The herald., 1898-07-30

when. to our CONSERVATION, 1t began to rain
1t never rains In the winter. 1t had not
rained for two months, and did not rain
for about a month afterward, but down 1t
came then. pouring through the fiat avn
ing and all along the edges, and slowly and
| surely moving inboard. The music flick
cred and went out with mournful discord;
the merry laughter gasped and expired, and
the ladies clustered within the wet bound
airy, which narrowed and narrowed and
drew them together in a little bunch. Suffo-
cation began to set in among them, so we
signaled for the small steamer, which soon
came alongside. and then up came the dark
eyed beauties from the cabin; out they
crawled from the bath tub and bin. The
deck was afioat. so we rugged sedans with
armchalrs and squilgee handles, and thus
carried them In state to the gangway, to
save their satin slippers and SILK open
| work.
THE next advent was the arrival Of the
| English admiral, in whose honor the gov
ernor general gave review of the troops.
There were 1900 soldiers quartered in Ma
| Mia and at Cavite. and they all turned out.
| The most of them were the native Tagals,
Negritos and Boeals, who had an eye for
| in white, and marched with quick, short
step and In excellent time. There were
lancers, cavalry and flying artillery. The
officers were Spanish. As they passed the
admiral and governor general they saluted
| by thrusting the sword quickly to the front
and then sweeping the air, as If cutting off
| a daisy top. The captain general was the
| big man there. He drove out In style, with
| four horses and positions. No other per-
son was allowed to drive four horses. As he
passed all raised their hats.
I'VE were In the season of the fetes-
| Christmas holidays and the NewYear.
Every evening during the holiday week
some section of the city took Its turn at
| illumination. dancing and festivity and
| thther went all the youth. beauty and
| pleasure seekers of the town and suburbs.
! The most curious of the entertainments
was a ball at the house of n rich China
man. There was a peculiar blending of
| barbarism and civilization in the furniture.
| table service and appointments. There
were present a large number of Chinese
Mestizo ladies, with more or less OF the
| almond shaped eye, but some of them
| rather pretty and even fond Of dancing
| the habanera and of looking with a sort
| of Hispano-C Chinese tenderness out of the
| corner of their eyes. Their dresses dis
played an Indian repugnance to superfiu-
| ity, a Spanish love of bright colors and a
Chinese popularity of cut bias The
Chinaman received very graciously
and presented us in Spanish to most of the
ladies present About fourteen languages
were being spoken at the same time In the
sala producing most remarkable tumble
of sounds, and, combined with the inspiring
strains of native band, the view of great
Chinese banners and carvings and the va
ried costumes of the mixed races, made
wild, weird scene.
Il was dancing with young Mestizo
when her mother and three sisters beck
oned to us from the staircase to come TO
them, which we obediently did, and I was
asked to escort the party to another bail.
Finding myself captured, 1 surrendered
at discretion and replied that was in for
anything. Taking Miss Buckeyes on my
arm, l went to the van of the convoy and
obeyed signals given from time to time by
the Dana, who occupied the position of 4
flagship in the rear. We soon arrived at d
very handsome house, through the win
dows of which came sounds of music.
laughter and soprano voices. We entered
the basement, went up the broad stone
steps and met the host at the top He
moved his hand toward the row of forty
pretty girls, to whom I gave one general
bow, which was supposed to introduce me
to every one. They asked me If l would
dance a 'Beerheeneea.' I replied that
was sure l would rot dance such thing
as that. What was my surprise to see
them commencing regular Virginia reel
'Beerheeneea being simply their pronun-
citation of Virginia.
THE following day the mail steamer ar
rived from Hongkong, bringing us orders
from the admiral to join him there at once.
This was a bitter disappointment to us.
Not one but was daft about some lovely
Castiian, and to be torn away thus sud-
denly was torture We went ashore for
the last time on the hospitable island Of
Luzon and drove through the streets in all
directions saying farewell After leaving
the houses the young ladies would run to
the front windows as we drove off, open
the lattice a moment, wave their hands and
shout 'Adios! or 'Hasta la vista" and then
close the Venetian with a snap."-New
York Sun.