Iloilo,August 17, 1905.
I must tell you all about thisComitiva Taftdissipation, of which we had the first taste on Monday, the 15th, when a printed notice was left at our house, saying that the “Congressional party” had arrived that evening instead of next morning, and another large, flowery, and handsome invitation, bidding us to a reception to be held at the house of the De la Ramos, very rich Filipinos, who have a fine house in a broad, shady street, where the Bank and some other big houses stand within gardens.
The reception was to be followed by the performance at the Filipino theatre, to which as I told you we had also been invited, but we thought that the reception, which was “scheduled” to come off at eight, would be quite enough for us for one evening.
We dined early, and sent Domingo out for aquilez“with a good horse.” He came back after a long while and said all the carriages in the town were already hired, but he had got what he could, and thecaballowaspoco bueno(little good). He was right. It was a horse to make one’s heart ache to look at; and when we stepped into the dirty old broken-downquilez, to which he was attached with odds and ends of old rope, the poor beast started going backwards all down the street. The driver roared profanities, and clicked his lips, and chucked thereins, but all to no effect; till at last he called one of our servants out of the house, and they each seized a wheel by the spokes and forced it round, so that the pony was shoved along, when it started off at a great pace; the driver sprang on the box, and we tore like the wind to the house of De la Ramos.
There had been a great deal of rain, and the roads were very deep in mud, but the sky had cleared, and a bright moon was shining.
In spite of this natural illumination, there was a reckless profusion of arc-lights in the streets, which, as I told you, had been in black gloom for months. We had seen the lamps being repaired for some days when we went out in the evenings, and the general furbishing-up and improvement extended to a sudden serving out of ice from the Government factory, so that everyone was wishing there could be one of these Visitations to Iloilo every week. Well, when we got to the De la Ramos house, we found all the front really extremely pretty, withhugestars-and-stripes flags—stripes the size of palm-trunks and stars like soup-plates—draped right across the front, with green palm-branches stuck about, all in the light of brilliant illuminations. Great doors stood open to a vast lighted and decorated hall, with a very big cut-glass chandelier in the middle.
Thepoco buenohorse was pulled up on his haunches abruptly in front of all this magnificence, and some white men leaning against the doorway picking their teeth, looked at us, but offered no remark. So C——, in evening dress, got out and asked one of them if this was the house where the reception was to take place. One man, keeping his toothpick in his mouth, said:
“Waal I guess there isnahtgoing to be any great shakes of a receptionto-night.”
“Oh,” said C——, “we got an invitation from the Reception Committee, and heard theManchuriahad come in.”
“That’s so, sirree,” said the man, “but Secretary Taft and Miss Alice is not coming ashore; leastways, they’re on board now eating their dinners.”
“Will they go to the theatre, then?” we asked.
“No,” said the man vaguely, “I guess naht. Leastways, I don’t rightly know. But Secretary Taft says he don’t want to come ashore before his skeddled time to-morrow morning. I reckon he’s gettin’ a bit sick of goin’ around.”
The man was quite civil, but he and his fellow-loungers were so vague and depressing that we drove away again, feeling rather sorry we had taken the trouble to put on evening dress.
We made our driver go down the end of the street to the quay by the Customs landing, where there was a very pretty arch, all lighted up, with portraits painted on it of Mr Roosevelt, and “Miss Alice,” and Mr Taft. This had been erected by the Filipinos, and the decorations, which were the work of a native artist, were really not at all discreditable. Across Calle Real was another arch, put up by the Chinese, at the entrance to where their shops begin, with more electric lights and pictures of angels, and more medallions of Mr Roosevelt, with an entirely different face from the Customs one, and “Miss Alice” looking about thirty, with fat, red cheeks and masses of black hair.
After admiring these marvels, and noticing what could be seen of the decorations on the houses, we drove home and consoled our hearts very successfully with cold mutton—a treat from the Cold Storage in Manila—which would have made up to us for anything. You see, you can’t have coldmeat in this climate without ice to cool it on, and we have been without ice for so many wretched months. Faddy people should be sent to Iloilo to learn to say a fervid and completely heart-whole grace before cold mutton, and I often think out here of the delicious cold meat which our servants at home may be, at that very moment, refusing to eat!
Next day we were awakened by a brass band walking up and down the streets, and blowing Sousa and “Hiawatha” for all it was worth. It was not yet dawn when this festivity began, so after we had sworn at them, we went to sleep again, for the music did not mean that anything was happening, beyond that its playing was a sort of general rouse-out and reminder. We had been informed that the reception was to be held at theGobiernosoon after the party landed, so, as we determined to bring this function to bay somehow, we sallied forth after breakfast to see what was to be seen.
Aquilezwas not to be had for love or money, nor, indeed, a “rig” of any sort, so we walked to the Plaza, and in the Calle Real picked up acarromata—one of the fearful little vehicles into which you climb over a muddy wheel and sit jammed up behind the driver.
After sending back Sotero, who had followed to look for aquilezfor us, and making him carry away Tuyay, who insisted on not leaving us, we got into thecarromataand drove down the crowded streets to theGobierno.
