The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-01

deserve a special story by themselves.
The whole GROUP of islands is of vol
canic origin. There are seventy vol
canOes in constant eruption on the ISL
ands. Several of them are the most
violent in the world, and are always
being studied by scientists from Europe
and America. The famous Diva
Magyar is within sight of Manila. Ar
earthquake occurs oman average of once
every ten days. / have known small
quakes to come at the rate of a dozen
a day for a week at a time. About a
dozen times a year there are shocks
so severe that people will run about
in fright and damage will be done to
the buildings. The big bridge over the
Passig river at Manila has been so
sWerVed by earthquakes twice in my
residence in the city that it has been
made unsafe for ravel In 1884 an
earthquake nearly ruined the great
stone cathedral in Manila, RACED many
buildings to the ground, rocked hun
dreds more, n 1000 people on Luzon
island We're killed by falling timbers
and walls. In 1860 the great earth
quake occurred on Negroes island. It
has never been known how many peo-
pie were killed then, but the number
is estimated at 1000. Almost every
structure on the island was shaken
down, and great gaps yards wide and
miles long, were cracked across the
island The quake opened seams in
the earth from the seacoast and made
passages from the interior lakes to the
ocean. I supose if such a quake should
occur in New York city there wouldn't
be one building left on all Manhattan
island.
1.-The people of Manila have the fond
ness of Spanish countries for exciting
Snnrfc Ia NJ H~o+~, a.
about 1,500 people, is nearly always
filled. 1t pays the Spanish government
a revenue of about $4,000 a veal Some
times an opera or theatrical company
will come there from Paris or Madrid,
and play seven nights in the week for
months at a time. Operas with a lot
of buffoonery and a lot of desperate
villains are immensely popular in Man
lila, and dramas in which there is a
vein Of immortality will draw for weeks.
While the play proceeds boys go about
the theater vending cigars and sweet
meats. Often a cloud of tobacco smoke
obscures stage at the close Of an even
ing. When the play pleases a whole
scene will be repeated. I once attended
an opening night of a new Spanish
drama, and the audience cheered so
Justify that the whole first scene was
repeated twice before the second came
on. There are some marvellous incon-
gruities in the drama there, but the
audience enters so enthusiastically into
the plot that there is no chance for
such trifling criticism. saw a play last
year in which a Roman soldier shot
the villain to death in a room where
there were curtains and glass window
panes.
Gambling is universal in the Phil
lippines. don't known anyone except
the half-civilized men on the little ISL
ands in the Philippine archipelago who
do not do some gambling. There are
lotteries galore. h government gets
one million dollars revenue a year from
the lotteries, and no matter how hard
the times, there are always some lot
teries in full blast under the protection
of the Spanish. Sellers of lottery tick
cts have booths along the streets, at the
plazas and wherever the people congre-
gate for an evenings promenade. Thou
sands of people will scrimp and pinch
a whole month to get money to buy
chances in some lottery scheme. The
business men lay aside a certain share
of their receipts to buy tickets from
advertisements for lotteries.
NATURALLY the average native of the
Philippines is humble and peaceable
sort of fellow. He has very little edu-
cation n has no knowledge of the
world outside of the islands. 1 know
men III mania VINO nave nelQ govern
ment offices and are accounted great
successes there, who had never heard
of the United States, and asked me if
our country was anywhere near China.
I guess they have brushed up their
geography along that line since I left
the islands. The natives are simple
people; they love to dance, sing and
loaf. Poverty is more general than
anywhere on the continent. Under a
good government there would never be
a suggestion of a rebellion and these
people could be made prosperous"