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A Woman's Impressions of the Philippines
By
Mary H. Fee
To
My Schoolmate and Life-Long Friend
Martha Parry Gish
This Book
Is Affectionately Dedicated
Contents
I. The Voyage Begins 11 II. From San Francisco to Honolulu 21 III. Our Ten Days' Sightseeing 26 IV. From Honolulu to Manila 38 V. Our First Few Days in the City 45 VI. From Manila To Capiz 60 VII. My First Experiences As a Teacher of Filipinos 73 VII. An Analysis of Filipino Character 86 IX. My Early Experiences in Housekeeping 107 X. Filipino Youths and Maidens 119 XI. Social and Industrial Condition of the Filipinos 130 XII. Progress in Politics and Improvement of the Currency 150 XIII. Typhoons and Earthquakes 168 XIV. War Alarms and the Suffering Poor 179 XV. The Filipino's Christmas Festivities and His Religion 192 XVI. My Gold-hunting Expedition 206 XVII. An Unpleasant Vacation 217 XVIII. The Aristocracy, the Poor, snd American Women 232 XIX. Weddings in Town and Country 250 XX. Sickbeds and Funerals 262 XXI. Sports and Amusements 270 XXII. Children's Games--The Conquest of Fires 280
Illustrations
Filipino School Children _Frontispiece_ The Pali, near Honolulu 28 West Indian Rain-tree, or Monkey-pod Tree 34 The Volcano of Mayon 40 View of Corregidor 42 Swarming Craft on the Pasig River, Manila 46 "The Rat-pony and the Two-wheeled Nightmare" 48 The Luneta, Manila 52 The Bend in the River at Capiz 62 Street Scene in Romblon 64 Church, Plaza, and Public Buildings, Capiz 80 The Home of an American Schoolteacher 90 A Characteristic Group of Filipino Students 100 Filipino School Children 110 A Filipino Mother and Family 120 A Company of Constabulary Police 132 Group of Officials in front of Presidente's (Mayor's) Residence 142 A High-class Provincial Family, Capiz 148 Pasig Church 154 The Isabella Gate, Manila 162 Calle Real, Manila 174 Procession and Float in Streets of Capiz, in Honor of Filipino Patriot and Martyr, Jose Rizal 184 A Rich Cargo of Fruit on the Way to Market 194 A Family Group and Home in the Settled Interior 200 Filipino Children "Going Swimming" in the Rio Cagayan 212 Mortuary Chapel in Paco Cemetery, Manila 220 The "Ovens" in Paco Cemetery, Manila 228 Peasant Women of the Cagayan Valley 236 A Wedding Party Leaving the Church 252 A Funeral on Romblon Island 264 Bicol School Children One Generation Removed from Savagery 272 Sunset over Manila Bay 282
CHAPTER I
The Voyage Begins
I Find the Transport Ship _Buford_ and My Stateroom--Old Maids and Young Maids Bound for the Orient--The Deceitful Sea--Making New Friends and Acquaintances.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Woman's Impression of the Philippines by Fee
- 2: And Buford I dismissed the negro
- 3: And the civil engineers and schoolteachers
- 4: And I loathed the Farralones Islands
- 5: So that we began to think scornful of seasickness
- 6: We arrived at Honolulu during the night
- 7: My first impressions of Honolulu were disappointing
- 8: We stuck our forefingers in the poi
- 9: Though it was approached by a mud puddle
- 10: The Pali has its good features
- 11: The mango is considerably larger than the pawpaw
- 12: For at four o'clock we swung about and left Guam behind us
- 13: Dewey entered by the Boca Chica
- 14: And the promenade was the haunt of ghosts
- 15: The carromata wheels were iron tired
- 16: Your cochero may groan at your horse or whine at it
- 17: The sun falls behind Marivales
- 18: And there is the Manila policeman
- 19: Doing duty for a teacher who was sick
- 20: Every time a carromata drove up
- 21: I was informed that my station would be Capiz
- 22: Our stay at Romblon was not lengthy
- 23: Iloilo was a miniature edition of Manila
- 24: And with Romoldo reclining luxuriously in it
- 25: Our lorcha was about sixty feet long
- 26: I knew that I should like Capiz
- 27: Across which the Filipinos are fond of talking
- 28: Then the Gobernadora and I went back to the sala
- 29: I found the Filipino youth ready enough at rough play
- 30: She was quite as voluble as American mothers are