All the houses were very gay with stars and stripes and greenery—the decorations very little spoilt by the rain—and the streets full of people in clean clothes; all the principal thoroughfares crowded, but the others very empty.
The day, which had begun with rain, hadcleared up, and was very fresh and jolly, as it had not yet had time to get steamy, and a cool breeze was blowing, the flags fluttered in the sun, bands were playing everywhere, and it was all very gay and sparkling. In one of the streets we began to pass a long procession, waiting behind the scenes, as it were, with flags unfurled and bands ready to strike up.
There were crowds and crowds of people making for the palace, and we were told that theComitiva Tafthad already landed and driven there, so we followed as best we could. There was a great deal of shouting ofTabé—and we were as near as anything over some of the revellers who were mooning about as if the streets were deserted.
By-the-bye, I don’t know whether this expressionComitiva Taftis bad Spanish or good Filipino, but it is the one employed by the Philippine newspapers, and I prefer it to the American “Taft Circus.”
When we arrived at theGobierno, we found large crowds of little, brown-faced Filipinos in white American suits, all looking up at the broad balcony—the one where the band had played on the night of the 4th-of-July ball. The whole expanse of balcony was full of people, with many ladies standing in front in light frocks and big flat hats.
We struggled through the crowd of sight-seers and into the big basement, which was decorated very profusely, and where a lot of people were standing about. A man told us he guessed the reception was going on upstairs; and we thought perhaps he had guessed correctly, so we mounted the broad stairs, between sheaves of palms and American flags, and found ourselves in a huge crowd in the outer room of the suite I described to you the night of the ball. The court room hadbeen arranged with rows of chairs and benches facing the daïs, and the balcony beyond, with the bright blue sky and white glare of sunlight for a background, was a seething mass of white-clad humanity. I noticed the Americans were all at one end and the Filipinos at the other—an arrangement of choice, I imagine, rather than accident.
Amongst the visitors I met again Mrs Luke E. Wright, and several other people whose acquaintance I had made in Manila, as the party had been nearly doubled by the numbers absorbed into it after arriving in the Philippines. My friends said they had heard I was ill, and that I was going home, and envied me, calling heaven to witness that they wished they were going “back home” too. The Governor’s secretary told me that the party now amounted to 170 people, and they had a very jolly time on board, and were expecting to have a very pleasant trip round the Islands.
There was no regular presenting being done, and no one offered to introduce us to Mr Taft or “Miss Alice,” and we did not like to ask them to do so, which I am sorry about now, as I should have liked to have met them. However, Miss Alice was standing next to the Governor’s wife while I was talking to the latter, so I was able to get an impression of her appearance, which I thought quite pleasing; a young girl with a fluff of fair hair tied behind with a big bow of black ribbon, a very pale complexion, and heavily-lidded blue eyes. She had on a coat and skirt of stiff white pique, which did not do justice to her pretty figure, and a plain straw hat with blue ribbons on it tilted over her forehead.
All the American ladies amongst the visitors were very plainly dressed in shirts and skirts, as for the country in the morning, with large, flat hats and floating gauze veils—just like the Americantourists you see in London out of the season. The residents, however, had on pretty muslins and hats, and the Filipino ladies sported their most beautifulcamisasand finest jewels. I heard afterwards that the very plain costumes of the visitors were considered as rather a poor compliment, not to say a mistake in tact, for of course the Manila papers had given glowing accounts of the lovely dresses they wore at the entertainments in Manila, and Orientals think such a lot of that sort of thing—and so do Occidentals, too, for the matter of that!
Mr Taft and the Senators were all in white linen suits; the officers in white linen, too, plus the badges of their rank. Mr Taft, who is a very tall, fair man of enormous build, towered over the heads of everyone about him. I don’t think I ever saw anyone so vast, and could quite believe that he weighed 250 pounds—though I must say that to hear a weight expressed in pounds does not convey much impression to my mind. He has a large, clever face, which creases up into an amiable smile for which he is famous, and which has helped him enormously in life. In curious contrast are his eyes, which are small, and placed rather close together, and very shrewd in expression. When he is serious, it is a stern, rather hard face, and not very pre-possessing, but when he smiles the “Taft smile,” it is altered in the most extraordinary manner, and he really looks charming.
After we had been on the balcony a little time, the procession began to come into sight, headed by a brass band. At this the people on the balcony sorted themselves out, Mr Taft and “Miss Alice” standing in the front of the balcony with the chief personages behind them, and less important Americans in the doorways and on the outskirts, all in the most approved “democratic” style, while the brown facesall clustered at the other end of the balcony. I thought it a great pity that it did not occur to Mr Taft, or Miss Roosevelt, or the Governor, or anyone like that to go and stand amongst the Filipinos and give a real and tangible demonstration of the theories they were there to express. I did not see anyone talking to the visitors but Americans, either, and I thought that a pity too.
You see, a little thing like that would convey more truth about Equality than miles of bombastic print or hours of windy rhetoric.
