The Spell of the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines Part 7

If we are inclined to be a bit pessimistic over the future fate of Hawaii, perhaps a piece of recent news from Nippon may encourage us.

j.a.pan has just pa.s.sed a law permitting j.a.panese to become American citizens. As nearly half the present inhabitants of the Islands are j.a.panese and 4,000 j.a.panese children are born there in a year, this is an interesting consideration when difficulties between j.a.pan and America are talked of. The j.a.panese-American Citizens' a.s.sociation was organized by a few j.a.panese who are citizens by right of birth, and has grown to a membership of more than fifteen hundred. It takes an interest in munic.i.p.al affairs, discusses the questions of the day, and teaches young Hawaiian-born j.a.panese the principles and duties of good citizenship.

Rev. S. Sokabe, of Honolulu, gives its members the following advice:

"Hawaiian-born j.a.panese have a great mission to-day. The j.a.panese of Hawaii must become the pacificators should trouble come between j.a.pan and America.... You owe it to yourselves to do this. Learn to be good American citizens, and then you will be able to help in case of trouble.

You can do more to keep peace than amba.s.sadors and ministers.... If trouble should come with j.a.pan, you must remember that you are the sons of the President, not the sons of the Emperor."

Under the old j.a.panese law j.a.panese born in Hawaii were still subjects of j.a.pan. Under the law lately enacted by the Diet and House of Peers of j.a.pan, which went into effect June 1, 1916, all j.a.panese born in a foreign country have the right at the age of fifteen to decide whether they will become subjects of j.a.pan or of the country of their birth; they must, however, first get the consent of their parents before giving up their citizenship in j.a.pan.

Patriotic Americans should no longer think of Hawaii as she was eighteen years ago at the time of annexation. Then the j.a.panese labourer on the sugar plantations was an alien and un-American. Now he is a factor and his children a greater factor in the American civilization of the Pacific!

Moreover, to show how American and patriotic most of the islanders are, I give an account of the celebration of Washington's Birthday, when a splendid parade took place. It included the military and naval forces of the Islands, as well as Hawaiians, Chinese and j.a.panese--all helping to make it a success.

The native police led the procession on horseback. In quick succession the troops of the cavalry rode by, saluting the Governor as they pa.s.sed the reviewing stand. The First Field Artillery followed, with their guns. Then the "Dough Boys"--as the infantry men are called--companies from the Second and the Twentieth United States Infantry; after these came the bluejackets from the four United States warships lying in the harbour, with their field pieces, each manned by a gun crew; then the marines and the Red Cross brigade. The cadets of the school for young Hawaiians and the National Guard of Hawaii presented a fine military appearance.

One of King Kalakaua's descendants, Prince Kuhio, and his brother's son, little Prince Kalakaua, were among the leaders; also the so-called Island Princesses, all on horseback. They were chosen to represent the five large islands, and had escorts of young girls on horseback dressed in the pau, followed by some lively cowboys on ponies.

Then came the floats, from which confetti were thrown. One float represented an elaborate tableau of a battle between the new Chinese republic and the old Manchu dynasty. Some took the part of the new army with their modern uniforms, and others in the old costumes lay very realistically dead behind their guns.

As evening came on the j.a.panese people began to a.s.semble in the park down in the Oriental quarter, and from there marched to the palace grounds, then past the four American battleships at the docks, where they gave their _banzai_ for the sailors, and were given in return a hearty American "three cheers," showing the good feeling between the two countries.

In view of the strategic value of the Islands, which, for more than fifty years, American naval officers have endeavoured to impress upon our Government, it is pleasant to learn of the loyalty and whole-hearted Americanism of the people of Hawaii. If Oahu, Guam and the Panama Ca.n.a.l are well fortified and sufficient numbers of troops and warships are stationed at these posts they will protect our Pacific coast better than any number of harbour defenses.

And now, with the banzai of these newest Americans ringing in our ears, we must say our "_Aloha_," to these dream Islands, almost too perfect to be real. We say farewell, but the Spell of Hawaii will always be upon us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]

THE PHILIPPINES

CHAPTER I

MANILA AS WE FOUND IT

High on the bridge of the Pacific Mail Steamer _Siberia_ we stood as we pa.s.sed through the Boca Chica--the narrow channel--into the historic waters of Manila Bay. On one side was the mountainous island of Corregidor, rising steeply out of the sea and masking in its tropic growth many batteries and guns, on the other was the splendid mountain, Mariveles, and in the distance fine ranges rising from the sparkling ocean. Far away on the horizon, across the huge bay, lay Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands.

Three weeks before we had left Hawaii, two days later we had steamed by Midway Island. Then we pa.s.sed a few days in j.a.pan, and coasted along the superb island of Formosa, rightly named "the beautiful"--where great mountains dipped down into the still sea--and now we were entering the Philippines, the real objective point of the official party--there were eight of us--in which we were so fortunate as to be included. We were at last going to see the interesting results of Spanish rule for three centuries, upon which were being grafted all the energy and scientific and social knowledge of the twentieth-century American.

