The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-02-01
THE FILIPINOS' HOLIDAY.
Christmas Music and Then Games
and Gossip-Orange Bios
SONS.

In October the monsoon changes in
the China sea, and in place of the ener-
waiting and balmy breeze from the lands
cf the equator comes the invigorating
wind of the north. The thermometer
falls just enough to make the weather
beautiful by day and comfortable by
night. Christmas enjoys the finest
weather of the year The sky is pale
tlue or hazy with thin gray clouds. The
orange groves put on their finest attire
nnd form long walls of FURNISHED
green, dotted with golden circles. A
dozen other trees and scores of shrubs
and lowly plants seemingly try TO cell
ebrate the season by putting out their
fairest flowers or sweetest fruit.
The day is holiday, and is observed
something as il is in Madrid, something
as ii may have been before the con-
questadore laid his iron hand upon the
docile Tagal. The churches are open
and are centers of human activity.
White women and brown, yellow and
red. proud Castilians and humble colo
rials, Tagal and Irrogote, Visaya and
half breed, make up the procession that
enters and departs through the great
church portals.
Within is the storm of noble music
played as only the Filipino can play.
The art nature in the brown race eX-
presses itself in music and motion. The
nf ha ic n
scng and dance. ard the orchestras of
the churches show their ancestral hab-
its by melodious composition and the
rhythmic swaying of heads and hands
and often feet. They seldom play the
harmonic masterpieces of Bach, Han
del, Haydn or Beethoven; they probab-
~ would not understan the higher
thought which is embodied in the
matchless chords and wondrous SYM
pnonic effects of these composers. But
when il comes to Gounod and Verdi, to
such pieces as the "lnflammatus" and
the save Maria they play and sing
with a vigor and enthusiasm that are
soul-stirring.
Everybody is dressed in what New
Englanders call Sunday -go-to-meeting
clothes. The Caucasians wear the
toilets of Madrid. rich with Gothic
laces, velvet applique silks and satins.
The half-breeds appear in quaint but
elegant robes of silk and grass-cloth
pinas, and other odd but attractive ere
ations of the eastern loom, while the
poor natives wear the quaint serong,
the Malay jacket and the Filipino
vest, which, in their way, are as grace
full and becoming as the finest mode
from Paris.
When the mass is over the men hurry
to the cockpit and wager their pesetas
and pesos upon their favorite birds.
Women form school parties in the
courtyards of their homes and there
talk gossip and discuss never-ending
problems of domestic economy, the
same as their sisters in other parts of
the world. Sometimes the street is en-
)ivened by religious procession, and
sometimes a native funeral blocks the
thoroughfare.
Through the white men and the
brown move the stolid Chinese, dressed
in their invariable blue suits; the poor
coolies in the cheapest cotton cloth
and the rich merchants in magnificent
robes of Canton silk. 1t is an odd COM
bination of races, the brown Malay
jostling with the still darker Papuan,
and jostled in turn by the yellow man,
and all subordinated to the imperious
white race, no matter whether Spanish,
English or American. Boston Herald.