs, the ladies' dressing-room was most
gorgeous, and the walls were hung with costly, golden-wove tapestries
from Japan. The main parlor formed one of the dancing-rooms and opened
into two huge adjoining bed-chambers which were thrown together in
one suite. All around the walls and ceilings were garlands and long
festoons and wreaths, and everywhere were bowers of plants, borrowed
mirrors, and lights.
Out on the veranda, overhanging the river, were clusters of small
tables, glowing under fairy lamps, and the railings were a mass
of verdure.
The orchestra consisted of twenty-five natives, dressed in white shirts
whose tails were not tucked in, hidden behind a forest of plants,
and as the clock struck ten they began to coax from their instruments
a dreamy waltz. The guests began to pour in--Spanish dons with their
corpulent wives, and strapping Englishmen with their leaner better
halves. The Spaniards, sniffing the air, all looked longingly toward
the supper-rooms, while the ladies who came with them ambled toward
the powder and paint boxes in the boudoir. I suppose about two hundred
people in all were on hand, and the sight was indeed gay. After every
one had become duly hot from dancing or duly hungry from waiting,
supper was served, and there was almost a panic as the Spanish element
with one accord made for the large room at the extreme other end of
the building, where dozens of small tables glistened below candelabra
with red shades, and improvised benches groaned under the weight of
a great variety of refreshments.
Soon the slender caballeros got to look fatter in the face, and the
double chins of their ladies grew doubler every moment. Knives, forks,
and spoons were all going at once, and talk was suspended. But the
room presented a pretty sight, with its fourscore couples sitting
around beneath the swaying punkahs, and the soft warm light made
beauties out of many ordinary-looking persons.
After everybody was satisfied, dancing was resumed in the big front
rooms on the river, and the gayety went on; but the heavy supper made
many of the foreign guests grow dull, and the cool hours of early
morning saw everyone depart, carrying with them or in them food enough
for many days.
Thus ended the great ball given to balance the debt of hospitality
owed by the bachelors to their married friends, and now will come
the committee's collectors for money to pay the piper.
January 31st.
Manila has been quite outdoing herself lately, and the gayeties have
been numerous. The opening of the Royal Exposition of the Philippines
took place last week, and was quite as elaborate as the name itself.
The Exposition buildings were grouped along the raised ground filled in
on the paddy-fields, by the side of the broad avenue that divides our
suburb of Malate from that of Ermita, and runs straight back inland
from the sea. The architecture is good, the buildings numerous, and
with grounds tastefully decorated with plants and fountains, it is,
in a way, like a pocket edition of the Chicago Exposition.
Everybody in town was invited to attend the opening ceremonies by a
gorgeously gotten-up invitation, and interesting catalogues of the
purpose of the exhibition and its exhibits were issued in both Spanish
and English. To be sure, the language in the catalogue translated
from the Spanish was often ridiculous, and announcements were made of
such exhibits as "Collections of living animals of laboring class,"
and "tabulated prices of transport terrestrial and submarine." But
all of the élite of Manila were on hand at the ceremonies, from
the Archbishop and Governor-General down to my coachman's wife,
and bands played, flags waved in the fresh breeze, tongues wagged,
guns fired, and whistles blew. General Blanco opened the fair with a
well-worded speech on the importance of the Philippines, of the debt
that the inhabitants owed to the protection of the mother-country,
and of the great future predestined for the Archipelago. And just as
the speaker had finished and the closing hours of the day arrived,
the new electric lights were turned on for the first time. Then all
Manila, hitherto illuminated by the dull and dangerous petroleum
lamps, shone forth under the radiance of several hundred arc-lights
and a couple of thousand incandescent ones.
The improvement is tremendous, and the streets, which have always
been dim from an excess of real tropical, visible, feelable, darkness,
are now respectably illuminated.
