Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-23
DESCRIBES A GRAND BALL,
The Social Side of Life in the Philip
mines.

pines.
Capt. J. v. Philip of the 31st Infantry
now duty in the Philippines, has written
an interesting letter to relatives in this
city. At the time of writing the captain
ard his command were stationed at Fam
boanga, Island Of Mindanao He describes
grand ball given in honor of the datto Of
that place.
"At the table" says he 1.-The datto first
placed all the women who had lost men of
their families in the late war-the one that
took place here just before We landed The
datto and his men killed most Of them and
now he is making amends to the widows
and mothers. The dance lasted until a. M
The company was a little mixed Chris
tfan and Mohammedan. In the last set of
the square dance all the officers of the
army and navy duty here wore the
turbans and sashes of the Moros. They
were delighted and said we were indeed
friends now. The rich silk turban and
waist sash on white uniforms, with
the gold and white shoulder straps made a
very pretty effect
1.-The color of the people assembled ran
the scale of the rainbow Back of tho
dancing room were some rooms, curtained
off, where the datto's wives and daughters
looked on. A drinking room was provided.
where beer. vino tinto, whisky. brandy and
champagne were served. In a dark ante
room a gambling game was in progress
The only light was on the green-covercd
table Weird faces, those of Moros, Fill
pinos. Chinese. Malays and Christians,
made a fantastic frame to the layout
The bank was broken once by four Next
can gamblers. who played and danced al
ternately.
ITO show the character of the people
here: A complaint against excessive taxa
ton was received from man who had to
pay $2.5O per month on store Chinaman
was running for him. This was from the
same man who had lost 5000 when the
bank was broken in the game the night
before and whom l saw lose 800 on a cock
fight.
THE other day we were attracted to the
waters edge by the sound Of guns and
drums of the tom-tom sort. and beheld a
magic fleet of small sail boats, about sixty
in all. 1t was the Sultan of Mindanao his
retinue and armor bearers come to pay
their respects. The widest freak of DeWolf
Hopper's imagination could not be a cir
cumstance to what this pageant was. Flags
spears, shields, double-handled swords, brass
cannon, war drums and banners of all de-
scriptions were there in greatest abundance
The sultan and each datto had his own
boat pulled by from twelve to sixteen men,
when the sails were not set. Under a
large umbrella Of red and yellow silk, en-
broidered with their creStS, reclined The
sultan and dattos on piles of cushions. They
first fired a salute and then their drums
made terrible din. We took them ashore
and marched them through double line of
troops, with our band furnishing the music.
AT the Office of the adjutant general we
gave them cigars. You may imagine a
white elephant was not circumstance to
this crew. We showed them parade and
target practice. and they were very much
impressed, especially SO with small Maui
ser gun have which fires ten shots auto
matically. with one pull Of the trigger
Our visitors costumes were gorgeous. The
sultan's cuffs were Of gold. and in his fez
were several silver cocks feathers. He
wore some misunderstanding rings and
other jewelry."