The sun., 1898-06-26
MONEY IN MANILA.
Some Queer Coins and Customs
in the Philip
mines.

Life in the Philippines must have it's
attractions and some of the customs of
the country would undoubtedly seem
admirable to many Americans who dwell
in large cities and realize something of
the tyranny of our modern and careful
business methods.
Thus writer in the New York Even
ing Post says that in Manila no one ever
pays for anything he buys at the time he
buys it. for the thin white suits that are
everywhere worn are not made for trans
porting coin. Banknotes are practically
ont of circulation, and heavy Mexican
dollars stand at the head of a motley
family OF 50-cent pieces, Spanish pesetas
and huge coppers, to give weight rather
than value to the currency system. If
you draw the first prize in the monthly
lottery run for the benefit of the govern
ment, your 100000 is all paid to you in
silver "cartwheels'' or subsidiary coins,
and you really feel that luck is after ali
something tangible when it takes heavy
dray or two to haul the results of your
winnings from the government office t
the bank.
A dollar is about all the coin that a
properly clothed resident of Manila can
carry about with him, and, as 1t gener-
ally turns out, he doesn't need more, for
the shopkcepers, tailors and boOtmakers
have all been educated to recognize in
the famous ''chit SYSTEM a necessary
evil that springs out of certain monetary
and climatic conditions, and are always
ready to accept the small bit OF paper on
Whlct-over your name-you write an l.
0. T.. for the amount of your purchase.
If the cook wants new stove, or the
coachman a jar of ''micP' molasses to
.sweeten up the feet Of the horses or il
the gardener wants a lawn mower, which
can only be bought at the English drug
store, or the Office boy new rope for the
punkah, write out "chit' for each of
them, and that's the last you hear from
the transaction until the first of the
next month. But scarcely has that day
come before all your creditors send in
their collectors to cash those carelessly
penciled ''chits," and then your office is
turned into money-changer's. Armed
with big canvass bag of dollars, YOU
pay out to first one and then the other
all day long; and to see your callers bite
the silver in the effort to discover lead,
or drop dozen pieces on the hard floor
to verify the ring, is not to feel compli-
mented by their opinion of your in
tegrity.
About the only people that will not
trust you are the car conductors and the
cab drivers; but as carfares rarely amount
to over three coppers, and cab charges to
a "peseta,' it is easy enough to satisfy
them with prompt cash.
Good servants in Manila get eight to
ten Mexican dollars per month, or tour
or five i" American gold. My head boy
got six dollars. was married. bad two
children, and bought all his own food
ont VI this modest stipend; and don't
think he stole from me. though he may
have done 50 from somebody else now
and then. To be sure, he bcsought ad-
vances on his salary to bury Il sister or
brother, as he said, and it was not until
he asked me to pay for burying the same
member of his flock twice that | saw the
of tabulating his family and
off such as were defunct.