The Governor’s secretary found me a place in front of the balcony, but I was foolish enough to move away for a moment to speak to someone, and so lost my place. Then we saw that people were beginning to stand on the benches, so C—— got me a place on one by asking some men to move, which they were rather huffy about. On one side of me was a tall, thin young Senator with a large hand-camera, who showed his resentment in tiresome little incivilities; but the man on the other side was a nice, good-natured soul, who tried to make room for me, and spoke very agreeably. He seemed to be feeling the heat very much, and complained that it was so fearfully hot, but I laughed and said: “This is the coolest day we have had for a long time.”
“My!” he exclaimed, “I guess I’m not fair crazy to come and live in these old Phaluppeens.”
“Oh,” I said, “then you have not joined the party at Manila?”
He said he had come from America all the way, and told us he was a newspaper man with a mission, come to write up the trip. This made us understand better his asking from time to time such extraordinarily elementary questions. He wanted to know what acarabaowas, and was surprised to hear that sugar cane only flourishedin Panay and Negros. I had to explain to him that we were in Panay, and pointed out Negros and Guimaras!
I did not grudge the trouble of teaching him the A B C of the Philippines, but I could not help thinking it rather odd that he had no more preparation for his mission when his opinions would probably be “voiced” and quoted as oracles on his return to “God’s Country.”
Of course he was choke full of long words about the American Ideal, and told me a lot about the absurdity of such narrow prejudice as race-distinctions; but I let that go without remark, and without even taking the trouble to draw his attention to the demonstrations before his eyes; for I have found out by this time that you might as well talk to the wind as to a race-equality American who won’t sit “on a car” with a negro in the States.
C——, who was standing behind me, joined in the conversation, whereupon the American journalist instantly whipped out his visiting card and handed it to him, but of course C—— was quite unprepared, and had to spell his name and explain himself generally. It is very amusing, and at first rather embarrassing, the way Americans hand you a card as soon as you speak, but it has its advantages in getting names right.
The procession was remarkably like the one we had seen on Declaration Day, only with different “floats.” I don’t suppose you know what “floats” are, and no more did I, for when I had read descriptions of the processions in Manila, and how the “floats” were “gotten up,” I concluded the function had been a water-pageant on the Pasig. I heard some people about me using the same word, however, and mentioned it to my journalistic friend, who informed me that the wordwas one which was employed in the U.S.A. to signify cars in a procession, and that its origin was in New Orleans, where they had processions on the river with decorated “floats” or rafts.
This was a very long procession, and some of the agricultural cars were prettily done up with banana plants, and one had sugar canes growing in it; and there were ploughs, and rows of men carrying spades and hoes and things. Mr Taft stood and watched it all, talking to Miss Roosevelt; but he got what the children call a good deal of powder in his spoonful of jam, in the shape of huge white banners with large inscriptions on them about the financial situation and the tariffs. Some of these reminders were of a very ingenious pattern, like huge three-sided lanterns, with the inscription in English, Spanish, and Visayan, so that no one should make any mistake about what was meant. “A square deal” was written on one, and some of them were, to me, quite pathetic, for they said: “We are at your mercy,” and others were frank, not to say abrupt, requests for liberty, “to govern ourselves our own way.”
At all these and at the strings of labourers from the Harbour Works, the Fire Brigade, etc., Mr Taft stared very solemnly and steadily, standing upright in front of the balcony, with Miss Roosevelt beside him, his arms folded across his chest. I was much struck by his expression, and could not help looking at him as much as at the procession and wondering what he really thought of it all. When the workmen came past, our journalist friend suddenly betrayed his knowledge of Philippine affairs by saying knowingly: “Ah, these are the Chinese labourers, I guess.”
“No,” said C——. “Those are Filipinos. There are no Chinese labourers in the Philippines except in some mills in Luzon.”
This information apparently took the man’s breath away; if he believed it, which he probably did not. He was quite silent for a long time. Perhaps some of his most elaborate perorations had been damaged, and C—— and I thought afterwards that it was rather a pity we had disillusioned the poor creature as we did. Another of his cherished illusions was what I may call the St Louis “Exposition” idea of the Philippines, and we had the greatest difficulty in trying to persuade him that all he saw was not the direct result of the American occupation!
At last the interminable lines of school children came past—all the Government schools, of course—as on Declaration Day; no priests or convents. Mr Taft had looked on unmoved and unsmiling at the Agricultural and Industrial displays, but when he saw these scholars, he broke into the “Taft smile,” and clapped his hands above his head. All the Americans followed his lead by bursting into applause, which they kept up, as he did, all the time the schools were passing. I turned my head to the right, where the little brown parents of these children were crowded together, and saw that not one single Filipino made one gesture of applause!
The schools took a long, long time to crawl past, and the continuous applause became rather tiring. But even a Filipino procession must come to an end if only you can wait long enough, and the last of them went past, and we got down off our bench.
Then followed a great surging and shifting of all the people on the balcony, everyone trying to secure a seat in the Court Room, and we were lucky enough to get near a door and not very far from the front.
On the daïs were placed two or three rows of Vienna cane chairs, those for the important peoplein front, with arms to them. In these sat the Governor, Mrs Luke E. Wright, and “Miss Alice.” Next to the latter Mr Taft took the chair assigned to him, into which he wedged himself with infinite trouble; but the chair at once broke to pieces. Everyone laughed very much, Mr Taft most heartily of all, saying in a good-natured, jolly way: “Here! Someone give me a chair I can sit down on. I’m tired of standing.”