- 31: And if the last named official approved
- 32: See will hab four fencils left
- 33: And although he makes passing grades in physics
- 34: That the Filipinos are a people of unusual musical ability
- 35: The Filipino is like an orphan baby
- 36: As extreme as the Filipino position itself
- 37: The Filipino leaders are a body of polished gentlemen
- 38: The other man got a peso from an American
- 39: Filipino men are not lacking in manly qualities
- 40: I decided to set up housekeeping
- 41: My bedroom was half as large as the sala
- 42: Was Tikkia probably Eustaquia
- 43: And Tikkia such a female pirate
- 44: I felt sure that Romoldo and Tikkia were lying
- 45: Jewellery is not only a fashion here
- 46: If a Filipino girl goes to an office on business
- 47: So long as the marriage is accomplished
- 48: The Filipinos who love us least
- 49: The timid Capizenos had no idea of resistance
- 50: And the shell windows slid back
- 51: In the emotional being of the Filipinos
- 52: The alien occupiers may reply that
- 53: Filipinos of the educated classes
- 54: That they are apathetic toward the status itself
- 55: Filipinos have come in contact
- 56: On the appointed day the American appeared with his thresher
- 57: The Treasurer offered to go on his bail
- 58: Known as Progresistas and Federalistas
- 59: There were constabulary reserves a block away
- 60: A teacher was parliamentary coach
- 61: The Americans renamed the dacolds claquers
- 62: Conant read the Filipino aright
- 63: I told her that the media peseta was worth ten dacolds
- 64: Tried to treat the new centavo as a dacold
- 65: He concluded with a favorite Filipino ejaculation
- 66: The General made straight for Olatayan
- 67: And its impact soon pressed the lorcha over
- 68: One engagement took place at Ibajay
- 69: An insurrecto flag flaunted its impertinent message
- 70: They left for the playa about half past four
- 71: Nearly five hundred starving people had gathered in Capiz
- 72: But we did none of these things in the Philippines
- 73: Christmas was destined to wear
- 74: But if the English waits sing as badly as the Filipino ones
- 75: The star made schedule trips between the altar and the loft
- 76: So far as the Filipino knows pageantry
- 77: Secretary Taft was wise enough to see that
- 78: And the Filipinos have benefited thereby
- 79: More sentries could be seen across the river
- 80: Absolutely walled with impenetrable nipa growths
- 81: Without regard to the effect on the baroto
- 82: Somebody down at the sluice box shouted
- 83: Which gave us a four days' trip to Iloilo
- 84: The lorcha was a dismasted hull
- 85: The story about the parao has been confirmed
- 86: Is presented with a bowl of agua finecada
- 87: Slept badly in the strange house
- 88: Ceferiana professed to be ill this morning
- 89: Neither Ciriaco nor Ceferiana could explain
- 90: Told me that the old financier came to Capiz poor as wood
- 91: A Filipino cacique is quite a different being
- 92: In a well to do Filipino family of ten or twelve children
- 93: Who weave the jusi and do the embroidering
- 94: She invests twenty or thirty pesos
- 95: Nothing can be bought without chaffering
- 96: Filipino servants are not ideal
- 97: But it was in Chicago the busy
- 98: The bridegroom throws away his cigarette
- 99: As the bride was of an insurrecto family
- 100: Leaves and wreathed in bonoc bonoc vines
- 101: As evidence of change of heart in the late insurrecto
- 102: I went up to congratulate the bride
- 103: Her lord had been only a sham washerman
- 104: One bearing a censer and the other a bell
- 105: All the upper class dead in nichos
- 106: There is no Puritan Sabbath in the Philippines
- 107: Unless one falls in with the Filipino devotion to dancing
- 108: I myself did not attend the circo
- 109: And squabs and eggs spattered the lawn
- 110: No Fourth of July can pass without its baseball game
- 111: Manuel was second base and pitcher combined
- 112: Ilapog Ilapog sa firs' base Hindi
- 113: Here and there individual Filipinos
- 114: Ceferiana helped me to carry this out
