Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-09
Especial Correspondence.l

limited. He would fain knock off work
religiously for every holy day and feast
day in the Roman Catholic church, and
the number seems unlimited When
those fail, he generally has funeral or
two of some relative or friend to at
tend. Holy week, preceding Easter
Sunday, is the great time of the year
for the Tagalo. Unless his living liter
ally depends on it, he will not work on
Good Friday or the Saturday following.
This present year marked the first time
in the history of Manila that the street
cars were run on Good Friday. The
strong arm of American military au-
thority forced the puny little native
drivers and conductors to attend to
their business
Permit me to qualify the statement
that the Tagalo has no ambition. He
has one that absorbs his little mind
during the first two months of each
year. 1t is to get a new shirt for holy
week 1t is as much to him as to the
fashionable American lady is her new
Easter bonnet. His shirt is his most
gorgeous article of attire. On it he
spends the anxious thought of days and
nights, and perhaps a months wages
About the 1st of March your cook or
coachman will ask you for a months
wages in advance to buy him a new
shirt for holy week. His shirt is his
outer upper garment, in every case
worn outside of his trousers. For Ia
gallo to wear his shirt inside of his
trousers would be breach of etiquette
objectionable in the eyes of his race.
The Tagalo's everyday apparel con-
sists of an undershirt and trousers, with
a pair of wooden soled toe slippers
handy and comfortable for hot eli
mate. Jf the weather is very warm or
if he has only one undershirt, he omits
that garment and walks forth with only
the thin lawn shirt on the upper half
of his body, his brown hide shining
through and giving to the tout ensem-
BILE that tint Of different color consid-
cred so artistic in Worth and Redfern
creations. On Good Friday the Tagalo
steps forth in his new holy week shirt.
If he has any money left over after
paying fer 1T. then the females and
children appear in new garments too
If the Tagalo race outside Manila is
not superior to the specimens here. then
it must be ON the road to extinction.
The children are the scrawniest, for
lornest samples of infancy one can pic
ture to himself A native child year
and half old at our house is no taller
than the healthy well grown American
baby of Z months that its mother has
just brought from San Francisco. The
American child is much heavier than
the native one, which cannot walk yet
in spite of its 1S months sojourn in this
weary world.
If, however, the little Tagalo girl
cannot walk, it will not be long till she
can smoke cigarettes She will quite
possibly be able to smoke as soon as she
can walk. The first and finest accom-
plishment of the infant native is ciga
rette smoking. Everybody-man, wom-
an and child-is addicted to it. 1 have
seen skinny little girl looking no more
than 4 years old putting at cigarette
that was longer than her own hand,
prouder of it than white boy is when
he first has his long curls cut off
Undoubtedly the Roman church has
striven faithfully for 800 years to en-
graft monogamy ON the Philippine Is
landers; but, speaking in the terms of
vaccination, it has not "taken" In
spite of all the terrors and thunders of
both law and theology your Tagalo can
not understand why he should not run
his domestic relations to suit himself.
The romance of Agapito and Felipa,
that came under my own observation,
illustrates the point. Hear the romance
of Agapito and Felipa
Felipa was engaged as nurse of the
handsome San Francisco baby that was
brought out from America in our ship.
She was a belle among the Tagalos,
with the temper of vixen and an eye
that flashed like red Indians. Agapito
was doorkeeper at the Army and Navy
club. He fell in love with Felipa and
spent a whole months wages-$7. So
on her. He bought her gingham skirts,
red and yellow, and with long tails to