So they brought him another chair, and he took his place, and the speechifying began.
ThePresidenteof Iloilo—a very courtly old Filipino of the name of Meliza—made a speech of welcome—a very long affair—which included the subjects of Taxation, Duties, and Independence, to which Mr Taft replied elusively, repeating nothing tangible but his old phrase of “Philippines for the Filipinos.”
Then some more people made speeches—natives—and at last they drove Mr Taft into a corner about the Independence, and he said, “I am not come to give you your Independence, but to study your welfare. You will have your Independence when you are ready for it, which will not be in this generation—no, nor in the next, nor perhaps for a hundred years or more.”
Even though I have told you how up to then no one had any idea of why he and his party had come to the Islands—most people thinking he was going to say something definite about the Americans retiring from the Islands—the natives all firmly convinced that he was coming to ratify the undated promise of Independence he made them two years ago—even though I have told you this, you can have no idea of the effect these words had upon the audience. We were simply staggered, and the darker complexioned amongst us sat quite still and immovable.
The speeches lost some of their force by being translated as they went along by an interpreter, who spoke English and Spanish with equal perfection, and, indeed, he was quite marvellous; but all the same the utterances lost point, and it was not easy to follow the thread with long halts between. What was more serious was that the translations of Mr Taft’s opinions were softened by the courteous Spanish phrases, and the fiery patriotism of the Filipinos was marvellously toned down in the English rendering.
During a question of taxation, Mr Taft said:
“I want to know if you think it would be any good to reduce the Land Tax, or if, by suspending it for three years, the trade and agriculture of the country would benefit?”—or words to that effect. Whereupon he and old Señor Meliza had quite a long argument about this weighty point.
The whole ceremony was indescribably free and easy, and even commonplace. Most of the Senators took very little interest in the proceedings, while the ladies with them did not even pretend to care about what was going on. As to “Miss Alice,” she was honest enough to make no pretence at all of listening to anything, but sat staring before her, drumming with her pretty, slender, white fingers on her lips, only waking up to signal and laugh to some friends in a doorway near the platform. She was very girlish and natural in this and in all her other gestures, and if she lacked the pose necessary to the occasion, one could not be too critical nor take objection to her lack of grand manner when people were presented to her, for, after all, such situations are only to be carried off with ease by those born and bred to State ceremonies. Besides, it would have been unreasonable to have looked for scrupulously aristocratic bearing amongst such a party of professed democrats.
In spite of all that, however, the Filipinos, who, with their traditions ofcustumbres, are themselves a very polite people, were much shocked by the free and easy ways of their rulers, benefactors, or whatever they are. I afterwards heard many little comments upon the American lack of dignity, which made me feel sad, for these two peoples will never understand each other—even the good sentiments of the heart being conveyed by differences of manner, which are meat to one and poison to the other.
In talking of taxation, the word “sugar” suddenly arose, on which Mr Taft, who was getting obviously bored, and mopping his face freely, rose and said:
“See here. We’ve come to this place to talk about sugar. Now, look here, have you got any room where the gentlemen who are with me can meet your representatives? They would like to see a sugar plantation growing, too, if you can show them one.”
The Filipinos said they thought that could be arranged, and, as a matter of fact, the hall for this confabulation was already prepared, and the growing cane ready as well.
“That’s all right,” said Mr Taft. “All I care about is to get out of this room and get some of that nice cool wind on me!” He looked simplymelting. So everyone rose up, and Mr Taft gave out that Mrs Carter, the wife of the General, invited the ladies of the party to luncheon with her at her house “on” the Calle Real at one o’clock. Then everyone filed away, and we went home to rest before the evening. It was then half-past eleven—very late for this country—and the sun very hot.
I was afterwards told about the ladies’ luncheon party. It only consisted of the visitors, most ofwhom were already personal friends of Mrs Carter, so, of course, it was not an important function. Here, again, I thought, was a golden opportunity wasted, for a few invitations extended to leading Filipino andMestizaladies would have done more good to the American cause than all the utterances of the cleverest orators.
In the evening we went, in the usual pantomimequilez, to the Santa Cecilia Club, where the Filipino banquet to Mr Taft and hisComitivawas to be held. Or at least, that was the official description of the entertainment for which, as I told you, we each paid a preposterous sum.
The whole building was ablaze with lights and bunting, while the familiar perilous medley of vehicles surged about in the mud outside, with hairbreadth escapes going on every minute, any one of which would have made the fortune of a clever paragraphist.
