Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-07-29
Manila a BADLY Built Town.

NeiS ~ soy eAdClly what SNOuIu De con-
sidered part Of the town and what should
not.
Manila q BADLY Built Town.
The town is badly built as can be. The
houses are much too close together and
the streets are narrow. For the metropolis
OF big country, for a city of quarter
OF million inhabitants, rich and pros
porous mart. center Of education and
luxury, as the buildings in the walled city
indicate. it is disreputable. ill-arranged
ana unsightly town. The principal busi-
ness street. the EsoIta, is narrow, wretch
edly paved. crooked and filled with the
most commonplace. mean looking struc-
lures. So are the ether streets. but fur
ther from the center there are trees to
hide the ugliness. In excuse, the Manila
people plead earthquakes, typhoons, thun-
der storms and floods as their reasons for
not having passably presentable town,
bur Manila is not the only place with
earthquakes and all the rest. Toxic is in
nniteiy worse, but is handsomer and the
roads are better paved.
Inc PasiS is a river sixty or seventy
yards wide. and perhaps twelve feet deep,
yet the bridging of it has never gone be-
yond primitive stages. There is one mar
row bridge. the Puenta d'Espana, connect
Is far too narrow for the traffic, and would
never be considered sufficient in a civil
lzed country. There is another bridge near
1t. but 1t is seldom. If ever, used for
vehicle traffic. and the Puenta d'Espana is
constantly choked
Tramways and RniIvays,
There are tramways running into out
lying parts of the town, and a steam tram
way to the northern suburb of Malabon
Ihere is also railway from Manila to
Daguapan, about 120 miles north, run by
an English company.
In the rural township of Santa Mesa
about three or four miles out. is a big DOW
de- magazine or ''polverin." close by the
right tnorth) bank of the river Pasig. On
the opposite side of me river is the VIII
lage OF Santa Ana, mile or two away
1t was about here that the first shots
were fired in the insurrection of 1896. and
several English people having villas in
these parts had a lively time
Another ''polverin" is at Malate. on the
seashore. Just south Of the walled city. I
understand that these two are the only
powder magazines the Spaniards have in
the immediate neighborhood of the city. ex-
cluding, of course, the forts own stores.
Maiate is reached from Binondo by a pret-
ty drive outside the city walls. either along
the sea front or behind the city
Beyond the city is the esplanade called
the Tuneta, where the band plays every
evening in peace times. At the far end of
the Tuneta is the battery of two big guns
which fired on the American ships until
Admiral Dewey talked seriously of repIy-
ing.
little beyond this battery is the English
Club. surrounded by number of pleas
ant residences. English, Spanish and others.
Furthest Of all, quite near the fort and
powder magazine, is the Eastern Extension
Telegraph Company's establishment Brit
ish). little way back from the sea Is the
Jesuit observatory, which does excellent
service and is, indeed, the Jesuit's best an
swer to those who say they do harm in the
Philippines.
In the Outskifts of the City.
Outside Of the populous suburbs there are
more rural and less settled districts, dotted
with handsome residences scattered remote
ly among the rice fields and tropical wood
lands. where guerrilla warfare would be
well nigh interminable. In such country,
with hedge rows that have in the course
Of ages grown into respectable little thick
cts. with little plantations that are dark
and almost impenetrable patches of SOM
ber greenery, a stationary force might
check an advancing force with the greatest
ease. There are plenty Of open fields, yet
the country cannot be called open, for 1t il
luxuriously wooded between the fields. Ar
tillery would be of little use, with never
half mile Of clear space; nothing but
skirmishing under thick cover would be of
any effect in this kind of ground, and the
victory would rest with the side best fitted
for jungle warfare. Not that this is jun
gle: it is simply fertile pastoral land with
a lot of trees everywhere. But it is the
last place in the world for plain peasant
lads, newly recruited, and without any tar
get practice, to meet semi-savage woods
men. and that is what Spain is depending
on. for her sons are raw recruits and her
enemies are trained forest rovers.