The exposition was opened on the name-day of the little King of Spain,
and every house in town was requested, if not ordered, to hang out
some sort of a flag or decoration. It was said that a fine of $5 would
be charged to those who did not garb their shanties in colors of
some sort, and all the natives were particular to obey the law. It
was indeed instructive, if not pathetic, to see shawls, colored
handkerchiefs, red table-cloths, carpets, and even sofa-cushions,
hanging out of windows, or on poles from poverty-stricken little nipa
huts, and any article with red or yellow in it seemed good enough to
answer the purpose. We, in turn, were also officially requested to
show our colors, and I hung out two bath-wraps from our front window,
articles which I had picked up on the recent excursion to Mindanao,
and which the wild savages there wear down to the river when they
go to wash clothes or themselves. But they likewise had enough red
and yellow in their composition to fill the bill, and, together with
five pieces of red flannel from my photographic dark-room, our windows
showed a most prepossessing appearance.
On the Sunday after the King's name-day, a costly display of fireworks
took place off the water, in front of the Luneta, further to celebrate
the occasion. The bombs and rockets were ignited from large floats
anchored near the shore, while complicated set-pieces were erected on
tall bamboos standing up in the water and bolstered from behind with
supports and guy-lines. The exhibition began shortly after dinner,
and never had I seen a crowd of such large dimensions before in
Manila. There must have been twenty-five thousand people jammed into
the near vicinity of the promenade, and a great sea of faces islanded
hundreds of traps of all species and genders.
The display was excellent, and both of the large military bands
backed it up with good music. One of the set pieces was a royal
representation of a full-rigged man-of-war carrying the Spanish flag,
and she was shown in the act of utterly annihilating an iron-clad
belonging to some indefinite enemy. The reflections in the water
doubled the beauty of the scene, and with rockets, bombs, mines,
parachutes, going up at the same time, there was little intermission
to the excitement. Several rockets came down into the crowd, and one
alighted on the back of a pony, causing him to start off on somewhat
of a tangent. Otherwise there were no disasters, and it was nearly
midnight before the great audience scattered in all directions.
The electric lights, of course, are of tremendous interest to the
more ignorant natives, and every evening finds groups of the latter
gathered around the posts supporting the arc-lamps, looking upward
at the sputtering carbon, or examining the bugs which lose their life
in attempting to make closer analyses of the artificial suns.
A fresh edition of the opera company has come out again from Italy, and
performances are given Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Everybody,
as usual, is allowed behind the scenes during the intermissions,
and the other evening, in the middle of a most pathetic scene in
"Faust," a Yankee skipper, somewhat the jollier from a shore dinner,
walked directly across the back of the stage and took his hat off to
the audience. Episodes like this are hardly common, but in Manila
there are not the barriers to the stage-door that exist in the
U.S.A. The artillery-band on the Luneta has several times played the
"Washington Post March" which you sent me, and which I gave to the fat,
pleasant-faced conductor. The championship games at the tennis-court
have begun, and all of the English colony generally assemble there
to see the play just before sunset. Small dinners and dances are also
numerous, and the cool weather seems to be incubating gayety.
February 22d.
Manila is said to have the most complete astronomical, meteorological,
and seismological observatory anywhere east of the Mediterranean. Not
to miss anything of such reputation, several of us decided to make
a call on Padre Faure, who presides over the institution, and who
is well known scientifically all over the world. At the observatory
we were cordially received by an assistant, who spoke English well
enough to turn us off from using Spanish, and were conducted over the
establishment. Here were machines which would write down the motions
of the earth in seismological disturbances, and which conveyed to
the ear various subterranean noises going on below the surface. Still
other instruments were so delicate that they rang electric bells when
mutterings took place far underground, and thus warned the observers
of approaching trouble. Another, into which you could look, showed a
moving black cross on a white ground, that danced at all the slight
tremblings continually going on; and the rumbling of a heavy cart over
the neighboring highroad would make it tremble with excitement. A solid
tower of rock twenty feet square extended up through the building from
bottom to top, and was entirely disconnected with the surrounding
structure. On this column all of the earthquake-instruments were
arranged; and any sort of an oscillation that took place would be
recorded in ink on charts arranged for the purpose. Various wires
and electric connections were everywhere visible, and an approaching
disturbance would be sure to set enough bells and tickers a-going to
arouse one of the attendants.
