Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-06-17
LIVING IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
MORE PARTICULARLY IN THE
CITY DEWEY CONQUERED.

Thcre-Paying by the "Chit'
System--HOw to Dress in the
Philippines - Chcapness of EX.
istence-Living in Style for Less
Than a Dollar a Day-FOOd and
Its OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and
Their Pay-The Manila Bed.
In Manila no one ever pays fol
anything he buys at the time he buys
it, for the thin white suits that are
everywhere worn are not made fol
transporting coin. Bank-notes are
practically out of circulation, and
heavy Mexican dollars stand at the
head of a motley family of fifty-cent
pieces, Spanish pesetas, and huge cop
pers, 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 government,
your 100000 is all paid to you in
silver cartwhcels" or subsidiary
coins, and You really feel that luck is
after all something tangible when it
takes a heavy dray or two to haul the
results of your winnings from the
government Office to the bank.
A dollar is about all the coin that a
properly clothed resident of Manila
can carry about with him, and as it
generally turns out, he doesn't need
more, for the shopkeepers, tailors and
boot makers have all been educated to
recognize in the famous "chit system"
a necessary evil that springs out of
certain monetary and climatic condi-
tions, and are always ready to accept
the small bit of paper on Which-over
your name-you write an i. o. u. for
the amount of your purchase.
If the cook wants new stove, or the
coachman a jar of "micl" molasses to
sweeten up the feed for the horses, or
if the gardener wants lawn-mower,
which can only be bought at the Eng
lish drugstore, or the office-boy a new
rope for the punkah, says Joseph
Earle Stevens, in the New York
Evening Post. Write out a " chit" for
each of them, and that's the last you
hear from the transaction till 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 a
money-changer's. Armed with a big
canvas 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 a 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 car-fares
rarely amount to over three coppers,
and cab charges to a peseta," it is
easy enough to satisfy them with
prompt cash.
The general mode of dress adopted
by well-to-do half-castes and Europeans
of the masculine gender throughout
the Philippines, is simple and cool in
the extreme, consisting as it does OF
two pieces of the white suit, top
jacket that buttons high around the
neck in military fashion, and a pair
of trousers-both made of strong
sheeting. The price is only $2-made
to order. A thick felt hat of broad
brim, pair of white canvas shoes, a
light under-vest and socks, and there
is your Philippine costume all the
year round. No "boiled" shirt to
bother with, no collar to wilt; every.
thing washable, everything but the hat
and shoes changed each day, and moth
ing hurt by wetting. About eighteen
of these suits are sufficient for q new.
conner in ordinary standing, and he
must expect often to wear two a day. II
it begins to rain, there is q certain pleas
ure in being able to feel you've got
nothing on to hurt" and even the
natives shut their umbrellas on such
occasions, carrying them open only as
q protection against the sun, and
seem to enjoy feeling the very thin
cloth cling close when wet.
The costumes worn by the women
are not SO simple, and are made up
of the brilliant calico skirt, with long
train, that is swished around and
tucked into the belt in front, the
short white waist, with huge faring
sleeves of pima fibre, that show the
arms, and the costly pima handker-
chief that, folded on the diagonal, en-
circles the neck. Costumes of this
sort are hardly as sensible as those
worn by the men, and to this day the
Philippine pony is not altogether used
to the swish of that crushed.strawberry
skirt-train. In fact, / owe sudden
upset off the main road into muddy
rice-feld to the unexpected swirl of
one of those long trains as it was
gathered around to be tucked up in
front.