The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-08-05

How tn Nasiona Atty of Families nj
vided in Luzon.


Manila, June i5.-It may seem strange
at first glance that there are no Chinese
women In Maniia, or any other town in
the Philippines, for the matter Of thas.
At least they are SO few that their pres
ence merely goes co prove the rule. There
are Chinese boys running about with
their s7routing cues dangling down their
brown backs But there are no little
Chinese girls The reason Of all this is
that when q Chinainan marries he weds
"a Filipino woman. When hid is born
10 all depends en- Its sex as TO whether IT
Is to be Chinefe or Filipino. In other
worls when boy comes to make happy
the home Of his parents In their Mira hut
there Is great joy--on the part Of his faith
er-for that buy is to. be Chinaman and
grow up In the belief of his father. who
will train him In all the lors OF the joss
and tell to him the legend Of the pearl
and tie dragon. His head Is shaven and
the lock of bis hair which goes to the
makeup OF the cue is nurtured apd cared
for. 1t is likely that the latter work is
attended by the mother.
When a weeny bit Of girl comes COO
Ing into the home Of this pair there Is
much happiness in the heart Of the moth
er, and some giadness in the breast of the
priest Of the parish, for then there is TO
be one more In the fold OF the church.
The girl is brought up in the faith of her
mother. Her feet are permitted &c grow,
and the only thing that she is required
10 do with them is to run errards and
master the art of wearing henlless slip
pers. She is taken to church and bap-
tized, and she must learn her catechism
by heart. She must go to mass and she
must confess all her shortcomings to the
padre. and when she grows up she has
the privilege of marrying a Chinaman If
che falls in love with him, or she may
link her life to that of native Filipino
and 20 on with him to the church of her
youth-as she would go anyway. A
woman Ia always native, and she
smokes her cigarette or her cigar just the
same whether her father wears his hair
in pigEail down his back or In pompa-
dour.
should you cut the Que from q China
mans lead 1t would DO hard work TO dis
tinguish him from one of the accredited
natives There is q little Incident illus
tratiDg this which Is known to the olti
ceis of Gen. MacArthur's army at San
Fernando. Before the entrance of the
American army into that town there went
forth an edict from Gen. Luna, COM
manding the insurgent forces there, that
all Cinnamon must get out of the town
at once or suffer the punishment of
death. Now there was one Chinaman
who was steward for Spaniard having
large interests In the town. There was
mammoth sugar factory aud warehouse
to be taken care of; there was wine GEL
lar to he looked after, aud there was a
landed estate that no one knew about but
this particular Chinaman. When the
news Was brought to him that he must
leave the town ne was at a loss to know
what to do his master was away--in
fact, had been ever since the breaking
out Of hostilities between the Americans
and the Billpinos. If the Chinaman left,
no one would be responsible for the ests ts
and there was reason to believe that much
of the property would be lest.
IL happened that the Chiuaman had
been so busy that ne had put OF the job
OF shaving his head until he had quito a
growth OF hair where neat celestial is
always shaved clean. This gave him the
idea of cutting OF bis cue and remaining
behind as filipino. He did IL, and
there ara NO experts who could tell him
from native. He escaped the exile and
he also escaped death. For when Capt
Russell OF the signal corps rode past his
house In stringing the wires from Cal
umpit TO San Fernando this faithful ser.
want came out and offered the hospitali-
ties Of the house. lie told the story with
u good deal of pride.
While there is not a race war, the ma
tives have burned the houses of the Chi
namen. The latter ara the merchants Of
the island. In Very town where the Amer
loans have gone they have found China
men doing most of the business. They
are the bankers and the monay lenders
They are the tradesmen. 10 their shops
can be found The silks and the finer fab
ries. The natives own the markets. They
are the artisans, and while their methods
are crude and their tools primitive. they
do the tius work-the carving for the fine
houses, and they laboriously saw out the
fretwork and ornaments. They are the
silversmiths and the locksmiths. They
are the peddlers. Their aspirations and
inoiinations are mercantile. 1t Is sell
dom one Is found working on farm.
so all day long they sit in their kazars
smoking, while their native wives chat
ter over the gossip of their set and their
Chinese boys and Filipino girls play
about the doors. chicago Record.