St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-02-19
LETTER FROn THE PHILIPPINES

|
The Town of HagOnOy-Native FiIipinO s
-MalOlOs-The HOuses-The Schools
Pets-FOOd.
We are allowed to take few extracts
| from personal letter which has been re-
ceived from Miss Anna c. Day, one Of
our former public school teachers, by one
of her Summerville friends, and which
will be OF interest to our readers. She is
located at Hagonoy, Bulacan, which she
says is a very beautiful town on the
Hagonoy river, in the province of Bull
acan. She is only 80 miles from Manila
and can go there by rail, on the Manila
and Dagupan railroad, which is the only
railroad on the islands. The train is
boarded at Manila and one rides as far
as Calumpit; at that place a naptha
launch is taken on the Hagonoy river.
All along the banks banana trees, betel
nuts, cocoanuts, nipa, bamboo and palms
grow. The native Filipinos are seen
here and there skipping or lazily floating
in their queerly shaped boats, which are
nothing more than trees followed out
and covered with woven bamboo. Some
of these boats are 80 feet long and so
narrow there is Just room for one, so they
sit in long rows, sometimes Is or IS in
one boat, Hagonoy has population of
% n00 ,.,I Af Ho.E
towns on the islands. Ii is we'll laid out
and is unlike many other towns in not
having been burned,
In speaking of recent visit to Ma
lolos, which at the time Of the insurrec-
ton in 1898 was the capital and where
Aguinaldo had his headquarters, she tells
Of the burning of the town by the natives,
and especially Of the burning of a fine
cathedral. Kerosene was poured every
where in the building and guupowder
put in stated places. A match was ap-
piled and there is nothing now to tell
the story except four walls grim and
bare. In the convent which was burned.
American soldiers found $50, 900 secreted
in the walls.
Most of the houses are made of nipa
instead of wood and stone. The frame
of the house in which Miss Day lives is
bamboo, over which is nipa, which is
long narrow leaf. 1t is quite novel ex-
perience to be living in a straw house.
Hagonoy has two schools, the boys
and the girls schools. There are three
American teachers, two in the boys and
one in the girls. Mr. Shelton, an ex-
lieutenant, and Miss Dav instruct the
boys, and Miss Read, Council Bluffs
teacher, instructs the girls. There are
four native Filipinos with them and
three native Filipino women in the girls
school. The school hours are from eight
until ten, at which time the children go
home and then the English teachers
teach the natives rom ten until eleven.
Luncheon time is a little after eleven, and
as is customary in all tropical countries,
then comes a siesta. AT this time not
any natives, nor even a dog or cat are
to be seen on the streets, for everyone is
having a midday sleep. The hours in
the afternoon are from three until FIVE.
Everyone receives small compensation.
The jauitor receives but eight pesos per
month, which is only four dollars, gold.
When Miss Day began her work in Sep
TENDER her classes were all of Filipinos,
who could not understand one word of
English, and every thing had to be done
in motions; now they are just as bright
and even brighter than many American
children. They have brown skins, beau,
tiiu white teeth, eyes that are black and
expressive, and very, very beautiful black
hair. Their clothes are bright and pretty
and all go to school without shoes or
stockings.
Often when she meets the bows in the
evening they will speak very politely and
say good morning" when perhaps it is
eight or nine O'Clock at night. But it is
very confusing to her, for it is either
"Buenos Dias" or Buenos Tardes" or
Buenos Noches and she has seldom said
the right thing without stopping to
think two or three times.
The natives all have their pets, first
and foremost being rooster, which they
carry in the streets, and on the way to
school she has seen eight and ten
roosters, tied by one leg, with a small
rope, at the end Of which is a peg per-
haps two inches long, driven into the
ground. They carry them on Sunday to
the cock pit aud bet their last cent on
their rooster, which if he wins is all right
but it he loses often times his whole fam
lily will 60 hungry the next week.
There is not native but that can
play some sort of stringed instrument.
The food is very good; butter from Au.
stralia; potatoes from China; mixed
pickles from England and mu cho from
America. Every man, woman and child
-four years old) smokes the cigarette.
1t seems very odd to be teaching about
snow and ice, only 100 north of the
equator. The children have never seen