The great school-building in which the observatory was placed was
fully six hundred feet square, with a large court-yard in the centre
containing fountains and tropical plants in profusion. After leaving
the lower portions of the building, we ascended through long hallways,
to visit the meteorological department above. Barometers, thermometers,
wind-gauges, rain-measurers, and all sorts of recording instruments
filled a most interesting room; and Padre Faure gave us a long
discourse on typhoons, earthquakes, and various other phenomena. From
the roof of the observatory a splendid view of the city, Bay, and
adjacent country may be had, and Manila lay before us steaming in the
sun. Before leaving, we saw the twenty-inch telescope, constructed
in Washington under the direction of the Padre who was our guide,
which is soon to be installed in a special building constructed for
the purpose. He seemed much impressed by the United States, and at our
departure presented us with one of the monthly observatory reports,
which give the whole story of the movements of the earth, winds,
heavens, tides, stars, and clouds, at every hour of the day and night,
for every day during the month, and for every month during the year.
Last Monday was again the usual bank-holiday; and on the Saturday
before, the customary three of us who seem to be more energetic at
seeing the country than our friends, decided to take another excursion
up the river into the hill-country.
In the forenoon we gave orders to the boys to get ready the provisions,
and meet us at the club-house in the early afternoon. Our plan was to
take one of the light randans from the boat-house, row up the river
for twelve or fifteen miles, take carromatas up into the hills to a
place called Antipolo, and finally to horseback it over the mountains
to Bossa Bossa, a lonely hill village, ten miles farther on.
The time came. All of our goods and chattels were piled into the
boat. We took off white coats, put on our big broad-brimmed straw hats,
turned up our trouserloons, and prepared for a long row up against
the current. But, thanks to Providence, we were able to hitch onto
one of the stone-lighters that regularly bring rock down from the
lake district, for use on the new breakwater and port-works at Manila,
and which was being towed up for more supplies. The sun got lower and
lower, and finally set, just as the moon rose over the mountains. The
sail in the soft light of evening was very picturesque, and the banks
were lined with the usual collection of native huts, in front of which
groups of natives were either washing clothes or themselves. Large
freight cascos or small bancas were either being poled up-stream by
heated boatmen, or were drifting lazily down with the current, and
everywhere a sort of indolent attractiveness prevailed. We continued
on behind the lighter until almost at the lake itself; then cast
adrift and branched off into a small side-stream that ran up toward
the hills in a northerly direction.
On we wound, now between a deep fringe of bamboo-trees, now between
open meadows, now between groups of thatched huts, and again through
clumps of fish-weirs, coming at last to a town called Cainta, nearly
an hour's row from the main stream. We stopped beneath an old stone
bridge that carried the main turnpike to Manila from the mountains,
and were greeted by all the towns-people, who were out basking in the
moonlight. They had evidently never seen a boat of the randan type
before, and expressed much curiosity at the whole equipment. Before
many moments the governor of the village appeared in the background and
asked us to put up at his residence. Ten willing natives seized upon
our goods and chattels, others pulled the boat up on the sloping bank,
and we adjourned to the small thatched house where lived our host. The
Filipinos gathered around outside, the privileged ones came in,
and everybody stared. The governor did everything for our amusement;
called in singing-girls, with an old chap who played on the guitar,
and otherwise arranged for our entertainment. At eleven he said "Shoo"
and everybody left. His wife gave us pieces of straw matting to sleep
on, and we stretched out upon one of those familiar floors of bamboo
slats which make one feel like a pair of rails on a set of cross-ties.
Later the family all turned in on the floor in the same manner,
and soon the cool night-wind was whistling up through the apertures.
Next morning, Sunday, a hot dusty ride of an hour and a half, over a
fearful road, continually ascending, brought us to Antipolo, a stupid
village commanding a grand view over the plains toward Manila and the
Bay beyond. To find out where we could get ponies to take us over
the rough foot-path to Bossa Bossa, we called at the big convento
where live the priests who officiate at the great white church,
whose tower is visible from the capital. Mass was just over, but
the stone corridors reverberated with loud jestings and the click of
billiard-balls above. On going upstairs, we broke in upon a group of
padres playing billiards, drinking beer, smoking cigars, and cracking
jokes ad libitum. They received us cordially, did not seem inclined to
talk much on religious subjects, but advised us where we might find the
necessary horseflesh. Not so much impressed with their spirituality
as with their courtesy, we left, got three ponies and two carriers,
and started out for the ride over the mountains.
