The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-28
SUMMER HAS
 NO TERR0RS
FILIPINos HAVE NO DREAD ol
 swELTERING WEATHER.
They Dress in a Manner Perfectly Suited on the Climate-Women Weave Fabrics of Which
 Clothing Is Made.

New York Sun
 To how many men and women has this hot spell brought the wish, familiar with every summer, that they might dress for 1t in the suitable fashions employed by those who dwell where hot weather is the rule and still be conventional. In Manila, for instance, 1t Is the hot test part of the year just now. The sun puts ln a little more than twelve hours a day trying to burn things and people up. He succeeds fairly well with vege- tation, but the human animal out there has learned how to protect himself and goes along about his business in reasona- ble comfort. with only now and then a cry for the breaking of the rains. As usual. even in such places, it is the native who has reached the greatest development in the art of suitable dress ing to meet weather conditions, and. also as usual, he employs the materials fur nished by the country for the making of his clothing. or rather she does 1t, for the only part the men have in the pro- cess is wearing the garments after the women have made them.
 There IS no joke about this either. It does not refer to the necklace and anklet style of costume affected by some of the ladies of Port Said or the belt of grass sometimes still seen in the Hawaiian Isl- ands. It means proper clothing such as the wealthy and influential people of the islands wear.
 Some Up-to-Date Costumes.
 Once in a while you will see a gown made of the same material here in New York, but unless it has been brought from Manila by the wearer or sent to her by some friend from the Philippines she has paid for it at one of the very few stores where such cloth is occasionally on sale a price that those who live on $3500 a year cannot afford.
 The commonest materials of the gowns worn by the Ftlipinos are algondon, sina- may, pima and Jusi. Algondon is just plain cotton. It grows wild in some parts of the Philippines and is cultivated to a small extent in several of the provinces of Luzon. The women spin and weave from it a coarse cloth which is much used in making the commoner garments.
 Sinamay. Jusi and pima are the distinct i've cloths of the Philippines, and they are as remarkable for their beauty and f1neness As for their extreme lightness and durability. Pima, as it's name implies, is made from the fibre of the leaf of the pineapple plant.
 Sinamay is woven from the fine flores taken from the tender edges of the leaf stalk of the tree from which hemp is made. Jusi-call it "hoosy''-is 0 Chinese fllament. which is not prepared in the Philippines. although 1t is used there very extensively. None of the Filipinos seems to know the plant from which 1t Is taken It Is much like the fibre from which the celebrated grass linen of Canton is made and is very light as well as at the same time strong and durable.
 Sinamay and pima are woven plain. but just is dyed in many colors and mixed in weaving with different colored silk so that the variety of patterns and shades Is in- finite.
 Beautiful But Not Durable. Pima is the least durable of all the Philippine cloths and in the finer makes 1t is very laborious and slow. with the result it Is the most expensive.
 Sinamay is the cheapest and most dura- ble. In San Fernando Street. in Manila, just across the Weyler bridge from the Binondo Church. there is a block in which there are forty to fifty little tiendas. or shops. the keepers of which are all wo- men who deal in these cloths. There when the Americans took eManilla, the finest Mellisa Jusi. the best that is woven in the Philippines, could be had for 50 or GO cents Mexican yaga, or Spanish yard,