The record-union., 1899-12-04
LIFE IN The PHILIPPINES.
LAST NIGHTS LECTURE BY
CHAPLAIN McKINNON.
Tells Of Their Resources, De-
scribes the People and Pic
lures Native Scenes.

The fifth annual lecture by Chaplain
McKinnon of the regular army last
night, under the auspices of the DUNG
Mems Institute, was delivered at the
Old Pavilion before a large concourse
OF people. Owing to delay of the tram
from San francisco, the lecturer dld hot
reach here until 9 o'clock, and as
consequence his address was not con-
cluded until a late hour.
The meeting was called to order by
T. A. Cody, and after music by the IN
stitute Band, Mrs. J. H. Coppersmith
and Messrs. Walter Longbottom and }.
G. Genshlea sang 20, Jesu Mi, and
Henry A. Melvin of Oakland sang a
bass solo, '"The Two Grenadiers," and
received an encore, as did also the trio.
Chaplain McKinnon was introduced
by Frank d. Ryan in brief. terse
speech. He then spent an hour and
three-ouarters with the stereopticon
views thrown upon the canvas, hegin-
ming with the discovery of the Philip
pine Islands by Magellan, and carrying
his subject along to the present time.
He spoke of the products of the ISL
ands, placing tobacco in the first rank.
In one factory in Manila 10000 persons,
he said, are employed, and there are
ten or twelve such factories in the ISL
ands. The sugar industry was probably
the most profitable of any in the ISL
ands. Good sugar land could be bought
at from $25 to $50 an acre, and gave a
net annual profit of from $500 to $500
per acre. even with the primitive and
crude methods employed by the natives.
In most instances the juice was ex-
nta cd bxyt 10
who beat it out with a club. Pictures
were shown of the cane farmer at work
with his wooden pillow drawn by carl
boo, which one of the soldiers in writing
home said had a trotting record Of a
mile a month.
The hemp of commerce of Manila,
Father McKinnon said, was unlike any
thing he had ever seen. Instead of the
kind grown in this country it was really
only the leaves stripped from a tree
which grows fifteen or twenty feet high.
The leaves are stripped off each year,
and the fiber they contain is the Ma
Mia hemp of commerce.
The cocoanut tree, the lecturer said,
is the Filipino natives best friend, for
from it he gets food. wine and fiber
with which to weave his nets. The
wine made from the nut is extremely
Intoxicating. and he had heard a SOL
der say that one could get a first
class jag for about cents.
If, he said, white man in the islands
is careful about his diet and the water
he drinks he could be as healthy there
as anywhere. Soldiers in the field could
not take these precautions, and sick
ness followed, but the stories circulated
that Manila is the white mans grave
are, like a great many others, made out
of whole cloth.
Christianity, the lecturer said, had
greatly refined the Malay character
dstics. Under it the natives were pa
tient under difficulties. and forbearing
under proyocation. For all that. they
are a happy-go-lucky people, who usu-
ally go to church with game cocks I'M
der their arms, and when the service is
over spend the day at a cockpit, fight
ing the fowls. Christianized natives he
said, are very moral. The woman Is
the chief f1nancier of the household, and
usually does all Of the work
Father McKinnon gave a laughable
description of an unchristianized Fill
Pine wedding, and then turned his at
tention to the war with Spain, and to
the war with the insurgents which is
still going on. While in Manila he
acted as Superintendent of Schools and
Superintendent of Cemeteries, and said
that from personal knowledge was able
to refute the statements published in