The path was narrow and steep, the sun was hot, but the scenery
was good. On and up we went, until the view back and down over the
lower country became most extensive. Across brooks, over stones,
through gullies, and over trees carried us to the last rise, and
after passing through a grove of mangoes we came to the edge of the
ridge. Down below, in a fair little valley that looked like a big
wash-basin, lay Bossa Bossa, a small collection of houses shutting
in a big church without any steeple. Squarely up behind, on the
other side of the valley, rose the lofty peaks of the Cordilleras,
and the scene was good enough for the most critical.
On descending to the isolated little pueblo, we got accommodation
in the best house of the place, belonging to the native Governor,
and adjourned for rest and refreshments. All we had left to eat
in our baskets were two cold chickens, three biscuits, and four
bottles of soda. We sent out for more food, and in half an hour a
boy came back with the only articles that the market afforded--two
cocoanuts. The house in which we were seemed to be the only one
in town that possessed a chair, and, as it was, we found it more
comfortable to sit on the floor. This was the centre of the great
hunting-district, and all around in the hills and mountains deer and
wild boar were abundant. During the following night it got so cold
that it was possible to see one's breath, and without coverings as we
were, the whole party dreamed of arctic circles and polar bears. At
daylight next morning, numb with the cold, we sat down to a breakfast
consisting of carabao milk and hard bread made of pounded-rice flour,
and felt pretty fairly well removed from tropics and civilization. The
old church, which we could see out of the window, stood in a small
plaza, and the steeple, which consisted of four tall posts covered
by a small roof of thatch that protected a group of bells from the
morning dew, was off by itself in a corner of the churchyard. A long
clothes-line seemed to lead from the bells to a native house across
the street, and we learned that the sexton was accustomed to lie
in bed and ring the early morning chimes by wagging his right foot,
to which the string was attached.
On the return trip we met a large party of hunters coming up from
Manila for a week's deer-shooting, and by noon got back to Antipolo,
where we rested in the police-station to wait for our carromatas that
were to arrive at one o'clock.
The return to Cainta was as hot and dusty as the advance, but we were
pleasantly received by our friend the governor, who had instructed the
"boys" to have the refreshments ready for us. Later in the afternoon,
we prepared to return to the metropolis, and the whole village came
down to see us off. The governor refused to accept money for the use
of his house, we were all invited to come again, and amid a chorus
of cheers we shoved off for Manila.
The row down took only three hours, but on getting to the club,
at moonrise, it seemed as if we had been away three weeks.
X
Exacting Harbor Regulations--The Eleanor takes French Leave--Loss
of the Gravina--Something about the Native Ladies--Ways of
Native Servants--A Sculptor who was a Dentist--Across the Bay to
Orani--Children in Plenty--A Public Execution by the Garrote.
April 19th.
If a ship in the Bay desires to load or discharge cargo on Sundays
or religious holidays, permission can only be obtained through the
Archbishop, not the Governor-General. The Easter season has come and
gone, and as the Captain of the Esmeralda could not successfully play
on the feelings of that highest dignitary of the church, his steamer
had to lie idle for the holidays, and so miss connecting with the
Peking, which ought to have taken the United States mail.
The American yacht Eleanor dropped anchor in the Bay the other
afternoon, and it seemed good again to see the countenances of some
of our countrymen. It appears the Spanish officials did not consent
to treat her with the courtesy which a yacht or war-ship merits, and
went so far as to station carabineros on her decks, as is customary
on merchant-vessels to prevent smuggling. The Eleanor presented a
fine appearance as she lay among the fleet of more prosaic craft,
and her rails were decorated with Gatling guns put there for the
voyage up through the southern archipelagoes where pirates reign. On
the Wednesday before Holy Thursday, the owner of the Eleanor decided
to start for Hong Kong, that his guests might enjoy Easter Sunday in
those more civilized districts that surround the English cathedral. The
yacht, like any merchantman, was obliged to get her clearance papers
from the custom-house before she sailed, and to that end the Captain
went ashore shortly after midday. But the chief of the harbor office
had gone home for a siesta, remarking that he would not return until
Monday, and that any business coming up would have to wait till then
for attention.
"But I must have my papers," said the Captain, "for we leave to-night
for China."
"Them you cannot have till Monday," replied the hireling in charge.