Although both Hawaii and the Philippines are under American rule, they are like different worlds. The Land of the Palm and Pine is a much bigger problem for the United States than Hawaii. The latter is nearer home, a smaller group of islands, and is quite Americanized. It is the commercial hub of the Pacific, an important coaling station, an outlying protection for the California coast. The natives are of Polynesian extraction and American education; they are quite unlike the Filipinos in character, who are Malaysian and have had centuries of Spanish influence. The Filipinos clamour for independence, the Moros and the wild tribes must be carefully handled, while the Hawaiian is contented with his lot. Besides the necessity of maintaining an army in the Philippines so far from home, one hundred and one other difficulties are to be considered. With these facts in mind, we looked forward to interesting experiences in the Islands, and we were not disappointed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOVERNOR GENERAL CAMERON FORBES.]

As we approached Manila, some small scout boats, all flag bedecked, came out and joined us, and fell in behind in procession, then larger boats, one bringing the excellent Constabulary Band, which played gaily.

Another, which had officials on board, exchanged greetings with us across the water, and others with unofficial people added their welcome.

Quarantine was made easy, and all difficulties with customs officials were spared us. When we reached the dock it was ma.s.sed with the people who had landed from the boats and with crowds from the town.

At once Governor General Cameron Forbes came on board to greet the Secretary of War, and then followed a reception, the guests ranging from the apostolic delegate in his robes, the consular officials and insular officers, and the army and navy in spotless gold-braided uniforms, to the leading citizens, very intelligent looking and well mannered, and members of the a.s.sembly. The dock was lined with troops, who paid the military honours.

After the reception on shipboard the Secretary and Mrs. d.i.c.kinson and the official members of the party were whirled off in autos, with a squadron of cavalry clattering along as escort. Another motor was waiting for us, and we soon joined the procession as it moved to the palace.

We were much interested in the sights in the streets. There were numbers of _carromatos_, little covered two-wheeled carriages, drawn by stocky Filipino ponies. The streets in this part of the town are wide, and the houses have overhanging balconies, in Spanish style. In honour of the Secretary, the buildings were draped with flags. Near the wharf the land had lately been filled in, and great docks were in construction. There was a new boulevard near the old Luneta, and an avenue named after President Taft, besides a big hotel and a hospital that had then just been finished. The harbour was filled with vessels, electric cars were running, and autos were to be seen, so at first it all looked quite up to date, until you met a carabao slowly swaying down the street, hitched to a two-wheeled cart, with a brown boy in red trousers, _pina_ shirt and a big straw hat sitting on his back--"carry boy," as Secretary d.i.c.kinson named the animal. The "carry boys" do not like white people, and sometimes charge them, stamping and goring them with their horns, but a small Filipino boy seems to have perfect control of them, and if they are allowed occasionally to wade in a puddle, which cools them off, they do not "go _loco_," or crazy.

It was in the palace of Malacanan, or Government House, as it is sometimes called, that Secretary and Mrs. d.i.c.kinson and ourselves stayed with the Governor General. This is a large, rambling structure in a garden by the Pasig River. Under the porte-cochere we entered a stone hall, off which were offices, then went up a long flight of stairs to a big hall looking into a court. This hall was hung with oil paintings of Spanish governors, quite well done by native artists, and in the center stood a huge one-piece table of superb _nara_ wood, covered with gleaming head-axes and spears, _bolos_, _krisses_, _campilans_, and _lantankas_, used by the wild tribes and Moros.

Our rooms were large and empty, as was the entire palace--indeed, so are all the houses on account of the heat. The polished floors, too, are made of huge planks, sometimes of such valuable tropical woods as rosewood and mahogany, and are left bare. It took a little time to accustom ourselves to the hard beds with rattan bottoms, covered only by two sheets. They were carved and four-posted, and draped with mosquito netting. Two little brown lizards squeaked at us in a friendly manner, and crept down the walls, out of curiosity, no doubt, little ants kept busily crawling across the room in a line, and the mosquitoes that hid in my clothes in the rack during the daytime buzzed about at night. The heat was great, notwithstanding the electric fan, but the sliding screens that formed the sides of the room gave us some relief. These shutters are like j.a.panese _shoji_, made of small panes of an opalescent sh.e.l.l to soften the intensity of tropic sunlight, with green slit bamboo shades pulled halfway down.

When I used to write or read I sat on my rattan bed under the mosquito netting; there I could look out of the parted sides of the house to the red hibiscus border of the garden stretching along the narrow Pasig.

Boatmen, in conical straw hats, perched at the ends of their _bancas_, paddled the hollowed-out logs rapidly through the water, or floated idly by, smoking their cigarettes; these boats were loaded to the gunwale with green gra.s.ses, and had canopies of matted straw. Launches, too, came chugging past, towing the big high p.o.o.ps covered with straw-screened _cascos_. Over beyond the river was a flat all in a green tangle, with the thatched _nipa_ houses on their stilts. For the palace stands outside the more thickly settled parts of the city, which in turn surround the walled town.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Pasig River_]

Manila to-day is a curious mixture of native _nipa_ shacks and old Spanish churches and forts with the up-to-date American buildings and improvements. There are the different quarters, as in all cities of the Orient--Chinese, native and so on--and each has its own distinctive sights. The street smells, which are never lacking in a city, reminded us of India.

