The evening times., 1899-09-04
MANILA'S FOURTH OF JULY.
Filipino SchOoIchiIdren Sing "My
Country, ',Ffs of Thee.v

MANILA. July 1.-THE surroundings
might have been little queer, but on
the whole it lacked only a little of being
regular old-time affair. When the Fill
pino children tried TO sing, My Country,
'Tis of Thee" the hornblowers In the band
stand did famous stunt and the strains
of the beautiful old anthem rose tri-
umphant over the walled city. The local
papers all speak OF it as the first celebra-
tion of the Fourth of July in the Philip
pines, but it wasn't There was one last
year in Cavite, when General Anderson re-
viewed the troops OF the first expedition
and Aguinaldo was indisposed and couldn't
come to see the show But he sent his
band instead, and it played Faust" music
and the ''Tannhauser" overture and that
sort OF thing, and no one cared whether
Aguinaloo heard il or not. This, bow
ever, was the first celebration of Inde-
pendence Day in Manila, and from various
points of view il corker. 1t began
early and held on until late, as any we'll
regulated celebration should, and there
were several general orders about il which
were violated with impunity and TO the
hearts content. That's what made il so
: thoroughly American. All the plans and
regulations were made with precision and
due regard for the circumstances, and then
everybody did just exactly as he liked. We
are great people.
At the beginning Of the day the bands
! played the national airs. That is, when
the bugleTs blew the reyeille the bands
turned out and did the "Star-Spangled Ban
ner' After that nobody was permitted To
discharge fireworks Of any description
within the limits of the city except on the
Luneta, under such regulations as the
|
vost marshal not having made any orders
for the use of the Luneta, and the order
of restriction not having been published,
the result was that all the streets were fui
! of firecrackers all the time. But instead
/ of having eight thousand fires and million
runaways. as would have happened in al
most any town at home, there was hardly
an accident The Filipino pony is long
| suffering beast, and has endured so many
worse things that frecrackers have no ter
rors whatever fer him.
Every light battery in the command will
J fire the salute TO the Union at noon- those
> in the city being assembled on the Luneta
! for that purpose" So the order read, but
when it came TO noon and we got out On
; the Luneta 10 see and hear the DanB .hs
that was going to make the Filipinos think
| the war was on for sure, there was only
one battery OF what became of the others
| there was 10 explanation. Out in the bay
| there were some grey-coated warships that
had decorated themselves in all kinds OF
| colored bunting. and they cut loose with
their six-pounders at noon in enthusiastic
style. Down at linus and up at San Fer
| nando there were salutes also. and in the
| evening the San Fernando rebels took adj
vantage of the day 10 emphasize their de-
nands with few rife bullets fired at our
outposts. But they reckoned without their
host, as they have done on several similar
occasions. It was like the case the new
| policeman reported of a man who built a
kerosene fire in his showcase 10 clean it.
No damage" said the cop on his slip at
the stationhouse, only to the showcase
The result undoubtedly made the FilipinoS
feel like that other man who, as the cop
reported, fell of stool in some unknown
manner. and broke his leg.
The great show was on the Luneta in
the afternoon. There the schoolchildren
were TO march al + o'clock, 5.OGU strong
each CARRYING the Stars and Stripes, and
each ready to sing America" and all the
rest of the really patriotic airs that go
| well on such occasions. Well. they
marched and if there were not 1000 OF
them l never will tell how many there were,
for l didn't count them. They made
fine show with their newest and cleanest
and purplest shirts tapping about over
their white trousers and most of them in
of the Hon Oscar F. Williams, who was
Consul here until an order took away his
Job. that there was a great field for the
United States here in the development OF
the shoe industry. The little Shavers were
as proud of themselves as any peacocks
you ever saw, and when 1t came time Tor
them TO try to sing. they stood mp and
whaled away in their utmost endeavor
to drown out the well-doing band The
band was the feature of the day, barring
a. long haired man who being a Govern
ment contractor naturally undertook the
Job of reading the Declaration OF lnde-
pendence to the little Tagals in the purple
shirts and fedora hats. He was Lice
oIeaginous man, and he recited the Sono-
rous phrases of the declaration with an
unction that would have made the sober
est Tagal in the crowd laugh if he could
have understood what in thunder II was
all about The band was principally a
TasaI affair under the direction of the
leader CT the band of the Sixth Artillery.
He had been at work with them for a
long time and the result was very salts
factory The Tagals are really wonderful
musicians. and the bandmaster of the Sixth
had improved his opportunity.
But Just as in so many other things the
show is not the show. but they that go, >"
the Luneta was the show of the Celebra-
ton. No photograph OF the Lunsta that
| have ever seen conveys any sort or an
idea of what it is like, principally for the
reason that they are all taken when the
place is as bare of occupants as the foo.
, of a powder mill just after an explosion
, Never since there has been Luneta has
there been such a crowd as was there yes
terday afternoon. Everything in tie city
that would run on wheels was out with at
, least two persons in it. Quiles. CARO-
malta cariteIa, carlton, carruaje mi.ord,
! vfs-a-vis, ealesa, calesin, rockaway, trap,
hansofn ambulance and foEr-mule Wagol
, even the pitiable little one-horse street
cars. whose lines run comparatively neaI
t the Luneta, stopped to let their occupants
, ! become 4 part of the show In the band
stand in the centre of the place were III:
musicians. and around il were the scboo
children. The rest of the space inside o
t | the roadway was iammed and crowCe
i with all sorts and conditions of men an
: boys, nearly all of them shoot ng fire
tcrackers as fast as they could 1t lackGC
: only the boys hawking popcorn and pinl
n lemonade and that sort of thing to be
= regular old-time county fair The boy
T and the men who were having tie fuI
:. with the fireworks kept up a lively pop
+ ping Most of the time they threG Il,
= lighted crackers over the heads OF tn
e crowd to fall where they might, and tn
e wonder is there were no serious accidents
5 but everybody seemed to come of whole
lone feature of it the Filipnos understooS
Thoroughly was, that it was a holiday
They enjoyed that part whether any othe
lappeaIed to them or not
i Admiral Watson and the officers of tn,
d IA gstip baltimore held q reception in tn