The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-22
MANILA AND IT'S PEOPLE
THE SCENE of DEwEY's FAMOUS
VICTORY AND IT'S SITUATION.
What the City Really Looks Like--The
Question of Its HeaIthfulness-
Problem of Government.
Joseph E. Stevens. in New York Post.

home again. If they did not die of smallpox
| they speedily succumbed to sunstroke The
captain of the Picking, from San Francisco,
as he crossed the 1SOth meridian and dropped
Sunday out of the week to bother the mis-
sionaries and get rid of the day lost by 60
| ing west promised to carry me back next
| voyage in box form. Old stagers in Japan
| and Hong Kong said the same thing. and
by the time was a passenger on the zafro.
| now our naval transport, bound for Manila
itself, felt like predestined victim.
The sixty-hour voyage aslant the south
west monsoon that surged up from Borneo
| along the China coast did not change that
| feeling. But at sunrise on the third day out
| from Hong Kong the Zafiro slid along under
| the coast mountains of Luzon, the most
northern island of the Philippine group,
| then turned sharply to the left, and bucked
against the strong current that ebbed out
| through Boca Chica or small mouth to Ma
Mia bay, through a passage that may have
been two miles wide. The coast mountains
Sloped straight up from the shore four thou
| sand feet to the left, and on the right the
| barren island of Corregidor, with its five
| hundred or six hundred feet of rocky alti-
| tude set almost in the center of the en-
| trance switched off to either side the vol
ume of water making out towards the Chi
ma sea. On tie island rose the Corregidor
| light, first sighted by steamers coming up
| from the Malacca straits, while beyond lay
| the Boca Grande, or big mouth. some six
| or seven miles wide, used by vessels going
| south down the coast. Still further beyond
| rose the abrupt hills of the lower shore line
| First appearances certainly were not so
black as painted, and some of our passen-
gers hoped that after all we should one day
| tI,o u Gfp of11pr
| making homeward.
| From the entrance the bay makes a huge
sweep to the right and left and almost loses
| itself in the haze before distant mountains
make for it a low blue frame. Close in shore
to tie left is the quarantine station, where
| steamers coming from the black plague
| ports have to tie up for fifteen days and
| give their passengers a chance to observe
| the movements of the Philippine ants by
| making bets as to which one of a number
| will drop his grain of sand at the goal first
| In times of plague steamers from China
| have stayed here as long as three weeks,
| while the sheep destined for Manila's mar
| kets have died on the deck and the potatoes
| have rotted in the hold. For all the mutton
| and potatoes that Manila gets come from
| China, and a few endorsements OF quaran-
tine soon deprive the city OF TWO important
| articles of food, g.,
dor light to the anchorage. ana me N HaITo
rose out of the water at the opposite SIDE
of the bay. Even then the front row OF low
buildings struggling along the shore Iale9
| to reveal any depth to the city; that could
| only be noted by a distant dome or two
| that stood out white against the mountains
| five leagues inland.
FORMATION OF THE BAY.
The shores sweep away right and left
from Manila in tho regular lines of a great
| hoop whose rim is sandy beach and low
| palms To the left there is nothing of pres
ent interest. but fifteen miles along the
beach to the right the hoop breaks, and a
low sand-spit making out into the bay on a
bias holds Cavite, with it's docks, marine
railway, arsenal and low Notifications. The
little arm formed by the hook makes good
shelter for vessels when the fierce winds of
the southwest monsoon, that blow straight
| in across the bay, kick up too much of sea
for them to load and discharge at the main
anchorage and the big mail boats always
lie there in the bad weather OF the wet
season.
The Zafiro stopped among the deep water
ships anchored three miles off the break
water, and wheezy launch took her nve
passengers up the river to the custom house
ON the right, old Manila itself, surrounded
by walls and bastions; on the left the mile
and the business houses all sizzling under
iron roofs made in Germany" All around
there was great activity. lighters discharg-
|
| hoisting out rice, coolies carrying tobacco
| bales, old women cooking heaven knows
what in greasy pots young girls se bat lot n
undershirts, and native clerks in white suits
and flying shirt tails tallying weights or
| The land in and around Manila for ten
| miles is almost as fiat as the bay itself, and
scarcely lifts its surface yard above it.
| In tho rainy reason the River Pasig, which
| flows down through the city, dividing 1t in
| two, pushes with it's swollen volume in vain
| against the tide heaped in by the southwest
| wind. and, not finding free outlet by keep
| ing within bounds, oVerfioWs its banks and
makes Manila practically what it has been
| often called-the Venice of the Far East. 1t
| is then that the narrow roadways, in the
| suburbs, that run between the rice fields be-
come dangerous. and ones whole turnout
feet of water when one tries to reach the
English Club.
RATHER HEALTHFUL.
BY this time everybody ought to know
that. Mania's streets are narrow. its houses
low, it's people short, its carriages without
number, and its horses all stallion ponies
that every one smokes, men cigarettes and
| women cigars; that all wear white cloth
suits, and no one walks if he has the money
to ride; that the city, though low, is.
broadly speaking. healthy except for small
pox, which fourishes unnoticed in the
! crowded houses of the lower, half-caste
natives and Chinese, and malarial typhoid.
| which chooses the careless foreign resident
for it's attentions. The black plague has
| never reached the Philippines but cholera
| used to decimate Manila'S native popula-
| ton before a generous benefactor gave the
| city its present good water supply system.
| Since then that dread disease has kept
| away, and the mortality in that center of
| $4,000 Malays, half-castes, Chinese and Eu-
ropeans does not probably exceed 3 per
| cent per annum. In largest proportion of
| the city's population come the Malay half
| CO ste types, and faces of swarthy color,
| high cheek bones, almond eyes, straight
| black hair and the absence of whiskers
| show mixtures of Chinese, Malay and Span
| ish blood. The Chinese in Manila are so 900
| strong, and, though hated by the native,
| are the mainstay of the local business COM
| munity. Europeans, outside of Spanish
| troops, may number 5000 souls. but the
| number of England's would scarce
| December, January and February, with
| their northeast wind, months of little
rain, warm days, cool afternoons and cold
| nights. March, April and May are so hot
| dry and dusty that the American or Briton
| is apt to say with the poet:
Where the latitude's mean and the longi-
| tude's low,
Where the hot winds of summer perennial
| ~ blow,
| Where the mercury chokes the thermom-
| eter's throat,
| And the dust is as thick as the hair on
| goat.
Where ones throat is as dry as a mummy
| accuTsed,
There lieth the land of perpetual thirst"
Each day at noon the mercury climbs to