"Then I shall have to sail without them," answered the Captain,
and he stormed out of the office to find our consul, whom he hoped
would straighten matters out. But the efforts of the consul were of no
avail. The king-pin of the harbor office refused to be interviewed, and
the Captain of the yacht returned aboard with fire in his eye. After
a council of war had been held, it was decided to sail, papers or
no papers, and the two soldiers who were pacing up and down the deck
were told the vessel was going to sea.
"But we won't let you go without your papers," said they.
"Papers or no papers, we are going to sea to-night," roared the
Captain. "And if you fellows don't git aboard into that boat mighty
quick, we'll be feeding you to the sharks."
The Gatling guns and show of rifles in the companion-way looked
eloquent, and the two carabineros, murmuring that they would surely be
killed for neglect of duty when they got ashore, were pushed down the
gangway into a row-boat as the Eleanor got her anchor up, and steamed
out of the Bay in the face of Providence and the southwest wind, almost
across the bows of the Spanish flagship Reina Cristina. A tremendous
diplomatic hullabaloo resulted. The consul was summoned, the guards
were blown up by the discharge of verbal powder, and it almost looked
as if our representative would have to send for war-ships. But the
matter has finally been straightened out, and the passengers on the
Eleanor have probably had their Easter Sunday at Hong Kong.
Curiously enough, for April, another typhoon has recently sailed
through the gap in the mountains to the north of our capital, and gone
swirling over to China, leaving in its wake a sunken steamer, which
foundered with her living freight of close to three hundred souls. Out
in front of the big steamship office across the way hundreds of natives
are inquiring for their brothers or husbands or children. It seems the
Gravina, a ship of the best part of a thousand tons, was coming down
from the north, heavily loaded with rice, tobacco, and native boys,
who, for not paying their tax bills, had been drafted into service for
the purpose of being sent against the savages in Mindanao. She had
only fifty more miles to go before reaching the entrance to Manila
Bay, when the barometer fell, the wind hauled to the northwest, and
the typhoon struck her. Her after-hatchway was washed overboard,
and, deep in the water as she was, the seas washed over into the
opening. As fast as fresh coverings were substituted they were ripped
off and carried away. The engines became disabled, the water rushed
into the boiler-room, putting out the fires, and the passengers, who
were locked into the cabins, were panic-stricken. The steamer began
to settle, and under the onslaught of a big sea, accompanied with
terrific wind, suddenly heeled over and foundered with all on board,
save three, the Captain standing on the bridge as she went down, crying
"Viva España." Two natives and a Spanish woman got clear of the ship
before she sucked them under, and floated about on an awning-pole
and a deck-table. Scarcely had the survivors got clear of one danger
before a shark swooped down on the Spanish woman, and, attracted by
her lighter color, bit off a limb. He paid no attention to the two
natives kicking out their feet near by, and, though neither of them
could swim a stroke, they managed to paddle ashore on their supports,
after being in the water two nights and a day.
These two men, the only survivors of the large passenger-list of
the Gravina, came into our office yesterday, and, after giving a
graphic description of the catastrophe, easily got us to loosen our
purse-strings. The accident is the worst that has occurred for many
a day, and there is a gloom over the whole city. The newspapers came
out with black borders, and many families are bereaved.
May 20th.
The more I see of these native servants, the more I appreciate that
they are great fabricators and excuse-makers. Your boy, for example,
every now and then wants an advance of five or ten dollars on his
salary. His father has just died, he tells you, and he needs the money
to pay for the saying of a mass for the repose of his soul. Then comes
another boy, who says that by his sister's marrying somebody or other
his aunt has become his grandmother, and he wants cinco pesos, to buy
her a present of a fighting-cock or something else. This matter of
relationship here in the Philippines is a most delicate one to keep
control of, and in the matter of deaths, births, and marriages among
your servants' relations it is very essential that you keep an accurate
list of the family tree, so that you may check up any tendency on their
part to kill off their fathers and mothers more than twice or three
times during the year for the purposes of self-aggrandizement. As an
example of this, my own boy actually had the cheek to ask me for the
loan of a dozen dollars to arrange for the repose of the soul of one
of his relatives I had once before assisted him to bury.
