The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-28
RICH IN ROMANCE.
RELICS OF 4 VANISHED EMPIRE
 IN AND ABOUT MANILA.

Natives Show Little Interest in Their
 Hfstory-The Hermitage of Our
 Lady of the Guide-An Ancient
 Guadalupe Monastery-Tn the Old
 Walled City.
 The globe rrotter who spends two days doing Manila has no idea that he treads on the bones of a. vanished em- pire. Manila has had exceptional ruin-making agencies, and the terrified natives regard the crumbling heaps as grewsonle reminders of the work of the dreadful earthquake. Few of the modern strangers here have given thought to these monuments, and many have left the islands never suspecting that they had been within a stones throw of spots rich in reverie and TO- nance. What we dwellers in the is- lands need is some interpreter, some one of a thousand, with the soul of an artist, to put these things on canvas so that we may cease to pass them bIindly, and if need be, make pilgrim ages to, their fallen shrine. But the American rarely sees the beautiful about him till he is shown, and the Filipino is all unconscious there is any, thing. to show. Tn Manila and Mala- bon and Guadalupe are spots rich in that flavor of romantic interest that stirs the soul of the artist, says the Manila Cablenews.
 Many of the most interesting of these ruins have entirely disappeared. As late at 1901 there stood in the Walled City near the corner of calles Palacio and Victoria part of the facade of the old Jesuit church, the most mag .lificent in it's day of all the churches of the islands. Before the earthquake of 1908 destroyed it, this was 8 mas- terpiece of colossal proportions, and was famed throughout the Hast for the beautiful embroidery-like carving of it's stoneWork. Its cost was 150,- 900 pesos, but earthquakes are no re- specters of churches, and all that is left of the old temple are the two small mounds of the tile and cement of pri- mitive design. They are passed every day by hundreds unnnoticed-the only links left to connect us with a mighty past.
 When the English besieged Manila there stood in Erimta a beautiful churchcalled the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Guide which gave name to the modern Errnita. According to tradition, this was the site of the first Catholic chapel erected in the islands and it contained an image of the ver- gin said to have been found by sol- dier of Legasp in a palm grove at 8 place called Pandan.
 At the time of this invasion two large churches stood within a. few hun dred yeards of the south wall of the city. Their obvious danger to the city was the means of the victory of the English invaders, who seized and forti- fled the churches and from their strong walls planted cannon which pounded breach in the city wall. The churches were destroyed and never allowed to be rebuilt, for obvious reasons. No trace of them remains to-day.
 III the carry udyS OL ALneFIcdH oC- cupation the ruins of the old hospital stood about where the tennis courts pn Camp Wallace now are, but no ston is now left to mark the spot. The present Malate Church has been re- stored till 1t is of little interest. The old tile roof, the hole in the west gable made by American shot, and the walls with shrubs and trees growing in their crevices made abuilding wirth going to see, but now it is all paint and cor- rugatde iron.
 On calle Solano in the walled city, opposite the Franciscan Church, stands a ruin that is interesting for it's fine walls and perfect arches. The inter- ior is used as living place by natives who have constructed gypsy corners with scraps of tin and the eternal iron till they resemble Oriental cliff dwen- ers The walls of cement and tile are apparently as strong as ever.
 At. Caloocan stands a church partly preserved that presents an imposing appearance from the, east. Its tram septs and apse are circular in form and built of good stone, well laid. Un-