The top of the stairs, the big landing, and outer place, were crowded with people, but the main room was still comparatively empty, so when we went in we had a good chance of seeing the decorations and tables. The latter were most ingeniously arranged to form the letters ILOILO, with a long table for the first I, then two long ones each with an elbow to make a sort of flat O, and then another long one with a long elbow for L, “and repeat,” as they say in knitting patterns. The only attempt at decoration was a mass of greenery all down the middle of each table, lying flat on the cloth, with oranges andlanzonefruits lying on it, and salted pistachio nuts all thrown about anyhow. By each plate lay a small spray of flowers (gardenias, little roses etc.), a list of the guests, with a plan of the tables and themenu, which was a small blue paper book with anouveau artpicture of a woman onthe cover. On the back of thismenuwas printed in large, clear type these words: “La situacion di Filipinas es como La de un enfermo que necesita una radical y eficaz medicacion. La supresion de la Tarifa Dingley es la mejor medicacion para Filipinas.” The interpretation of which is: “The situation of the Philippines is like that of a sick person for whom a radical and efficacious remedy is necessary. The suppression of the Dingley Tariff is the best medicine for the Philippines.”
Thismenuamused me a good deal, with the idea that poor long-suffering Mr Taft was to have politics written on everything he saw or touched, and certainly the Filipinos did not appear to be going to let slip any of this golden opportunity of “voicing” their grievances. The room was lighted by electric lights on the ceiling, arranged in the form of letters, spelling Taft on one side of the room and Visayas on the other, and flags, palm-branches, and paper roses were employed in the usual profusion.
The people dropped in gradually, and when the Taft party arrived, Mr Taft took his place at the middle of the first L, under the picture of Washington. The rest of the party were scattered up and down the tables anyhow, with no scheme of precedence, which was very sensible, and the first tangible display of democratic principles I have seen since we came to the Philippines.
About 258 guests were “scheduled,” and less than three-quarters of the places filled. When I looked round the hall, I saw that the English and Germans were fairly well represented; but there were very few Spaniards, only about half a dozen Filipinos, someChino-Mestizos, and one or two Eurasian ladies in lovelycamisas, and wearing magnificent diamonds. All the rest were Americans.
Everyone seemed disappointed that Miss Roosevelt did not put in an appearance at the banquet. The rumour went about that she was too tired with the morning’s fatigues to be able to go out again. Afterwards I heard this discussed, when some said that “Miss Alice” was not at all strong, and that the round of gaieties in Manila had worn her out; while others declared that she always shirked the serious side of the trip if she could possibly do so; but I don’t expect the latter theory was true, and I thought it rather a shame of her country folk to say it.
The feast began with tinnedjulienne, the Constabulary band playing at the side, in the outer room, with a vigour which quite relieved one of any necessity for conversation. I examined my list of guests and plan of the tables to find out who the people were, and saw that all the blank places were those of Filipinos! Fancy! Their welcome to their Patron Saint! But he had so disappointed them by his avowed sentiments at the reception at theGobiernoin the morning that very few of them could be induced to come to the banquet.
As far as eating went, the banquet was a haphazard affair, for it was almost impossible to persuade the dazed Filipino waiters to attend to one. At least, they did attend, but in a very Filipino way, for I got four bottles of white wine brought me; C—— had never a taste of soup; and we both had three plates of fish put down before us, which the people on each side took away, as they could not get any at all. Everyone was very good-natured, so it was all very amusing.
There was considerable liberty of conscience displayed in the costumes of the guests, some of the American men being in soiled white day suits,conducting female relations in high cotton blouses; while others were got up in full evening dress. One handsome woman, who I heard was the wife of an officer in Camp Josman, was so much in evening dress, possibly to make up for the others in the blouses, that she was instantly nick-named The Mermaid. Her finely shaped head was dressed very low, and set off by classic bands of gold, with huge bunches of flowers and ribbons over each ear, and I heard a man near me suggest to another that someone should go and ask her to take some of the ornaments out of hercoiffureand put them round her bodice. But no one had the courage to do this thing, so the littleMestizaladies stared and giggled, and as for the few Orientals present, they looked at the Mermaid as if they thought Equality was going to be great fun.
When we were just about to fall on some beefà la modewhich had at last, after incredible pertinacity on the part of C——, been placed before us, a man at one of the tables behind us suddenly got up and began to make a speech. Everyone slewed their heads round to see him, and forgot the beef, which the waiters instantly fell upon and swept away beyond recall.
The speechmaker proposed a health, which we drank in very good red or white wine provided for us, and then he made a speech, and someone—one of the visiting party, I think—got up and replied.
After him, another got up. But many people listened to him and still held on to their helping of turkey, which they tried to eat as noiselessly as possible; a most amusing sight.
Then another; and another; popping up in all sorts of places, with the interpreter appearing suddenly beside them like a harlequin. Some of the speeches, in spite of the halting of the translation,were very good, and very interesting; for the speakers did not mince matters much—the natives saying things very plainly, and the Americans replying with equal frankness.
Next me at table sat a Filipino swell in European evening dress, with splendid diamonds on his hands and in his embroidered shirt front, who turned his chair round when the speeches began, and sat astride, leaning on the back. He cleared his throat, and spat on the floor in such a dreadful manner that I felt sick, and at last I turned quite faint, and had to get up and move to an empty place further on. There I was not so well off, as far as hearing went, for the head of the next table was occupied by a cheery party of “prominent citizens,” Senators, and officers, who were drinking champagne and making a horrible noise.
I moved again, this time to a doorway at the upper end of the hall, where a polite youngMestizooffered me his chair; so I ended in being very well off as to a place, and heard and saw very well.
