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given to us by the Government engineer, is two hundred feet. The width is about sixty feet. While it is not a Niagara, it is a fine waterfall, even at low water, as we saw it.

"The best time to see the waterfall here," said the engineer, "is when the roads are so bad you cannot get here."

The river is so rapid that the water soon runs down to the lake. It is expected that within a short time a report will be completed showing that it is possible to send the power of the falls to Manila, seventy-five miles distant. The report may advocate the damming of the river above the falls to retain the water, which will then be carried along the mountain crest until a point is reached where it can be dropped eight hundred feet. This will destroy the present falls, but beauty must give place to utility.

Starting from Luisania at five o'clock, we reached Santa Cruz at ten-thirty, without being disturbed. It was a moonlight night, but the travelers were in a country recently in insurrection and containing at that time many ladrones or robbers. As we learned subsequently, a marauding band entered a town a few miles from our trail while we were on the road, carrying off considerable plunder; the sighing of the bamboos through which we rode produced a fearful nerve tension, nearly as great in fact as if the ladrones had sprung upon us.

CHAPTER XI

THE NEW SUMMER CAPITAL

"IT

Character of the Heat in Manila-A Native in a
Crematory-The Philippine Thirst-Baguio, the Simla
of the Philippines-Considerations not to be Ignored.

T isn't the hotness I mind so much, mamma, but the wetness of the hotness," said a little girl who had not learned to use the terms "atmosphere” and “humid” and "enervating." She did not need to use those terms; her expression was clear to any one who has been in Manila during the heated term.

It was a bit trying when the mercury was hovering between eighty and ninety degrees to be told by the old resident of five years' standing: "You are fortunate not to be here during the hot weather." For a heat that blisters and burns, that withers and consumes, that seems to dry the marrow while it boils the flesh, commend the writer to a day in Manila, "just after the heated term." When one retired even a sheet was a burden, so intense was the heat; toward morning one needed a light blanket and was in danger of taking cold because the mercury had fallen ten degrees.

A story current in the Philippines regarding the effect of the extreme heat upon the natives may be repeated as an illustration, although its accuracy is not vouched for.

A Filipino traveling in Europe died. His family desired to have his body cremated so that at least his dust might be carried to his home. The body, prepared for cremation, was placed in a retort and the customary heat applied. After waiting the usual length of time the attendants opened the retort to remove the ashes. As the cover was removed the men were horrified to see the lately deceased gentleman sitting bolt upright; to add to their astonishment, the stranger said with a snap in his tone, 'Shut that door, I feel a draught.'

"Explanations followed, when it was discovered that the man had not really died, but was numbed by a temperature of forty degrees, and was simply revived by the heat of the crematory, which approximated that of his own fair island."

If the story is apocryphal it is well known that a Filipino can stand a temperature that will lay most Americans and Europeans in the shade.

Twice within twenty-four hours after reaching Manila my watch needed a new main-spring. The jewelers who repaired the watch said that my experience was not an unusual one; watches as well as men had to become acclimated. One effect of the trying climate was the production of a thirst that it was difficult to satisfy. Almost as soon as we landed I wanted a drink of ice water, or tea, or coffee-anything that would "cheer but not inebriate." Going into a drug-store, I secured a glass of lemonade. As the clerk was preparing it he apologized for lack of ice to cool it; a transport was loading for the trip home through the Suez Canal and every pound of ice manufactured in the Government ice plant was being put into the ice-box of the transport. I have drank

BEER CHEAPER THAN LEMONADE 119

worse concoctions from a glass, but never without a physician's prescription.

Another day, wishing to secure an "American lemonade," I went, this time with a physician, into a summer garden connected with a hotel. The lemonade was fairly good-the transport had sailed and we had ice this time. The two glasses cost forty cents.

"What would have been the bill if I had ordered beer?" I asked, seeing other men with glasses of that beverage before them.

"Ten cents a glass," was the reply.

I was willing to pay the difference, of course, but it was easier to understand why soldiers and other Americans with small incomes and without strict temperance principles should prefer some other beverage than lemonade. The soda water fountain of the Young Men's Christian Association in the walled city ought to be duplicated in many places throughout the provinces. In the hotel one can get cold tea, and the new-comers drink it in large quantities; I drank more tea in two months in the Philippines than in any five years in America. The Philippine thirst needs to be experienced in order to be understood; the Christian Association men understand it and are doing much to quench it without enfeebling the bodies, shattering the nerves and deranging the intellects of those who are suffering from it.

But more than cold tea and soda water is needed to fit one to remain very long in the Philippines without suffering. The Civil Commission early set its members to ascertain what could be done to offset or to lessen the effect of the intense heat, so that the health of the Army and Civil employees, as well as of the Commissioners

themselves, might be preserved. It was suggested that in the Province of Benguet a summer capital similar to Simla in the Himalayas might be established. Taking the Manila and Dagupan Railway to Dagupan, and the shortest possible route for a railway from this point to Baguio, the distance from Manila is about a hundred and twenty-seven miles.

Commissioners Wright and Worcester were appointed to gather all available information on the subject of a sanitarium at Baguio, and were directed by the Commission to investigate conditions existing in the Province of Benguet. In the vicinity of Baguio there is a region admirably suited to serve as a health resort for the Philippines and the neighboring China coast. The Commissioners found an extensive highland region, peopled by a friendly, harmless tribe, with pure, cool, invigorating air and abundant water; free from tropical vegetation, affording pasturage in plenty, and suited to the production of many of the fruits, vegetables and grains characteristic of the temperate zone. It is hard to con ceive of a region affording a more delightful temperature than Baguio, where it is always cool, and yet never cold. The highest temperature recorded during August, September and October was 76.8°; the absolute minimum during that part of the year when the skies are clear and the air is dry was about 45°. The bracing character of the atmosphere is attested by every one who has visited the Province of Benguet, and its purity is shown by the fact that fresh meat will keep without ice for from three to six days, according to the season.

The Commission concludes that, on the whole, health conditions are surprisingly good in the Philippines, and

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