I seem to have gone a long way in my chronicles without speaking much
of the native "ladies" in Manila, and I owe them an apology. But one
of them the other day so swished her long pink calico train in front
of a pony that was cantering up to the club with a carromata in which
two of us were seated, that we were dumped out into a muddy rice-field
by the wayside. So the apology should be mutual. The costumes worn by
the women are far from simple and are made up of that brilliant skirt
with long train that is swished around and tucked into the belt in
front, the short white waist that, at times divorced from the skirt
below, has huge flaring sleeves of piña fibre which show the arms,
and the costly piña handkerchief which, folded on the diagonal,
encircles the neck. They wear no hats, often go without stockings,
and invariably walk as if they were carrying a pail of water on their
heads. They generally chew betelnuts, which color the mouth an ugly
red, smoke cigars, and put so much cocoanut-oil on their straight,
black hair that it is not pleasant to get to leeward of them in
an open tram-car. Otherwise they are generally the mothers of many
children and often play well on the harp.
I made a call on the local dentist yesterday, and found him sitting
on a wooden figure of St. Peter, carving some expression into the
face. I thought I had got into a carpenter's shop instead of a dental
establishment, and apologized for the intrusion. But the gentleman said
he was the dentist, and dropped his mallet and chisel to usher me into
his other operating-room. It is quite a jump from carving out features
of apostles to filling teeth, but on being assured that he had received
due instruction from an American dentist, I allowed him to proceed to
business. The whole operation lasted about seven and one-half minutes,
and by the time I had got out my dollar to pay him for the filling
I swallowed soon after, he was again at work on Biblical subjects.
All in all it doesn't pay to neglect one's health in the Philippines,
for the only English doctor that Manila boasts of has been here so
long that the climate has shrivelled up his memory. After he has
attended your serious case of fever or influenza for several days,
he will suddenly stroll in some morning and give you a sinking feeling
with the words:
"Oh, by the way, what is the matter with you?"
This is hardly comforting to one who considers himself a gone coon,
but in justice to our friend the medico, I must say he never displays
these symptoms to patients whose case is really getting desperate.
Tons and tons of water have been drunk up by the clouds of late,
and have just now begun to be unceremoniously dumped down upon flat
Manila, so that she has seemed likely to be washed into the sea. But
rain has been badly needed. A long heat has made many the worse for
wear, and the doctors have all said that unless the rain came soon,
an epidemic would probably break out.
Before the showers began, we improved the spare time of another Sunday
and bank-holiday by an aquatic excursion to some of the provincial
towns away across to the north side of Manila Bay. Don Capitan, the
purchaser of our fire-engine and the millionaire ship-owner who runs
several lines of steamers and store-houses, was our host, and invited
us to spend the days as his guests aboard the trim paddle-wheel
steamer that makes regular trips to the bay ports. Early on Sunday
morning we started from the quay in front of the big hemp-press,
and while the lower decks of the steamer were crowded with native
market-women, fishermen, and Chinese, the more sightly portions of
the upper promenade were reserved for us and provided with Vienna
chairs. Breakfast was served in a large chart-room connected with
the wheel-house, and was a fitting accompaniment to the fresh sail
out of the river through the shipping.
After discharging groups of passengers and freight into large
tree-trunk boats at several little villages, we came at noon to Orani,
the end of the outward run. The sister-in-law of the jet-black captain
owned the largest house in the village, and put it at our disposal. Our
advent had been heralded the day before, and a groaning table supported
a sumptuous repast.
There were four of us besides the half-caste family of the captain's
sister-in-law, and an old withered-up Spaniard who used to be governor
of the village. Various cats roamed around under the table, and on
top were toothpicks built up into cones, Spanish sausages, olives,
flowers, and fruit with an unpronounceable name, that looked like
freshly dug potatoes well covered with soil.
Beside each chair was a red clay jar, into which each participator
in the repast could from time to time transfer such articles as were
apparently unswallowable, and all around stood thick-lipped serving
boys, who looked as if they were only waiting to pour soup in one's
lap, or garlic gravy down one's neck. The feast began with soup,
and though the family could not well eat that with their knives,
they could the remaining courses. After soup came the puchero,
that mixture of beans, potatoes, cabbage, tough meat, pork, grass,
garlic, and grease, and I steeled myself for the fray. Next came
cooked hen with a limpid gravy accompaniment, and as the chicken had
been alive up to within a few moments of going into the kettle, the
question of attack was difficult. Then followed in succession cow's
tongue and roast goat, fish, salad with sliced tomatoes, and dessert
consisting of those fluffy affairs made of sugar and eggs which taste
like captivated sea-foam. As is always customary, cheese and fruit
were served together, but while a servant had to carry the fruit,
the cheese seemed inclined to walk around by itself.
