Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1903-01-22
LIFE IN PHILIPPINES.
Habits and Customs OF Natives,
Long Lives and Few Cares.
LETTER FROM A cRlTTENDtN BOY.

TACLOBAN, LEYTE, L. L., Nov
2G, 1902.-ED. PRESS: | will begil
by asking you to allow me a shor
space in your valuable paper tn,
PRESS, to try to express to the vas
number of its readers what | have
seen over here.
| will say it is astonishing how
old these people live to be, con
sidering the food they get to live
on; but again, considering the
ease with which they live, it isn't
SO astonishing.
The records of all the Munici-
palities show that the majority of
deaths are of people from sixty to
one hundred and thirty years of
age. A few children and middle
aged people die of diseases, such
as smallpox, plague, consumption,
beri beri or leprosy, and a few Just
simply die.
The death rate is very small due
either to the fact that the province
is unusually healthy, or else to
the fact that there is no drug store
or doctors in the province.
So far as | can learn there is no
particular reason why they should
die at all, nor is there any particu-
lar reason they should live, either,
They do not raise anything to ex-
port and their wants are so few
that nothing is imported. Nearly
every man in the province owns
his own house, and few square
yards of land. The houses are
worth anywhere from one dollar
to ten dollars, and the land is suf.
ticient to raise years supply of
rice.
Just before the rainy season sets {
in the rice is planted and it keeps &
the entire population busy for sew '
eral days planting and blowing. {
When the rice is planted the t
whole population retire indoors 4
and await the ripening of the crop t
The men sit in the windows and O
chew betei nut, and the women a
cook and weave a few yards of d
cloth out of the native hemp, and v
as rice is the only thing to cook it b
does not take up much of the t
cooks time or require an elabo. e
rate kitchen outfit.
The men wear what is called a t
gee string and that constitutes h
their entire clothing. A gee string is
is aboutlthe size of handkerchief v
The women wear but single skirt a
and waist, cut low, and the child. h
ZEN go naked, so the wife doesn't e,
nave to do much weaving to clothe al
Ter family, and this is well, for the
women have at least one baby ev- d
Try year, and it would be rough on So
Ter If she had to clothe them all il
They don't require clothes in this p
.ountry and the mothers are sen. CO
lbIe to let children dress rs they y,
10. When | think of my boyhood
lays and how hated to put on h,
lean starched shirt, / regret that &C
wasn't Filipino boy. bI
| never dropped nickel in the in
unday school plate for the poor, fla
enighted heather but what | felt dc
orry for the heather. | thought ne
what | might be helping to OF
ring him to and pictured him
are free and happy in unstarched so
reech clout and with no Sunday an
'hool lessons to learn, and | long co
to be benighted heather, and lif
don't know but what my youth ha
ii desire has been granted. Ny lit
ear school teacher had a false loc
ea about heather clothes and wa
scency, SD,
Travellers and missionaries are SCI
ready beginning to make trouble en-
Ter here, by forcing the natives lif,
wear clothes. Only recently in his
anila, a little native boy about 5 ins
ears OF age was arrested by a six cal
foot policeman, with rifle and tee
yonet, and taken to the guard tn,
,use for NOTHING elsa tban nod IL