Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-09-18
PHILIPPINE CYCLING.
The Roads Are Bad. But Queer Elk.
periences and Strange Scenery
Make Up for 1t.


where the dust may be washed out of the
throat, it may still keep the champion
ship. But for the rider who cares as
much for strange scenery and queer ex-
periences as he does for the riding the
Philippine islands are ahead, says a
Manila correspondence of the New York
Times.
There are thousands of wheels In
Manila and the vicinity, the bulk owned
and ridden by Filipinos, but they only
| ride few miles at time, just to their
work and back, with an occasional five
mile ride on the drives of the city.
Americans also ride very little outside
the city. Perhaps the prevalence of
wheels of the dry goods store" quality,
| and the absence of repair shops or of
facilities for returning by other means
than those with which one starts out
| are responsible for this. Fear of la
drones has also been large factor in
| keeping Americans within sight of the
city.
AT present there is very little danger
of ladrones within 20 miles of Manila,
and not great danger anywhere on the
island of Luzon for a man who has
slight knowledge of Spanish and will
| ingness to make himself reasonably
agreeable to the people.
| When one gets 10 or Is miles away
from any large town, the primitive sim
plicity of the people and their ways Of
life are almost unbelievable to those who
have stayed in Manila. Let the rider
| take along his camera and stop to take
picture at any out Of the way village,
and he is surrounded almost as soon as
he begins to unpack his traps by crowd,
| including all the children, most of the
women, and large part of the men of
| the village. Whispers Of ''retrato" go
through the crowd, for the camera has
become somewhat familiar in the most
| remote parts of the islands. If you ask
| to take the pictures of the crowd, you
are at once installed in their good
graces; the Filipino loves to have his pic
ture taken. On these occasions it is no
| ticeable that all the Chinese who may be
present hurry away; they will not allow
their pictures to be taken if they can
| help it, having kind of superstition to
the effect that man who has your pic
ture can work ''jadoo" on you.
| Let rider take up some tiny Filipino
child and give it a ride on his wheel, and
the crowd becomes enthusiastic; often a
| fat, giggling young woman is pushed
forward to be initiated. She will hang
back but will like it if some of her
friends insist; probably she will be bare
| footed, but she will not mind the sharp
points on the rattrap pedals. By the
| time she has had her lesson, some one
will have worked up the presidente, who
is usually grave, gray-haired old Fill
pinO, to take a trial The crowd re-
| specially cheers when he gravely
mounts, and after that there is nothing
too good for the man with the wheel.
| The roads vary from excellent to ex-
| ecrable. From time to time one meets
with stretches of road that would do
credit to Central park; then one may
be sure he is near military post. No
thing that the soldiers have done here is
more likely to prove of permanent
benefit to the country than the lessons
they have given in road making.
Near the city of Manila all the roads
| start out well macadamized, but soon be-
| come dirt roads. In little while they
narrow SO that only one cart can pass
abreast. Then they become trails, and
| finally die out. Some few continue for
| long distance, but with many unreliable
places in the wet season.
The variety of small and delicate ferns
| is astonishing; every vertical rock face
is covered with them, some tiny maiden
hair ferns and some of larger varieties.
Orchids are not so common in Luzon,
though they may be found by the per-
sistent seeker.
The scenery, generally speaking, is
not very rugged the friable nature of
nearly all the rocks of the islands max
ing the outlines softened. There are
traces of comparatively recent volcanic
action to be seen everywhere; the prin-
cipal building stone used in the islands
is sort of volcanic tufa, light in weight
very easily crumbled by mechanical
action, but owing to its silicious nature,
many harder stones are. With the
rocks of such a soft character, fertility
and piicturesqueness of the PASTORAL
variety are to be expected; and except in
regions of very recent volcanic action,
such as the vicinity of Mayor or Taal,
very little bare rock is to be seen.
The same softness of the stones is q
nf
good macadamized roads; the heavy
rains work great mischief to the soft
material, and roads covered with this
stone work into ruts even in the dry
season astonishingly fast. For this rea-
son, carts having narrow tires have been
taxed much more heavily than those
having wide ones.
The worst drawback to bicycle riding
at a distance from towns in these islands
is the difficulty in obtaining anything to
drink. If one gets water from a native it
is as likely as not to be taken from the
nearest dixie, and full of fever and
cholera germs. The sanitary arrange
ments in the country are the most primi-
tive possible, and but for the disinfectant
action of the sunlight there would be
more trouble from cholera than there is.
When one passes through town where
there is a military post there is always
saloon kept by white man, where some
thing safe to drink may be had. At other
times it is better to go thirsty.