In due season all the débris was removed. A boy went in pursuit of
the cheese and the table was cleared for strong coffee that looked
dangerous. The mortality, however, among the party was not great, and
all those who were able to get up from the table went to take a siesta.
At about four, we were awakened by the familiar noise coming from
the grinding of an ice-cream freezer, and afternoon tea, consisting
of chocolate, sandwiches, cakes and frozen pudding, was served half
an hour later. At five we were to take a drive along the shore in
the only two landaus that the place possessed, and since the padre
who lived close by in the big church had been good enough to lend us
one, we called on him in state, taking with us, for his refreshment,
a small caldron of ice-cream. His greeting was right cordial, and
after amusing us with stories of his many adventures, told in fluent
English, he dismissed us with his blessing.
Two of our party got into his carriage, while other two went in that
belonging to the governor of the town, and behind smart-stepping
ponies we bowled off up the road that led west along the Bay.
Old Malthus would have been interested to see the number of children
that exist in these provincial villages, and it really seemed as if at
least one hundred and two per cent. of the population were kids. About
eighteen infants could be seen leaning out of every window, in every
native hut, and in the streets, by-ways, and hedges they were thick
as locusts. Most of these children trailed little else than clouds
of glory, since clothes were scarce and expensive. An undershirt was
all that any of them seemed to wear, and only the dudes of the one
hundred and two per cent. wore that.
Much to our amusement, the loiterers by the wayside everywhere saluted
us with a "Buenos tardes, Padre," and it appeared that since the holy
father is the only one who drives regularly in a landau, the whole
population thought of course we must be he, or some of his saintly
brethren. And so we went until the gathering darkness compelled
a return to the starting-point. An elaborate supper, consisting
of hard-shelled crabs and other indigestibles, was followed by an
impromptu dance and musicale, and the evening ended in a burst of song.
Next morning the little steamer took us and a load of fish and
vegetables back to the capital.
July 6th.
Our modern journals, I know, rejoice to go into all the gruesome
details of crime and its punishment, and many of their readers take
as much morbid pleasure in poring over accounts of hangings, pictures
of the culprit, diagrams of his cell, and last conversations with the
jailer, as do the reporters in getting the information with which
to make up long, padded articles paid for by the column. I am not
morbidly curious myself, and trust you will not think I went to see
the capital punishment of two murderers for any other than purely
scientific reasons.
The two men who were executed on July 4th, just passed, were convicted
of chopping a Spaniard to pieces to get the few dollars which he kept
in his house, and to avenge themselves for harsh treatment. They were
nothing more than native boys, one twenty and the other twenty-two,
employed as servants in the family of the unfortunate victim. In
short, they were sentenced to death by the garrote, and to the
end of carrying out the decree a platform was erected in the open
parade-ground behind the Luneta. But the people in the neighborhood
objected. The women said they could not sleep from thinking over it,
and could not bear to have their children see the scaffold. General
Blanco was petitioned, and the place of execution was changed to a
broad avenue that leads down through the back part of Manila, by the
public slaughter-house. Surely the selection was appropriate.
On the fatal day, my colleague and I drove to the scene shortly after
sunrise, and crowds of people had already begun to come together
from the adjoining districts. Carriages of all classes rolled in from
all directions. Chinamen with cues, natives with their wives, women
with their infants, young girls and children, old men and maidens,
were all there, dressed in their best clothes.
I knew it would be useless to stand in the crowd, so I pushed over
toward a nipa hut, whose windows, which were filled with natives,
looked fairly out on the scaffold itself. In the name of my camera
I asked admittance, which was cordially accorded, since we were
"Ingleses," and on going to the upper floor we had a free view over
the crowd below toward the fatal platform, with its two posts to which
were attached two narrow seats. The crowd increased; they climbed
into bamboo-trees, which bent to the ground; they tried to surge up
on the lower framework of the house in which we were standing, and
only desisted as the proprietress slashed the encroachers right and
left with a bamboo-cane. The roofs of neighboring houses were black
with people, the windows swarmed, and the street below heaved. Our
hostess was pleasant, though fiery, and all she wanted in return for
our admission was a photograph of herself. The favor was granted,
and she gave us two chairs to sit in. The crowd increased, and the
guards had hard work keeping back the struggling mass. Every available
square inch of space was filled, and a sea of heads pulsated before us.
