The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-06-21

welcomed, hope you will repeat the
dose. We have sent off a batch Of
letters on today's mail, and you can
see lose 10 time in catching up with
my correspondence. l really ought to
have Il stcnographer myself, but let
them come. You cannot imagine how
we actually hang on to the mails over
here. We look forward to them for
two or three mails in advance. The
papers publish schedule Of mails :;
that is, the outgoing and incoming,
ones for Il month, and that's how we
know when to expect a mail. Some
boats bring 375 sacks of mail, some
1876, some as high as 600 sacks; the
latter being usually on transports.
The Sherman is due here on the Cd
with 600 sacks, and you should see
the postofflce the day the mail ar
rives. The clerks work all night
sometimes to get it distributed. We
certainly have fine postal service.
We are enjoying ourselves In our
little "easa" (Which means house,
and is pronounced kah-sha.) We have
II founoom cottage and pay PCS. 90,
(or, 1890, just half IF our money!
A "P" peso,) is equal to fifty
cents of u. S. money. We expect to
rent out one of our rooms on the LIST
of May, ut P25.00, which will bring
our rent down quite bit. We still
have one vacant room.
We have Filipino, who does ev-
erything, keeps the house clean, goes
to market and cooks just whatever
tell him. He understands English
pretty we'll, and therefore I have no
trouble at all. He is of the younger
generation, and consequently has had
some education. We let him go to
market for two reasons, one is that
we would not have time, and another
is that the Filipinos can buy lots
cheaper than the Americans. In fact,
nearly every store rs we'll as the
markets over here have three prices:
One for the Americans. which is the
very highest they can put on, one for
the Spaniards and one for the Fill
pinnS. The Americans have the rrpll-
talion Of spending money, while the
English are very close. Why, dom I
You know in travelling around the
foreigners can spot an American I'M
mrdiatcly. and consequently mp goes
the prices. In Japan everything goes
up OIL the day the I. S. transport ar
riveS. and hardly anyone will go
shopping on that day. They think
Americans have lots of money, just
because we pay them any price they
ask. It's very unsatisfactory to buy
anything over here, for you never
know whether you are being cheated
or not. They Wi ask ynu>a price for
thing, and you can probably get
the price down two or three dollars
after half an hour or so.
Well. to go back to housekeeping,
as You asked me to tell YOU how we
get along.
We pay our cook $40. or 20 pesos.
That's the usual price for compet-
ent cook for two people. They never
60 by the amount of work they will
lave 10 do. but the number of peo-
pie they have to cook tor. Our floors
are hardwood and are gone over with
mop soaked in geroSenc oil. every
morning and afternoon. We just use
the native mats, woven ont of some
kind Of straw, which can be bought
for different prices. some of them a
EeSO. and some of them for a peseta,
which is ten cents of our money. We
use bamboo furniture altogether, ex-
ccpt our bed, which Is a good old
American iron bed. Before our bed
came. however, we slcpI on two bam-
hco cots. with grass mats on top of a
cane bottom, teasters, of bamboo
poles. all made for the purpose. We
have now Nara wood wardrobe
which is considered very valuable ov-
CT here. 1t is Of very hard wood, and
the grain is very pretty. In our room
we also have a bamboo washstand
which is very funny looking. For d
hneau. we have a shelf in the cor
ner Of the room. over which we have
a large mirror hung. Then we have
bamboo screens adj highly painted
for windows. On one is painted in
euadv colorS a cocoanut palm tree