The walled city has picturesque gates breaking through the old gray battlements--the ma.s.sive wall was begun in 1590--and ancient sentry houses at the corners, while behind rise the white balconies of old convents and monasteries, and buildings now used for government purposes, and towers of churches. The old moats have been filled up for sanitary reasons and are being made into wide sweeps of lawn and flower gardens, and the famous Malecon, the drive beneath the city walls, which was once upon the sea front, has been removed too far inland by the filling of the harbour to retain its old charm.

"Intramuros" (within the walls) more than half the land belongs to the Church, and church buildings abound. These are really inferior, compared with those we saw in Mexico, but some of them are very old. The Augustinian Church, finished in 1605, has enormously thick walls and a stone crypt of marvelous strength.

In the center of the town is Plaza McKinley, but the main business street is the narrow Escolta, made to look still narrower by the overhanging second stories of the buildings.

We visited the botanical gardens, a shaded park with winding paths beneath acacias and mango trees. We drove, too, through the narrow streets of the suburb of San Miguel, where we looked into tangled gardens of tropical plants, behind which were houses with broad verandas and wide-opening sides, covered by a wonderful screen of a sort of mauve morning glory, which blooms, however, all day long.

The native houses are built of bamboo with braided gra.s.s walls and thatched roofs, and are raised on stilts because of the rainy season. We went to order some embroidery one day of a Tagalog woman. Climbing a ladder into a small house, we saw the whole family sitting on the floor, working over a long frame. In some of these shacks they have a small room for visitors, with chairs and a table, and cheap prints of the Virgin on the walls. Under the house are kept usually a pig and a pony.

One woman was very successful--she not only had waist patterns to show and to sell, but had a standing order from Marshall Field, in Chicago.

We also visited a still more prosperous embroidery house, built of stucco, with a courtyard. These people were Spanish _mestizos_.

A visit to the cigarette factory to which we were taken by Mr. Legarda showed us one of the characteristic industries of the city and gave us an idea of the deftness and quickness of those who are employed in this work. The little women who pack the cigarettes can pick up a number of them and tell in a twinkle by the feeling just how many they hold, and the cigar wrappers work with greatest rapidity and sureness and make a perfect product. It was all very clean and fresh, with hundreds of employees in the large, airy rooms. A band played as we went through the building, and we had a generous luncheon and received innumerable presents from the managers.

Opportunity was given us for sundry little exploring trips into the suburbs of Manila.[11] We rode on horseback, in company with Secretary d.i.c.kinson, Governor Forbes and General Edwards, among little native shacks, through overgrown lanes beyond the city, and along the beach, where we saw fishermen's huts and men mending their nets, to the Polo Club. The Governor, who was most generous in giving money of his own to benefit the Islands, not only built the clubhouse and laid out the field at his own expense, but even imported Arabian horses and good Western ponies. This club is a fine thing to keep army officers in good condition and give them exercise and amus.e.m.e.nt, as well as to bring good horses into the Islands. The clubhouse, of plaited gra.s.ses, bamboo and wood, is on the edge of the beach, from which one can see the beautiful sunsets across the bay and catch the faint line of the mountains in the distance. It all seemed very far-away and tropical and enchanting.

The English-speaking residents of Manila have various other clubs, among which the Army and Navy, the English, and the University are perhaps the most important. The Officers' Club, at Fort McKinley (seven miles from Manila) has a superb situation, commanding a fine view of the mountains.

As we landed in Manila early Sunday morning, we were in time for service in the Episcopal cathedral, which had just been built. This is a handsome building in the Spanish style, large and airy, with an effective altar. It was erected by an American friend of Bishop Brent, the Episcopal bishop, who has done fine work in the Islands. According to a story that is related of this good man, he made a journey at one time into the interior of Luzon, where he found the natives sadly in need of instruction in ways of personal cleanliness. As soon as he reached the mail service again, he wrote to America for a ton of soap, which was duly shipped to him and used for the purification of the aborigines.

I was glad to visit also Bishop Brent's orphan school, consisting princ.i.p.ally of American-mestizo children. The native women, when deserted by their white lovers, generally marry natives, who often ill-treat these half-white children, and sometimes sell them as slaves.

Miss Sibley, of Detroit, was in charge of this school, which was in a big, comfortable house near the native shacks on the edge of the town, and had twelve pupils at that time.

A convent of Spanish nuns on a small island in the river, interested me greatly. It was then under the supervision of the government, for it was at that time not only a convent but also a poorhouse, a school for orphans, an asylum for insane men and women, and a reformatory for bad boys. The embroidery done at the convent was better than that made by the natives in their houses, as the thread used was finer. The nuns charged more than the natives, but they would also cut and sew, thus finishing the garments. Articles embroidered by native women were never made up by them, but had to be taken to a Chinese tailor.

The linen must first be bought, however, so I tried to do a little shopping in the city, but found it very unsatisfactory. The shops are poor, and, as one traveler has said, you can get nothing you want in them, but plenty of things you don't want, for which you can pay a very high price.