Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-09-08
FREAKS AROUND MANILA.
Personal Experience Of Doctor in the Philip.
pines,

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Mrs. Reuben w. Jones, of Seattle,
writes entertainingly of his expert
ences in the Orient. The doctor,
though very young man, stood high
as linguist and naturalist before en-
tering the navy. He speaks Malay,
Spanish and other languages with flu
ency. His last letter was in part as
follows:
"The steamer 1 finished my journey
on from Cebu to Manila was a weird
specimen of a craft; she was not much
larger than a big sea-going tug, and
made about five miles an hour. Our
saloon quarters opened out on a beau
tiful farm-yard scene, the decks being
crowded with large oxen, some cows,
two horses, lame black dog, sheep,
goats, four white rabbits and brown
one with half an ear gone and cat,
while swinging above we're two parrot
cages holding cuckatoos. The passen-
gers were two st. Augustine nuns,
who clasped their hands together,
rolled their eyes upward and grum-
bled when I told them l did not 20 to
church; Spanish officer. q Chinaman
from Annoy, who is worth about six
millions; several Filipinos and an
other officer besides myself. You
should have seen the Chinaman's
nails. They were beauties, several of
them nearly half foot long; they
were curled gracefully, and polished
and manicured so the enamel shone in
fine style. At Iloilo we ran aground
in the mud, the tide went out, and the
natives came down to the waters edge
to shoot at us. They did not stay
long for their target practice. got
behind an iron hatch and with mau-
ser sent q lot of projectiles among
them, and as they were in a group
they made fair mark to aim at, and
as result three more Filipino angels
were created.
"At Cebu I got into some very
swagger Filipino society; they gave a
big dance and the foreign residents
went. There were not many, but
were all curious just the same. The
health officer attended. He is a
Spanish doctor of the old school, lives
in a swampy part OF the town and
keeps horses and prize Chinese geese
on the ground floor of his house. All
tints of women were there, from the
robust, dark.brown wives of the local
Malay chiefs to the pale-faced fragile
mates of the American officers sta.
ito ned there. Also all types of gowns,
from the native silk skirt (Which is
just tucked in at the waist, and is held
in place simply by faith and very dex-
ferrous grabs and extra tugs when it
begins to drop Off to a pale Nile
green rig like that turned out by
Worth in the late spring of 1896.
The native fair ones did not wear
stockings, or if they did they were
footless; for occasionally when dane
ing slipper would drop off, and then
you could seee the foot searching the
floor frantically under the petticoat
for the lost garment. Sometimes the
toes would struggle out beyond the
rim of the dress, and they looked like
very well-kept toes.
"One of the most gorgeously be-
decked creatures was little Malay
girl of about II years. She was as
pretty as a picture and fell quite in
love with her. We went out to dinner
together, and 1 thought at the time
she was wee bit awkward with the
cutlery, but chivalrously attributed it
to their unwieldy proportions, the
dullness of the knife and the age of
the rooster in the salad. But a min.
ute later, when my back was turned,
l became aware that she had laid the
products of civilization carefully upon
her yet unfolded napkin and was de-
vouring Chat is the correct wOrd) her
food with her fingers. But I kept my
presence of mind and remembered
reading long time ago an anecdote
of one of our Presidents who had q
rural friend visit him and drink out
of the finger bowl, 1 emulated his
great example-just put my knife and
fork out OF commission and did as she
did.
"This same little cherub gave me
her fan and an invitation to call.
accepted both. Two days later 1 put
on boiled shirt (Which is always a
suspicious act out here), and called in
the only victoria in the town at the
correct hour of 4 80 p. NJ. We stopped
before little bamboo shanty, with q
sort of booth in front, and there I
found her-shoeless, stockingless, hat
less clad in a chintz skirt and waist
of q sort of two-ply mosquito netting
like fabric, squatting behinda few ripe
mangoes, bananas, some sections of
sugar-cane and rows of square-faced
gin bottles, filled with gin of native
brew. She Immediately called a
younger sister to keep shop, and led
me into the house. When she came
on the ship she could not keep from
marvelling at the electric light, and
| spent fully twenty minutes turning on