The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-19
LITTLE FILIPINOS.
Neither the Boys nor the Girls Have a
Very Good Time.


One of my schoolboys at Isabella was a
bright, pug-nosed little fellow and picked
up English rapidly. He was a scion of
one Of the best Filipino families in the
pueblo. Shortly after became school
master there was wedding In the family
There was the usual three days festivities
with a multitude OF guests, myself
among the number. There was dancing
all day ard all night and seven and eight
course suppers with wine and other drink,
ables unlimited. A few hours Of it salts
fled me. A few days after the festivities
noted among the children and adults .
who gather at meal time around the
soldiers quarters my swell pupil,
Restitoto. Like the other ma tives he was
equipped with two empty tomato cans,
and stood patiently at the dining room
door, waiting for the soldiers as they
came out to scrape their plates into the
tomato cans before washing them. When
Restitoto had his cans filled with leayings
he disappeared in the direction of the
parental mansion. l have been chary
ever since OF accepting invitations to Fill
Pine banquets have to be pretty well
acquainted with native now before
accept his hospitality.
A Filipino boy differs from any other
type of childhood In the fact that he has
no healthy ADJUSTMENTS whatever. He
does not know how to play. He has no
games. Occasionally he helps his father
| fly kite And IL he has u few dukkos
he CANDLES with them at chuck dukko.
That is all. He has no equivalent for
baseball, FOUNDERS, pullaway, prisoners
base, shinney, handball, snap-the-whip,
hide-and- seek, foot ball, hunt-Injun, or
any of the multitude OF games of Amerf-
can boyhood. He does not hunt, or fish.
He takes no interest in animal or plant
| life, His mother never finds jackstones,
marbles, queer bits of stone, fishhooks, a
ball Of Irvine and live garter snake
mixed up together in his jacket pocket.
II he is valley boy he never goes into
the woods in the mountains although
being boy he would be reasonably safe
there. He smokes cigarettes, chews betel
and bonga and patters Spanish prayers.
At 10 he is young man. At IA, If OF a
well-to-do family, he is dude in white
duck, making love TO a delaga and going
to the dances. At 10 or 16 II he has 100
pesos for the priest he is tremendously
married. If he hasn't the 100 pesos he
postpones the marriage ceremony, but
not the alliance. And in the latter event
at IL he hustles together ten pesos to pay
| the priest for the christening OF his child,
| ana as he cannot stand as the legal father
he stands as its godfather. To his credit,
If he ever does accumulate 100 pesos, no
| usually marries the girl.
/ /
| struck me at first glance as being thor
oughly healthy, normal specimen OF boy
hood. That was at o hacienda right at
the foot of the mou ntains. lie was q
| sturdy, muscular, round headed lad OF
IL and his face fairly beamed with good
nature, animal spirits and health. L
asked native about him. The native
also looked at him with admiration in
his eyes:
boy. 4 fine boy and a good fighter.
Within the year he had killed two COM
panions-first wrestling with them and
throwing and then deity cracking their
skulls with n rock. !"
i since then have given up the search
for normal specimen of boyhood in thesa
islands. A Filipino boy simply knows
nothing except how to patter prayers.
lie does not even bring home cocoons
and watch them turn to butterflies. lie
is willing and anxious to learn, but can
J not possibly by any effort concentrate his
mind upon any given task for sixty
} straight seconds.
J When he becomes a man he Is the worst
paid or any laborer l know. But he is
} also the most worthless and irresponsible
, laborer l know. But he is also always
} an eye servant He Will not do stroke
J except under the overseer's eye. His
fiestas or holidays are innumerable. And
a fiesta always lasts three days. Inc
celebration OF Easter took five days.
} Not n wheel turned on this island during
J those five days. Any time when the or
binary Filipino gets five pesos all at one
time he will throw up his job and blossom
= out as a gambler.
The Filipino girl is the counterpart Of
the boy. She has no games no play. She
does not play at keeping house. She does
not nurse, fondle and dress and undress
a doll. She does not learn To keep house
or cook or do anything useful. have
never met Filipino or Mestizo woman
who could make herself a garment. The
| corners of her mouth run with the red
Juice of betel and bonga and frequently
tobacco. Her lower lip hangs limp. She
puffs a big, black cigar, a half foot
long. She is absolutely and utterly with
! out any sense of modesty in the matter
. Of speech or action. A few of the Mestizos
are a tri6e better than this picture, but
very few. On dress occasions these women
20 to man tailor to have their
dresses made and even then they wear
clothes with the gaueherie of savage
not accustomed to such luxuries. In
this respect the men are far superior to
} the women. They wear more appropriate
, clothing and wear 1t with better grace.
The women here are a part and parcel
of the property OF the men. Ihey are
never treated as equals except in the line
OF gallantry. At social functions the men
all go in TO dinner first, No woman gets
a bite until every man guest, even down
: to the meanest, has had his fill. Even
the bride at her wedding breakfast waits
until the third or fourth table and goes in
with the other women, Her new lord and
master sits at the head of the first table.
: A man and woman never sit at table and
take their food together not even hus-
band and wife or son and mother. Tho
native soldiers on garrison duty at
hacienda go in and eat before the wife
! Of the hacienda owner dreams of taking
her place at table. Even in the meanes5
nipa hut the wife stands by while the