A Womans Impression of the Philippines | Page 7

does not blaze, and it is lop-sided, and
it is not magnificent in the least. It consists of five stars in the form of
an irregular diamond, and it is not half so cross-like as the so-called
False Cross.
Next morning the military band came down and gave us an hour's
concert on the promenade deck. We sat about under the awnings with
our novels or our sewing or our attention. At the end they played the
"Star Spangled Banner," and we all stood up, the soldiers at attention,
hat on breast. One of the passengers refused to take off his hat, so that
we had something to gossip about for another hour.
In the afternoon we took a ride up Pacific Heights on the trolley car.
Pacific Heights is a residence suburb where the houses are like those on
the Peak at Hong Kong, clinging wherever they can get room on the
steep sides of the mountain. The view of the city and of the blue harbor

dotted with ships was beautiful. In the evening we went to a band
concert in Emma Square, and on the third day made our memorable trip
to the Pali.
We had been hearing of the Pali ever since we landed. It is a cliff
approached by a gorge, whence one of those unpronounceable and
unspellable kings once drove his enemies headlong into the sea. We
could not miss a scene so provocative of sensations as this, so several
of us teachers and an army nurse or two packed ourselves into a
wagonette for the journey. We started bright and early, or as near bright
and early as is possible when one eats in the second section and the first
section sits down to breakfast at eight o'clock.
Our driver was a shrewd, kindly, gray-haired old Yankee, cherishing a
true American contempt for all peoples from Asia or the south of
Europe. He was conversational when we first started, but his evident
desire to do the honors of Honolulu handsomely was chilled by a
suggestion from one of the saints that, when we should arrive in the
suburbs, he would let down the check-reins. The horses were sturdy
brutes, not at all cruelly checked; but the saint could not rise superior to
habit. Unfortunately she made the request with that blandly patronizing
tone which in time becomes second nature to kindergartners. Its
insinuating blandness ruffled our Jehu, who opined that his horses were
all right, and that he could look after their comfort without any
assistance. He did not say anything about old maids, but the air was
surcharged with his unexpressed convictions, so that all of our cohort
who were over thirty-five were reduced to a kind of abject contrition
for having been born, and for having continued to live after it was
assured that we were destined to remain incomplete.
We drove through the beautiful Nuuana Avenue with its velvet lawns,
and magnificent trees, and then wound up the steep valley between the
terraced gardens of the mountain-sides. Not a hundred yards away a
shower drove by and hung a silver curtain like the gauze one which is
used to help out scenic effects in a theatre; and presently another swept
over us and drenched us to the skin. Half a dozen times in the upward
journey we were well soaked, but we dried out again as soon as the hot

sun peeped forth. We did not mind, but tucked our hats under the seats
and took our drenchings in good part.
At last we arrived at a point where the road turned abruptly around a
sharp peak, the approach to which led through a gorge formed by a
second mountain on the left. We could tell that there was a precipice
beyond, because we could see the remains of a fence which had been
recently broken on the left, or outside, part of the road. The driver
stopped some twenty-five or thirty yards outside the gorge, saying that
he could approach no nearer, as the velocity of the wind in the cleft
made it dangerous. Our subsequent experiences led me to doubt his
motive in not drawing nearer, and to accredit to him a hateful spirit of
revenge.
We alighted in another of those operatic showers, and made our way to
the gorge, laughing and dashing the rain drops from our faces. We were
not conscious of any particular force of wind, but no sooner were we
within those towering walls of rock than a demon power began to tear
us into pieces and to urge us in the direction of the broken fence. The
first gust terrified us, and with universal feminine assent we clutched at
our skirts and screamed.
The next blast sent combs and hairpins flying, drove our wet