The National tribune., 1902-12-25
XMAS I'm MANILA.
How the Day Was Celebrated by
the Volunteers in 1898.
BY CAPT. HARRY L. WELLS, 2D ORE.

BY CAPT. HARRY L. WELLS, I'D ORE.
The holiday season came with peculiar
conditions existing in Manila in 1898, the
first year ofsAmerican occupation. For
four months our little army had occupied
the city, policed its streets, protected the
Spaniards and other foreigners from pred
atory insurgents, enforced sanitary meas
ures for purifying the city and preserving
the public health, and waited with much
impatience for the time to come when the
men composing it might go home again
and resume their varied occupations in
civil life, leaving to professional soldiers
the duty of further maintaining the SUI
premacy of the United States in the new
ly-acquired territory. Out in the harbor
the vessels of the American fleet rode idly
at their anchors, doing exactly what the
army was doing, less the policing and
cleansing-waiting for something to hap
pen. That something happened a few
weeks later; but in the meantime came
Christmas.
Homesickness had become common
complaint among the volunteers, and ev-
cry old soldier knows what that means.
With nothing exciting to do, with but &C.
casional words of love and news from
home, with unpleasant surroundings and
with the general feeling that they We're
wasting their time, the meI were pecu-
liarly susceptible TO the attacks of this
insidiOus disease. 1t made itself felt ev-
erywhere. 1t not only showed itself in
the general conduct and temper of the
men, but it revealed it's presence in the
rapidly-flling cots in the hospitals. Off
cially it was malaria, typhoid, dysentery,
but actually at it's base it was in multi
tude of cases homesickness. Imagine,
ho 10
army, from bugler to Commanding Gen
eral, when it became known that the loved
ones at home were sending out Christmas
boxes by the thousands, and that the Gov
eminent was Transporting them free and
would try to have them there by the Holt
lay season. 1t failed in this, and many
Of the boxes did not arrive till a month
litter Christmas, but enough came to make
the season a merry one and for the time
1T least to revive the sinking spirits of
the soldiers and make a merry season,
md incidentally few men sick from over
eating good things instead of from home
sickness. But they soon recovered, and
we're still glad they did it.
TURKEY CONSPICUOUS BY ABSENCE.
Nearly every company in the army pre-
pared special Christmas dinner. Be-
sides what came in the boxes that was
available, special dishes were provided
from fund subscribed literally by the
men themselves. Turkey, of course, was
the one particular specially they all sought
after, and most of them incurred because
they found it not" l saw one turkey
brought proudly into camp by a member
of the entertainment and banquet commit
tee of company, and it was an object of
general curiosity and the bearer of general
envy, notwithstanding the fowl was SO
G n hn
cast the traditional shadow for the max
ing of chicken soup. Turkeys were not
the Filipino's strong suit That was
chickens. Evidently many years, possibly
many generations ago the Spaniards in
trOduced turkeys into the islands, and they
inbred until they became dwarfed and
meatiess. At sll events, that was their
general condition, no matter how it had
heen reached. Like the little black hog,
snout, the general and indispensable
scaveneer of the Philippines, the turkey
bore hut distant resemblance to his
cousin of lOrdty mien and fat breast in
America. But turkey he was in name,
and to degree in appearance and taste.
and so he adorned the Christmas table as
the chief dish of the feast, though, be it
known. when the soldier sitting at the
table looked for something to give him a
Christmas feeling in his stom-
ach lie seized upon chicken, and, be it
whispered very softly. he did not neglect
the good old commissary bacon and beans.
AN ACCEPTABLE SUBSTITUTE.
Where the Filipinos are weak in tur-
keys they are strong in chickens. No
southern darby ever loved chicken better
than the Filipino. But the native of the
Philippines goes far beyond the negro in
his regard for that domestic fowl He
loves not only to eat him but to see him
fight. 1t is doubtless the sporting and
gaming instinct of the Tagal, rather than
his craving for chicken food, which is at
the bottom of the superior excellence and
the innumerable numbers of the chickens
to be found in I.uzon. Eating a chicken
may be said to be only a secondary con-
sideration with him. Primarily a chicken
is born to fight, secondariIy to be eaten
and incidentally, portion of them, to lay
eggs, which are valuable, first, to hatch
more chickens to do more fighting, and
second to be eaten. A third use for eggs
was soon found when the American sol
diers arrived, and that was to sell them
to the soldiers at twice their actual value
Every morning the camp was surround
ed by Filipino women with their little
baskets of various things to sell, eggs be-
ing always the most important. Squatting
on her heels, the vendor would hold up
a tempting white egg in her hand, her
beautiful eyes glistening with Interrogation
points, and her betel-nut teeth adding
color to the picture, and ask:
"Quere huevos, senior. Mucho bueno.
Cinquo centavos para una"
Five ccTts each sounds pretty steep for
eggs in country where the chickens were
as thick as flies, but in fact five cents
meant only two and One-half cents in our
money, though even that was pretty steep
for eggs. In vain did the prospective pur-
chaser ask if he could get three for 10I
cents or even six for a quarter. The Fill
pino mind has not yet comprehended the
commercial idea of buying or selling at
Eggs were five cents apiece,
and if one wanted to purchase a dollars
worth the seller counted over her fingers
several times in a puzzled way, and then
with light breaking over her countenance
would say that he could have 20. He
might have bought 1000 also at the same
invariable price of FIVE cents each.
OUR CHRISTMAS SPREAD.
What with eggs, then in unlimited
quantities, and nice fat chickens galore,
for at Christmas time expense was reck-
oned as nothing, the festive board was not
stinted of toOthsOme and satisfying food,
the meagerness of the
turkey. Then, there were sweet potatoes,
SO called, which, like the turkey, were
more of name than an actually. They
were small, almost colOrless, and were
chiefly of fiber. Soaked lit |
tie and shredded, they might have been
woven into a fair enough doGrmat, but
were very unsatisfactory as an article of
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