Evening star., 1904-07-16

Written f2S The Evening Star by Guy T. visknskki
OF all The exhibits at the ST. Louis fair
none is attracting wider attention than that
made at a cost of over a million dollars by
the Philippine government. The thousands
OF sightseers who flock to the forty-one
acres taken up by the extensive exhibit
furnish living proof that Americans gen.
orally have a far deeper interest in the
little brown men of the faraway archipela-
go than many persons have credited them
with possessing.
On a rainy day in May, before their VIII
lage was officially thrown open to the pub
lie, some five thousand people in one after
noon cheerfully paid twenty-five cents
apiece for the privilege of seeing the Lanao
Moros, unos tentatiously clad in breech-
clouts, erecting their bamboo and nipa
huts. Dress parade of the Philippine Scouts,
and also of the constabulary, always at
tracts thousands. So do the native exhibits
in the half score more of buildings
erected on a plateau, on whose slopes,
clustered around Arrow Head lake-an arti-
hcial body of water-stand numerous nlpa
huts constituting the villages peopled with
representatives of nearly all the divers
tribes of the islands
ALI this is extremely gratifying to the
agents of the Philippine government in
charge of the exhibit. They say that the
lHSuldT dul4lOIllISS dulIOTlZtU lIS eNpeiioA-
ture of SO much money for a display that
would properly represent the islands in the
hope that Americans would thus take ad-
vantage of the opportunity to become more
fully informed of the resources of their far
eastern possessions. A million of money is
a big sum for the Philippine government,
in its present financial condition, to appro-
pirate for any one item; but since the eX-
hibit has proved so attractive, the authorl-
ties consider that the million has been well
spent.
In Miniature Manila.
When the sightseer crosses into the reser-
walton over striking replica of a section
of the famous Bridge of Spain, which con-
meets the residential and business portions
of Manila he finds himself in a miniature
Manila. He skirts the faithful reproduc-
ton of the renowned walled city, with its
bastions, brass cannon, dungeons and war
relics. Then, once in the heart of the eX-
hibt, he sees, prominent among the other
buildings, counterpart of the home of a
wealthy Manila Spaniard, with its she'll
windows, double walls and large rooms; the
rakish dwelling of the country gentleman;
and the main exhibit building, representing
the Ayuntamiento, the governmental head
quarters in Manila. When Secretary Taft
was at the opening of the fair he visited
of the main building he was Immediately
all smiles and laughter. why, 1t looks
just like the Ayuntamiento, where l used
to work and perspire, he said. Now, l
wonder if could find my desk inside?"
A feature of the setting of these main
buildings is a relief map, one hundred and
ten feet in diameter, of the archipelago. 1t
is the work of Father Algue, chief of the
Philippine weather bureau, and one OF the
leading scientists of the islands.
All these buildings are filled with exhibits
of every descrption-ag agricultural, mining.
forestry. fisheries, and what not. There are
ard woods that cost 500 a log to get out
of the jungles. There are native imple-
ments of warfare by the gross; there is an
extensive exhibit of the delicately hand
painted cloths of the Moros that takes up
the greater part of one building and makes
its interior vertable riot of color
In Other Lines.
If these displays do not cause the visitor
to sit up and take notice. the contents
of the art building surely will. Here are
canvases of which any nation might be
proud Spoilarium,' the murderer Luna's
masterpiece, famous the world over; Hidal-
go's Liberty a mammoth canvas por-
traying the Fiipino's acceptance Of the