At last, cries of "aquí vienen" (here they come) arose, and the solemn
procession came into view after its long journey from the central jail,
over a mile away. First came the cavalry, then a group of priests,
among whom marched a man wearing an apron, carrying the sacred banner
of the Church, embroidered in black and gold. Next marched the prison
officials, and behind them came two small, open tip-carts, drawn by
ponies, in which travelled the condemned men, each supported by a
couple of priests who held crucifixes before their eyes, exhorting
them to confess and believe.
Following the carts, which were surrounded by a square of soldiers,
walked the executioner himself, a condemned criminal, but spared
from being executed by his choosing to accept the office of public
executioner. Last of all came a small company of soldiers, with
bayonetted guns, and the whole procession advanced to the foot of
the steps leading to the platform.
The garroting instrument seems to consist of a collar of brass,
whose front-piece opens on a hinge, and part of whose rear portion
is susceptible to being suddenly pushed forward by the impulse of a
big fourth-rate screw working through the post, something after the
system of a letter-press. The criminal sentenced to death is seated
on a small board attached to the upright, his neck is placed in the
brass collar, the front-piece is snapped to, and when all is ready, the
executioner merely gives the handle of the screw a complete turn. The
small moving back-piece in the collar is by this means suddenly
pushed forward against the top of the spine of the unfortunate,
and death comes instantaneously from the snapping of the spinal cord.
The executioners in Manila have always been themselves criminals,
and in breaking the spinal cords of their fellow-criminals, they
certainly pay a price for keeping their own vertebræ intact. Like
most men in their profession, however, they are well paid, and this
operator got sixteen dollars besides his regular monthly salary of
twenty, for each man on whom he turned the screw.
The sight of the unfortunate prisoners in the little carts, supported
by the priests, was pitiable in the extreme, and their faces bore
marks of unforgetable anguish. The priests ascended the platform,
and the man with the embroidered banner was careful to stand far away
at the side, for, according to the religious custom of the epoch,
a condemned man who merely happens to touch the standard of the
Church on his way to the scaffold cannot thereafter be executed,
but suffers only life imprisonment.
The executioner, in a derby hat, black coat, white breeches, and no
shoes, took his position behind the post at one side of the scaffold,
and the first victim was carried up out of the cart and seated on the
narrow bench. He was too weak to help himself or make resistance;
the black cloak was thrown over his shoulders, a rope tied around
his waist, the hood drawn down over his face, and the collar sprung
around his neck. Then, while two priests, with uncovered heads, held
their crucifixes up before him, and sprinkled holy water over the
hood and long, black death-robes, the chief prison official waved his
sword, the executioner gave the big screw-handle a sudden twist till
his arms crossed, and without a motion of any sort, except a slight
forward movement of the naked feet, the first of the condemned men
had solved the great problem.
The second poor wretch all the while cowered in the little cart, but
when his turn came he ascended the steps with more fortitude. After
he had put on the long black gown and hood, he seated himself on
the bench at the second post and the same process was repeated. But
the screw-thread seemed to be rusty, and one of the native officials
helped the executioner give the handle an additional turn, for which
he was promptly fined $20. The doctor tarried a few moments on the
scaffold, the priests read several prayers and shook holy water over
the immovable black-robed figures wedded to the posts, and then,
after one of the acolytes had nearly set fire to the flowing gown of
the head padre with his long candle, everyone descended.
The remnants of the procession returned to the prison, the troops
stationed themselves in a large hollow square around the scaffold, and
two dark, motionless figures locked to two posts were left in the hot
sun till noon, set out against the blue background of sky and clouds.
The crowds began to disperse, the young girls chatted and joked with
each other, the curious were satisfied, and the bamboo-trees were
left to lift their heads at leisure.
Thus began Manila's Fourth of July, and curiously enough, my watch
stopped and the cord-pull to my instantaneous camera broke just as
the screw was turned on the first man to be executed.