An old Senator with a venerable beard was making a long speech on the subject of freedom and the folly of race-distinction. In defence of the latter theory, he rather rashly quoted Tennyson, repeating the lines about “Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,” which could not be applied in the remotest way to either Americans or Filipinos and came out pure gibberish in the translation.
To him replied the editor of one of the Iloilo papers, a small, full-blooded Filipino, with sharp, clever features. He made a most fiery and eloquent speech, in which, with angry brown face, and clenched fists thumping the back of the chair on which he leant, he declared that the PhilippineIslands had been discovered as long as America, and that the Filipinos had the same spirit as that which had caused the Americans to revolt from England.
He got fearfully excited, and called God to witness that his people were only asking for their rights in wishing to have this foreign burden removed; he and they demanded, insisted on, their Independence! When he sat down, the waiters and the band, and the Filipino spectators who had strolled in, all applauded frantically.
The applause, by-the-bye, was most instructive, for the American speeches were applauded to the echo with shouts by the Americans; but the Filipinos andMestizosreceived the Spanish translations inuttersilence. On the other hand, the brown folk roared with applause over their own speakers, and the Americans did not take the least notice of the English translations. It was a most odd and unique scene.
Last of all came Mr Taft, who spoke better, more clearly, and more simply than any of the others, and my only regret was that such a splendid delivery should have been impeded by the interpretations.
He repeated all the things he had said in the morning at theGobierno, walking even more boldly up to the Independence question, and saying that the people would be given their Independence when they were worthy of it, which was the sacred duty of the American people, who had received these Islands as a Trust from God.
This was received with rapturous ovations by his countrymen, but the translation was taken in absolute and embarrassing silence—all but two or three hisses!
He went on to expound the theory of educating the Filipino people up to Western ideals, and laidgreat stress upon the dignity and power of labour—“and you must work with your hands—your hands!”—thunders of applause from the white men. Absolute silence after the translation. For my part, I can’t say I felt much carried away by these phrases when I recollected the speaker’s attitude towards manual labour and book-learning a few hours before.
When they were on a level with the free races, “in a hundred years, perhaps three hundred, four hundred, they would be worthy to stand and face the nations”—or something like that. He also said that he had certainly promised the Filipinos Independence, and he was not going back upon his words, no—he was come to uphold—to ratify them. “Dear Wards from God,” he called them, spreading his arms out and smiling the Taft smile, and saying “that the Philippines were a solemn trust, and the Americans would not fail in this great duty towards humanity.”
So these fine words were all they got out of Mr Taft, and we all rose and trooped out to find our “rigs.”
At the top of the staircase I met a very Prominent Citizen, who remarked that this had been a great occasion for Iloilo; and I said: “Yes, Mr Taft is a clever man and a brilliant orator.”
“That’s so,” agreed my friend, “he made avurry finespeech.”
I said: “He spoke a great many truths; what he said was very straightforward.”
“Yes,” said the P. C., “but he should have said all that two years ago.”
And that, I find, is the unanimous verdict of every class and nationality about Mr Taft’s subtle and rather tardy interpretation of the promises he made when he was Governor of the Philippines.
Next evening, when the party had gone, andthere was nothing left but to discuss what had taken place, we were leaning over the balcony when a Prominent Citizen of our acquaintance came walking past, and stopped, in the friendly, half-Spanish fashion of the country, to say good evening and make a few remarks.
“It was a fine show,” we said.
“Why yes,” he agreed, “I guess the Filipinos did their best for theSecwar.”
“I think he disappointed them, though,” said C——.
“Well, I should smile! I guess Secretary Taft’s the best hated man in these islands now.”
And that, I believe, is the unfortunate truth.
Hotel ——,Iloilo,August 22, 1905.
We are up-rooted at last, you see, out of our own delightful house, and enduring the cooking and service of the best hotel this place has to afford, while we wait for theKai-Fong, which is reported to be loading hard wood at Cebú.
This is not really such a bad place for Iloilo, which means that it compares unfavourably in comfort, cleanliness, and sanitation with a second-class Commercial in a small town in Spain. However, I have a very nice big cool room, opening on to a broad balcony, where little trees and plants stand in tubs, and that is very agreeable to the eye, as we are right in the town and not near any gardens. There are four doors in this room, and six windows, so that the room is capable of the necessary draught without which it is impossible to sleep. So far so good, but the Filipino bed has to be reckoned with—in this case, a vast four-poster, with a very handsome piece of carving at each end. That at the head is particularly beautiful, a very free and graceful design of leaves, and corn, and fruit, which I wish I could take home with me. We took the precaution of bringing our ownpetatesand pillows when we left our house, as well as our own towels, and are continually thankful that we did so!
It is the chief hotel of Iloilo, as I said before,and therefore frequented by all the Prominent Citizens and their families, to say nothing of the military, as many of the officers board here. I think they must be such good-natured people not to make any fuss about the dirty linen and unwashed plates, or the cold and greasy food. I am afraid we are not so amiable, for we began at once to have it understood that, as we were paying the prices of a first-class hotel in London or Paris, we expected comfort and some cleanliness, and C—— said very definitely to our waiter that he would knock him down if he attempted again to hand things on the wrong side. This cleared the air a good deal, and when they found we insisted on having things nice, they did their best for us, and really they have made us so comfortable that we are quite patient about theKai-Fong.
