An Epoch in History | Page 8

of the men too, especially the young men,
wore gems that appeared to be exquisite. A closer inspection showed
that some of the gems had flaws and others were of a poor color, but no
one would have denied that, taken as a whole, it was a really beautiful
display.
The dress of the ladies was richly colored. Many of their skirts were of
silk covered with hand embroidered flowers, and their filmy pina
waists and broad collar pieces were rich with needle-work. They all
wore a kind of heelless velvet slipper, very common as a dress shoe in
the Philippines, or high-heeled patent leather shoes with neatly fitting
black stockings.
The men were dressed in white coats and white pantaloons or black
coats and white pantaloons. White shirts and collars, together with all
sorts and styles of cravats and low-cut patent leather shoes with highly
colored socks completed their dress.

It was easy to see that the Filipinos really had a good deal of money;
that they liked to dress was apparent; and that they believed in a table
loaded with good things was a fact to which all of us were enthusiastic
witnesses.
CHAPTER VI.
A SKETCH OF LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES.
House-keeping in the Philippines presents some interesting phases. Our
club of American officials decided to run a mess, so we employed a
cook and a house boy, then each of us provided himself with a personal
servant, making a total of six servants for four men--it takes about this
proportion of servants to live in any sort of comfort in the
Philippines--and launched ourselves boldly upon the sea of domestic
economy. But there were shoals ahead of us, for the question of
regulating servants is one of no small importance in the Philippines,
and one of its most disadvantageous features is the long chain of
dependents that usually attends it.
We gave the cooks so much a day with which to buy supplies in the
local market, for our own table, making him render a daily list of
expenditures, and a fixed amount besides to purchase rice and fish for
himself and the other servants. Of course, if they wished to vary their
diet and get chicken and fresh pork, which could be had at far distant
intervals, it was wholly a matter of their option, but the allowance was
made on the basis of so much rice and fish a day for each. This
allowance was about fifteen cents a day in Spanish coin per servant.
Thus far all was well. We had agreed to give the cook eight dollars a
month in Spanish money, thinking that good wages would procure
good service, but the visions of affluence that floated before him on
such floods of wealth were so alluring that they drew him from the
kitchen to the cooler veranda. In less than a week he had employed an
assistant at four dollars a month; in less than another week that assistant
had employed him an assistant at two dollars a month; in less than
another week that assistant to the assistant had employed him an

assistant at the princely salary of fifty cents a month; and from fear that
the chain of dependents would end only by our having the whole
Filipino race attached to our culinary force, we broke up house-keeping
and went boarding again, choosing that as the less of the two evils.
Our house furnishings were almost wholly Philippine. The table ware
and the food on the table came from the ends of the earth. The knives
and forks were made in Germany, the plates were manufactured in
England, the glass ware and table cloth, in the United States. The
oatmeal and flour came from the United States also. The butter came
from Australia, the rice from China, the salt from Russia, and the other
eatables from sources about as various as their separate names.
Switzerland furnished the condensed milk and Illinois the canned
cream. Nearly all of the canned fruit bore labels from Spain.
Thus it can easily be seen that life in the Philippines, if lived according
to American ideals, is dependent upon a highly developed and highly
complex commerce. However, the difficulties of transportation and the
restriction of large stocks of merchandise to Manila and some half a
dozen other towns, make so great a difference between country life and
city life that a short comparison of the two will not be out of place, and
life in Manila may well be taken as being fairly typical of the latter.
Life in Manila is pleasant, but expensive. It is pleasant from the fact
that it is not only the capital but also metropolis of the archipelago.
Thus the combination of wealth and high official position has given to
Manila