The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-02-22
PROF. f. COOK
IN MANILA
WRITES TO. a. II. PARMALEE CIV
ING AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT
OF CONDITIONS IN THAT CITY.

In "A letter from Manila to A. n. Par
melee, just received, Prof e. Cook, a
former resident Of Honolulu, and well
known as a music teacher i'm this COM
munity writes expressing himself as
much pleased with the outlook there.
He says:
Business men universally seem to
look forward to a prosperous future.
Since elections, many new enterprises
of importance are being inaugurated,
and foreign capital is coming i'm. You
can hardly imagine the chances here
for men of means. on every hand un-
developed resources exist. The Spanish
ice wagon a good illustration OF the
past. 1t consists Of a box about four
feet square with door on one side,
mounted on two wheels and propelled
by pony not much bigger than a good
| sized sheep. To run this institution
| two full sized men are required. One
| to whip the pony and one to deliver
| the ice. But they are accommodating
| You can buy p centavos "a cent gold
worth of ice If you wish to. Right
after it perhaps will roll the ice wagon
from the government ice works This
| is a monster wagon with either two or
four monster horses and four men,
three of whom deliver ice to the right
and left, while the wagon hardly stops.
This indicates the new life here.
Things are changing rapidly here.
Since we came the main street the
'Escolta" has been paved with wooden
blocks, and the sidewalks of concrete
put down, making it a good street. 1t
is the only one i'm town. Even on this
street for about 200 feet on one end, the
sidewalks are not over IS inches wide,
and think of it, stores doing large
business are back of these sidewalks.
One street is an exceptionally broad
one, about so feet wide, but the side
walks are not over 2 feet wide. In
! truth this city was built for men who
owned carriages and ponies. The foot
man was not considered why should
! he be. for the footmen and women
went barefoot, and the middle of the
street was good enough for them.
"Well Americans are getting into the
! habit of riding also. Now ! have just
ordered my ''muchacho" (house boy)
to stand at the gate and stop a street
carromatto, Ga two wheeled rig with
pony as l want to go out This will
case me 20 cents gold for one hour
| Soon the street cars will be going and
then an entire change will take place.
The street rigs are not so good, and
often are pretty "malo' (bad) and one
can't depend on them at any specified
time. The native driver can not con-
ceive of keeping an appointment even
if he gets twice his regular fares. Most
of them cannot reckon at all, and the
passenger gives them the regular fare
at which the "cochare" invariably
kicks and wants more. l have given
them more than the regulations allow
but it is bad to do this for they think
worse than when you give just the net
figure. They don't like to take us
! Americans. They would pass us by
for a Filipino of Chinaman, only they
fear the police who would arrest them
if they refuse a passenger when their
disk" Ga little piece of TIM is up. I
can buy pretty fair cigar for CEN
tavos IL cent gold) but at most of the
little stands you find it necessary to
give cents for each one If you wish
to buy more than one. For instance
they will not give 10 cigars for 80 cents
silver. The cigars look too big and the
silver piece to small. Thirty copper
centavos, however will bring the cigars
all right. Thirty centavOs look big, you
know. My boy" is more than Or
dinarily intelligent, but l found out
yesterday that he was not aware that
war existed between Japan and Rus
STA. He can read his native language
and some English"