We cleared out of our own house on Friday (this is Monday), and spent all the following day making over the furniture to the various people who came, like Joseph’s brethren, bearing money in their hands. We were so sorry to see the rooms dismantled, for we loved that house, and had lived in it in such comfort, and so well cared for by our good servants. When C—— paid the latter off, he gave to each an extra present of money, which pleased them enormously; and the cook, really quite sad, said over and over again that he wished we would take him with us to England, and asked to be allowed to shake hands with us, which great honour we permitted. Sotero we have brought here to wait on us, as we would not allow Filipino hotel servants into our rooms, of course; but Domingo has been paid off, though he refuses to consider himself dismissed, and I believe he is sleeping in the empty house and standing guard over our big cases, though no one is likely to run away with them, as they take about five coolieseach to move. I begin to realise here what our openness to the Monsoons meant, for I have just had to clear out of my bedroom, where I was writing, and come into the publicsala(which is really a furnished corridor), because the wind shifted a little, so that it no longer blew into the bedroom. By this I mean that when the wind was off me, I burst into perspiration, my face dripping on to the paper, my hands as if I had dipped them in water, my clothes soaking, and my head beginning to ache and throb. Oh, I can’t find words to express how thankful I am to be going away from this horrible, everlasting heat! It gets on one’s nerves not to be able to move a chair, to walk two yards without dripping at every pore, and one’s clothes feel so irksome and heavy. If one takes exercise it is acute discomfort—if one does not, one is ill!
We are now having the echoes of theComitiva Taftvisitation, and it is really most amusing to see how the popular idol has fallen. Fallen for the Filipinos that is, for the Americans all think him very great and “cute” to manage as he has done, though they are all declaring openly that he should have said all this two years ago, as our friend shrewdly observed to us when we were leaving the banquet. Of course, there is something to be said for Mr Taft, for if he had made such unpopular utterances when he was Governor here, his life would not have been worth two cents a day. All the same, to the lay mind, such subtle change of front is not very palatable, and one cannot help wishing that politicians could afford to say straight out what they mean, and stick to it for good or evil.
The papers from Manila with the account of our festivities have arrived, and I never read such brazen lying in my life; in fact, the reports are so cooked that they leave off being annoying and beginto be funny. The wild scenes of popular enthusiasm, the crowded banquet, the frantic love of the people of Panay for their idol, and so on, and so on. And as to sheer reporting, Mr Taft’s speech (which the Manila people are informed was greeted by the natives with thunderous applause) is given at great length, but the impassioned utterances of the patriot who clutched the chair-back are dismissed in a few mild words. No mention, too, of the ominous banners in the procession, of the note on the back of themenuat the banquet, and not the faintest hint of the one or two hisses which greeted the sentiments of theSecwarhimself. So much for the local papers. And if that is the way they dally with truth out here, one can only faintly wonder what impression of this trip is being disseminated amongst the intelligent voters in the far-off U.S.A., by our well-informed journalistic friend and others of his kidney.
The Iloilo banquet, by-the-bye, wound up rather disastrously for American dignity, as the rowdy party at the table near us got up some quarrel with one of the Filipino waiters; there were blows and fighting, and the whole lot were chucked out into the street. This, as you may imagine, has made a horrible scandal, and produced a very bad impression.
About the banquet, too, it now appears that the Filipinos subscribed 70pesostowards that and the general expenses, and the rest of the community, ourselves included, made the sum up to the 4000 required, plus a grant from the Treasury.
C—— went to see our poor old Spanish friend about something a day or two ago (the ex-courtier, whose visit I think I described to you), and when C—— said that he had not seen him at the banquet, the old fellow replied that he had sent the committee 12pesostowards the expenses, with a letter ofwell-wishing, etc., as he thought it was his duty to do so, and to contribute what he could.
“Well,” said C——, “but didn’t they answer with an invitation to the banquet?”
“No,” said the old man, “they did not even acknowledge the money.”
He seemed rather down on his luck about the whole thing, and more anxious than ever to sell his piece of land and go home to Spain to die.
S.S.Kai-Fong,August 25, 10A.M.
Iloilo is now far away below the horizon astern, and if I look over the side, I am afforded the delightful spectacle of one Philippine Island slipping past after the other into pale blue fluff, and I hope they will stay down under my horizon for ever.
We scraped out through a network of taxes, like fish trying to get out of a fish-corral. Our two large cases had to get a Customs permit before they could be put on board, for which they got from us apesoin the form of a stamp upon the Export Entry, and anotherpesoand a half for what they call wharfage. This means that they did not examine the contents of the cases, but gave C—— a paper to sign and an export permit. Another item is an Internal Revenue tax of apesoon each passenger ticket. Fancy if we at home had to pay 10 shillings in taxes before we could go across the Channel!
It is so nice to be in such a clean and comfortable steamer, and to have fresh vegetables and fruit, brought on ice from Hong Kong; and one wonders how the Americans can tolerate the contrast between this and those dreadful Spanish cockroach-traps which they dignify by the name of the Mail.
