The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1939-11-23
Tells of Life I'm
Philippine islands

James Rubard, son of Mr.. and
Mrs. John Rubard of this city who
has a clerical position with the U.
S. army in the Philippine Islands.
has been writing verv interesting
letters TO his mother. Libby peonle
will be interested to read the fol-
lowing excerpts from recent let
ter, written at Manila, P. l.. on Oc-
tober 9. He writes as follows:
This is Monday morning. so L
thought I'd better write today as
the mail boat leaves tomorrow
morning. Saturday the Y had a
boat trip up the Pasig river to the
Laguna de Bav. We left at
o'clock and got back at 7:a0 at
night. We had lot of fun and sure
got to see a lot of interesting things
We were way up in the juneles.
We had two big power launches.
and we had an orchestra on our
launch. We saw many rice fields.
bamboo groves. and sugar cane
fields. We also saw the baleut
farms Thev have Filinino del
icacy here called baleuts. These are
duck eggs which have been incu-
bated until they are three davs from
Matching. Then thew boil the egg.
and eat it, duck and all All along
the river there are duck farms with
thousands and thousands of ducks.
to be used for baleuts. | don't
think I'd want to trv anv myself
Then Yesterday the ISL club went
out to Lido beach, which is about 20
miles from here. TO 90 swimming.
It's a swell beach. RIGHT on the
ocean. and we had lots of fun there.
On the way back we saw three
Filipino funerals They're really
something You'll never see ANYTHING
like anywhere else. The hearse is
on a wagon. and is painted white.
and all the sides are glass so that,
YOU can see the coffin It's pulled
by eight white horses. and the driv-
err is dressed in q ton bat and knee
breeches. RIGHT ha'-;nd the hearse
come the monrne~s walking. and
then a brass hand. Believe it or
not, the sonp the hand was nlavinp
was Marching Through Georgia
We almost had fit when we saw il
All the peon1e were weapino and
screaming and thew had quite
time. If a Filipino dies during the
week, they always wait until Sun
dav afternoon to hurry him.
Fright after SEEING fhe funeral
we saw big cock fight. We were
riding alone when we saw big
fenced in place and nanv Filininos
watching, manv of ther holdine
ROSTERS. We got out and watched
it. They bet on the different rnost-
ers. and they really pet excited
You'd think it was hig football
game or something. Judging from
the wav they ho1lered. However
/ didn't see much in watching a
couple of ronsters iump on each 9TH
er's neck We also stopned at ar
old church at Paranaque where thew
have a bamboo organ. All the reeds
are made of roies of different
lengths, and it PLAYS as beautifully
as anv nine organ I've ever heard
An old Belgian Father played it foi
lis and told us about it. 1t was
uuttt lIl lt0u Asiu ID still R0Ou-
I'VE saw some natives moving {
Filipino's shack and at first we
didn't know what it was. The
building didn't have a bottom ir
it. and the Filipinos were walking
down the road with the house over
their heads and onlv their fee
showing. 1t looked like the gras:
shack was walking down the >roac
by itself We blew our horn. anf
one of the Filipinos stuck his heac
out of a window to see what it was
and then they moved over to tht
side of the road. We saw so many
interesting things on those two trip,
that J can't think of half of then
row. but they surely were interest
ing to see. Last night the native.