Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-05
Manila, Orient's Show Place.
ONE OF THE WORLDS MOST PLACES FOR AMER


encroach upon nor are belittled ny
churches of the old order.
The Manila hotel is called the COM
pletest and most artistic hotel of the
East. 1t is young, but does not show
its age. 1t will soon celebrate its
second birthday.
There are in Manila five excellent
hospitals of American make, including
the Mary Johnson home and the
tuberculosis hospital in a high lying
suburb. Strange to say, there Is as
yet no insane asylum, a lack, as can
easily be understood, that often caus-
es peculiar hardship and suffering.
There are homelike pensions under
Methodist management for girls and
for boys who come as students from
the provinces. and who would other
wise lead but a makeshift existence.
Presbyterians and other carry on
helpful church activities. Notable
among Manila institutions is Bishop
Brents university settlement, a COM
bination of hospital, dispensary,
chapel and home for abandoned chill
dren. OF these hapless waits there
| has always been a lamentable number
in the islands, illegitimacy. both Span
ish and native, having always been a
crying evil. The bishops settlement
is planted in the midst of vertitable
slough of despond. Unlike the Pill
grim's slough this is by degrees being
filled up. Already part of it has be-
come a recreation field in the poorest
neighborhood-an island of decency
and comfort entirely surrounded by
morass and squalor.
1t is difficult to keep the 10th COM
mandment when one realizes the i'm
mense good that some rich mans
money could accomplish, for instance,
in the building at Manila of a sea-
mans home. Such a refuge in this
cosmopolitan port would be of in
estimable benefit to the men, old and
young whose seagoing ships do busi-
ness in these far waters.
The greatest Manila cigar factory in
Spanish hands can boast for its en-
ployes space, airiness and comfort,
and for the consumers of its wares
conditions the most sanitary. Quite
recently there has been added a day
nursery for the children of fathers and
mothers employed, the benefits of
WHICH 10 the ldle little SllSSl wall
derers can hardly be overstated. They
are cared for and taught by pleasant
faced sisters of charity.
Bilibid prison. as it has been evolved
during the past eight years. challenges
the attention, study. admiration and
| imitation of all lands. And in con-
nection with it should be studied the
self governing penal agricultural set
tlemen on the island of Palawan,
which has already proved a notable
success.
The army and constabulary quart
ers are models of their kind. The
building of the Young Mems Christian
association in Manila and the one al
Fort Mckinley, given by Helen Gould
are perfect in their equipment. There
are clubs aplenty. The stranger asks
What is this or that fine structure
The answer may be. Such or such g
municipal building. Yonder is one fol
medical research. That is the head
quarters for public works. There is th'
liant tor public water supply, and ther'
is the ice plant.
The Philippine museum displays th'
woods and all natural products of th'
islands. OF woods there is larger va
riety indigenous to these islands thai
in any other like area in the world In
deed, the variety is called q doubtful
advantage, as quantity is becoming tn
desideratum. Also there is here a col
lection of chronological specimens. Thu
department of study, so important ant
complicated in the Philippines, is mos
ficac,ently promoted by ID. c. Wor
cester the indefatigable secretary o
the interior and as such commlsslohe
for the wild tribes The conversing o
Natures resources has its headquarteri
in the forestry bureau Birds, the nat
ural defenders of trees ana crop
against insects, do not seem as yet u
have their deserved share of attention
That will doubtless, however, come.
The bureau of science, most commo
diously housed, is busy worksh'
along varied lines. One of its practica
activities Just now is an effort to de
velop silkworm culture in the Philip
pines. nursery of mulberry trees i
already started. In the department o
fshees experiments are being made Il
the nropogation of curious little fisl
which lives on mosquito eggs and lar
vac and which may have before 1t
worldwide mission. Already colonie
of these fishes have been placed Il
neighboring ponds
Not only for the living but for tn
dead, Manila has, and has had, wa
|, of her own. A visitor is surprised t
find within a pretty, bosky setting, ar
tistically fenced in the army morgue
The old Parco cemetery has a stone in
closure and impresses one as strang
and chill, no matter what the weather
There are three circling concentri
walls, very wide and surmounted b.
parapets. In the thickness of the wall
are inches or shelves that serve a
tombs. These resting places for tn
dead are rented out at five pesos (S2o0
or more a year by the church Whlcl
owns the cemetery. Until comparative
ly lately if the rent was not forthcom
tho rStop tO eViCt the ten