All the crew are Chinese, of course, looking so straight and tall and intelligent after the stumpy, stupid, little Filipinos. With them too, as with theFilipino horses, the eye has been thrown out of focus, for the Chinese simply look colossal. I keep on thinking to myself what a very tall man that is, and he is only the usual height of ordinary men.
Most of the second-class passengers are Chinese, and they have queer meals on the lower deck, all squatting round a wooden tray on which are one or two big bowls of rice and bits of meat and vegetables. Round these are piled little bowls, into which the mixture is served out, and the Chinamen all set to work with chop-sticks, which is so like a conjuring-trick that one can watch them as long as they will go on with it! Amongst these people is a Chinaman with his Filipino wife, a little ugly woman, with her lips jutting out beyond the end of her nose, dressed in a gaycamisa, and for ever smoking a huge, ragged cigar. Some children of theirs cling to them most of the time, and a very gaudily-dressed little chap of a more purely Filipino type, whom the Chinaman is exporting to a friend in Amoy who has bought the child for 10 dollars. You can buy children very cheaply in the Philippines; and away from the big towns, and very often in them, they are openly offered for sale; and most of the rich native andMestizofamilies have servants which have been bought as children. I daresay, though I have never inquired about it, that the Americans strenuously deny this officially, but unofficially it is a perfectly well-known custom. This small slave was a very native little chap of three or four, got up in purple cotton coat and a crimson jockey cap, and radiantly happy in his new clothes, and we could not really feel very sorry for him. The Chinamen all take the greatest care of their hair, combing it out every day, and some of them have magnificent, glossy, black locks, right down to their knees; but others,whose hair is thin and scanty, eke out their pigtails with long cords of black silk gimp.
Talking of servants, when we came down to the Muelle Loney (to think I shall never see that place again!) this morning, we found Domingo waiting, in his smartest clothes, spotlessly white, and his skin shining with soap, to see us off. Poor fellow, he hung round, blubbering quietly, and carrying anything he could catch hold of, and when he said good-bye his face was quite pathetic. I think he felt he was losing the only people in the world who had ever treated him well, and he was one of the best specimens of a typical, unspoilt Filipino, stolid, obedient, humble, and faithful as a dog, and C—— said he would have given anything to have been able to take him with us, as the poor creature implored us to do. At the last, when the launch was pushing off, Domingo made a wild rush to spring on board, but was too late; and the last we saw of him was standing on the quay with his hat off and the tears streaming down his big, brown face.
We discussed this rush of Domingo’s, but can arrive at no satisfactory solution of what he wanted to do, for I think he only wanted to come out to theKai-Fong, but C—— says he is certain he meant to follow us to Hong Kong and compel us to take him with us. Well, we can’t do that, but we have done our best for him in making him from a rough coolie into a clean, smart servant, who can get double the wages he received from us; and we found him a good place before we left, though, as I said before, I am not at all sure how either he or the other will do with the impatience and curses with which the average white man thinks he impresses his dignity upon the coloured person. It is not to be done in the Anglo-Indian method; no, nor in the American extreme of familiarity. Ofthat I was persuaded before I came here, and am still more convinced now that I have more experience.
The only way to impress anyone, black, brown,orwhite, with the idea of your dignity, is to be dignified yourself. But I suppose this is too much of an obvious truism for anyone to attempt to think over or act up to. Well, it served me in very good stead; and all I know is that, though every soul I spoke to had endless complaints about the impudence, laziness, or dishonesty of their servants, whether they were of the nation who kicked them, or those who allowed them to wear a vest in the house and not sayseñor, we never had any trouble once we got rid of our first Americanised cook—my house went as on oiled axles, and we never missed one single thing from start to finish. So what am I to say of the Filipinos? Those with whom I came in contact, as well as my own servants, were a narrow, cunning, good-humoured people, vain, superstitious, stupid, great gamblers, kind to their children, and bitterly cruel to animals—oh, the poor hens hung up by the heels in the sun! and the wretched pigs with their four feet lashed together that used to lie all day scorching in the Plaza at Molo! the awful open sores under the harness of the starving ponies! the brutal, sickening, cock-fighting! For those horrors alone, I should be thankful to leave this country, even were it the paradise which it is not. No, no terrestrial paradise, for one has the laziness, the heat, the apathy, and cruelty of the East, without the compensations of artistic beauty, cheapness, plenty, and luxury, which make up for those drawbacks in other hot countries. A shuffling, drab, discontented, thick-headed, costly East—with all the worst traditions of four hundred years of the off-scourings of the Spanish monkish orders, overlaidby a veneer of shallow cock-sureness hastily assimilated from a totally incongruous alien civilisation.
We carry a cargo of sugar, and from the ventilators come up gusts of that peculiar, heavy, nauseous odour, which carries one back instantly to thecamarinsof Iloilo. I can’t believe that the Philippines are really a thing of the past for me—it is not that I was there so long; but there was so little variety, and we saw and did and heard the same things so often, that I am left with an impression of as many years as we have been there months.
THE END