The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-06-12
FRAWLEYS AT MANILA

SSSSSScSSSSSSSSSSSSS ScSSSSSSSSSSS$SSSS
they fed madly. We heard an uproar
! on the deck. and sounds of the pursued
! falling over the heaps of passengers
stretched out there. In a few minutes
the cavalryman returned with the
sweat-rills tumbling from his face and
chasing down his blouse.
''Yere's yer money" he said to me.
! II made that googoo dig up his loot
when I got him hangin' over the side"
He handed me the silver I had paid for
my seat.
After that we went along peaceably,
the Filipinos peeping in at the windows
to see the Americana who had made
such row. while the Samar yarn went
on from the point where it was inter-
rupted by the collector.
SAW DEWEY'S VICTIMS.
We passed the sunken ships sent
down by Dewey's men that wonderful
May day when the young Republic
leaped for the first time full-panoplied
into the arena of the warrior nations.
The smached hulks stretched out
twisted and rusting arms of iron to-
ward where a league away the flag of
the conqueror flew from Fighting
Bob Evans command.
When we tied up to the miserable,
little wharf at Cavite. the town was
already thronged with men off the war
ships. Jack had been given a holiday
to see the show, and the dozen saloons
were doing big business.
The stage manager and the property
man saw the scenery unloaded and then
looked for the Grand Opera House. 1t
was not far away. for the first hombre
we asked bowed deliberately and replied
in Spanish:
''Senors, you are there"
We were in the very shadow of it. 1t
is the first building one sees in aD-
preaching Cavite, and only a hundred
feet from the wharf. The Grand Opera
House is of bamboo and nipa. Its ar
chitecture might be assigned to the CO.
lonial period, for it was essentially
primitive. It was just a huge shack,
with a dusty. matched roof. plentifully
by the weather. Luckily
there was no sign of rain.
The floor was the earth and there was
a sprinkling Of broken chairs where the
orchestra should be. One look behind
the footlights caused the stage man
ager to swear. I am not familiar with
the technique of stages, but whatever
should have been there was not, and
everything was wrong.
The two experts told each other that
It would be impossible to put the proper
scenery in place: they swore a dozen
times it could not be done. And then
ike enterprising Americans they be-
gan TO do It. The sergeant in khaki
had drifted into the theater with two
IF his soldier comrades.
m IN and
ose my six pesos or win hundred" he
said when the stage manager sought
% draft him and the pair of privates
as assistants. "a
Pretty good show; you can see it
rom behind and carry away five pesos
co." said the employer. ii
The three fighting men got their heads
ogether, and agreed that they would
axe the job after they had "a bowl or
wo." Pretty soon they were back and
in the scenery.
The stage was quite deep, but very
ow. The property man said the
arch was as low as a dog
Iouse roof" The scenes We're too tall ]
o be taken over the footlights and had :
o be brought in by the rear. This oc-
asioned a diversion in the work. The J
tage ran clear back to a seawan, '
which had no railing, and when the
ergeant ordered a private to retreat
with his end" while he steered a draw I
ng-rOom on to the stage the unfOrtu- {
ate fellew retreated too far and an 9
Instant later was swimming in the tide. !
When he appeared for work a quarter G
T an hour after he wore only an Arneri- :
an flag draped about him. Not a bad ]
ress for Cavite that Sunday, for il i
-as hotter than The Needles on the
'ourth of July.
Oddly enough. though the Grand ?
,pera House lacked almost all the 4
resumed requisites Of a theater, it I