Gilpin observer., 1913-09-04

unglazed windows and tiny gypsy fires are light
ed under the house to cook the unpublished" rice,
with possibly bit Of cheap fish. for supper. The
pot is often watched by man and woman, wizen-
ed before their time, squatting their heels
each smoking the perpetual cigarette. The wom-
is apt to be holding, always tenderly, the
smallest of half dozen nearly naked children.
The with no less care fondles docile but
spurred game cock. Fields for manly sport are
slowly rivaling the cockpit with its ruinous idle
and betting. The Filipino women have al
ways shared the passion for gambling with their
men. to the hurt Of the family and its earnings.
Many of them are now learning embroidery. They
do 1t we'll and find 1t more interesting than
cock fights cards craps.
visitor is lucky who comes upon one of the
tidier cottages and espes youth with scarlet
trousers and bare bronze torso tumming a sort Of
guitar for the benefit of a nut-brown maid At
the window above the stills. She has delicate
features and bright eyes and long and strikingly
graceful neck. and mass Of smooth. glossy, Jet
black hair hangs below her waist over her gay
balloonsleeved bodice and folded panuelo. or ker-
chief. One waits. half expecting to see chorus
emerge from the howery background and break
into dance or song. But. alack! such romantic
illusions are rare and neeting. The reality that
stays is homely and hard and sometimes tragic
Manila is beautiful for situation. The bay to
the west is as blue the Mediterranean and the
splendor Of the sunsets is beyond telling. Some
times nothing Is to be seen but luminous sky and
water. Then Of a sudden there appear II Just
created the scalloped hills of the distant coast
beyond the long low peninsula of Cavite, for
merly. and still to some extent. used as a naval
station. The fortified island OF Corregidor, soft
and dim on the horizon. stands in reality verit-
able armed Titan to guard the narrow entrance OF
the vast bay. Close beside it the lovely noun
tain of Marbeles suggests earthly paradise.
but in fact 1t is the unfriendly abode Of the Me-
gritos, resembling the pigmies OF Africa.
Beyond other shores and other islands
of the vast Philippine archipelago other races
unclaimed. untamed. unchristian. Among them,
most dreaded by foreigners and natives are the
fanatica treacherous. fierce Mohammedan Moros.
As we look at the work in Manila and through
out the Philippines during the last ten years we
feel that America has made here its finest mark
the finest and fairest 1t is not too much to say,
made by any western people in any eastern COL
ony. But 1t has not done enough. Nor would It
have done enough II the material benefits be-
slowed were immeasurably greater. Altruism
has still its most potent part to play its most
mmitigable demands to meet There s need OF
more American missionaries. wise. consecrated,
tactful. There such men and women already
at work In the provinces-teachers, doctors, IN
structors In manual industry and in farming
uplift workers. who at the same time evange-
lists. And there are those who give themselves
wholly to preaching and to pastoral work or all
this service 1t would be Joy to tell II space
allowed. But we owe far larger ministry to
bodies and minds. and above all to souls that
consciously or unconsciously feeling after God
II haply they may find him.