Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-23
STREET SCENE IN MANILA.

oOOfS mere as comfortably as anywhere
else The American soldier has march
ed and worked constantly outdoors in
the extreme heat without being sun
struck. You may stake your head that
the Americans and Englishmen who
have found rich placer mines in the
island of Mindanao, 100 miles south of
here, and are working them for all they
are worth, are not saying that white
men cannot perform labor in this eli
mate. You may also stake your life
that people of an energetic and hustling
race like those of the United States or
of central or northern Europe, could and
would in few years turn these islands
into civilized paradise. They would
hire the heavy work done.
Now let us see what has been accom-
plished.
Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the first
Spanish governor, took possession of
Manila in 1911 There was already a
native town on the site. From that day
to this the Spanish governor general
has resitsed here Manila has been the
seat and center of affairs military. civil,
religious and commercial ever since. It
has come to be city of 300, 900 inhabit-
ants. Here, if anywhere, in one of the
richest countries on the globe, we
would expect to find the comfort, de-
cency and cleanliness of modern civili
cation
Well. there is not today sewer in
Manila The first act of the Ameri-
can government, after settling the ma
tives, must be to give the city COM
plete system of sewerage and drainage.
| have not seen a decently paved street
or sidewalk in the place and do not
believe there is such.
They say the houses Of some OF. the
wealthy Spaniards here are kept in ex-
cellent repair. likewise clean, and are
provided with all the conveniences of
modern civilization. 1t may be. hope
So have not been inside of them. In
strange place the most accurate idea
of things is obtained from studying the
average life of the average people. The
ordinary Spanish house was no doubt
painted and decorated when it was
built, and that was the year mankind
first began to ask if it is hot enough for
you 1t has not been touched since.
Houses are. constructed with two low
stories There cannot be more be-
cause of the danger of earthquakes. For
the same reason they must be made of
light material They consist merely of
frame of timber, with weather
boarding on the outside, like barn in
the States For inside walls canvas is
tackled over the timbers constituting
the frame. A rough wash of various
colorr and figures, rubbing off upon
your pretty white garments at touch,
is smeared over the canvas.
1t would not be so bad if, say, once
in half century or so the canvas were
ripped off and renewed and the doors and
woodwork painted or at least scrubbed.
But, mol have seen just two scrubbjng
brushes in Manila, and they were used
for horses Torn, stained. worm eaten,
rat eaten, ant eaten and time eaten, the
canvas walls and ceilings hang in tags
and shreds, ruined and rotten as the
governmental system of old Spain itself
Queer looking, long bodied little heath
en- rats waltz to and fro the floors at
night and sometimes in the daytime
Just over my bed in the canvas ceiling
mother cat is rearing healthy litter
of kittens. She got in there through
some of the many holes in the walls.
Doors and woodwork are grimy with
the touch of the soiled hands of the
ages apparently The one Manilese idea
of cleaning up appears to be to polish
the floors every day with kerosene To
see this done is circus in itself By
reversal Of what ancient hunkers con-
slider the order of nature the superior
masculine sex does the Homework here.
After your Tagalo housemaid gets his
dishes washed he takes foolish little
brush made of hemp fiber and lightly
skins over the floors with the same
That done, be folds up some coarse
cloths, two of them in long rectangles