Educational and Charitable Institutions.
Most of the educational institutions of the colony are in Manila, where the Department of Education has its headquarters. Many of the native graduates of the various colleges go into the professions; many of the poorer kind into teaching. The village schoolmaster receives, on an average, about 180 dollars a year, and out of even this miserable stipend he has to pay his own expenses to and from the city once every month, to receive his salary. Thus, it can readily be surmised that the cause of public education is not in as prosperous a condition as it might be. The children of the wealthy are sometimes sent abroad—to Spain, France, or England—to be educated. I myself went to St. John’s College, London, and, afterward, to Pension Roulet, Neûchatel, Switzerland.
Balcony of Manila Jockey Club, Overlooking Pandacan.
The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, in Manila, is maintained by the Dominicans. It has schools of theology and church law, jurisprudence, notarial law, medicine, and pharmacy. In the undergraduate department are 40 free scholarships for Spanish boys.
The college of San José gives instruction in medicine and pharmacy. The Dominican college of San Juan de Letran is justly celebrated for its excellent equipment, and for its fine museums of history and of the arts. It is attended exclusively by the sons of the natives.
The Cambobong Orphan Asylum, under the care of the Augustinians, furnishes elementary instruction, and is a preparatory school for the University. It also teaches book-keeping, and provides a good business education.
The Mandaloya Asylum, of the same order and of the same grade, is for girls, and teaches the proper performance of household duties and the various feminine accomplishments.
Poor and demented children find shelter in the St. Joseph’s Home; while the Hospital of San Juan de Dios, founded in 1595, is open to all. This institution has two chaplains, one head nurse, six physicians, eight resident medical students, one pharmaceutist, and a corps of trained nurses.
The Hospital of San Lazaro is for lepers. It was founded in 1578 by the Franciscans, under rather peculiar and not uninteresting circumstances. The Emperor of Japan, full of resentment at the attempts of the Spaniards to convert his subjects to Christianity, sent the infant colony a ship-load of lepers with his compliments, saying, sarcastically, that he had no doubt but that the good brethren to whose care he felt called upon to send these useless subjects of his kingdom, would, in their exceeding love for souls, receive them most gratefully.
The Spaniards, however, needless to say, were by no means delighted, and were at first inclined to send the lepers back. Pity and Christian feeling, however, at last prevailed, and this hospital was built to receive them.
One of the most important organizations is the Chamber of Commerce. There are also several good banks and a savings bank. Under the Department of Charity and Health are several subordinate boards, all conducive to public improvement.
The Royal Polytechnic Society has for its object the promotion of the arts and the sciences. The Musical Society, the Spanish Casino, the Manila Club, the German Casino, the Gun, Jockey, Lawn-tennis and Bicycle clubs are highly successful social organizations. At Santa Mesa, on the outskirts of the city, is a race-course, which in the spring is very popular.
The mint is only for the striking of subsidiary coins. It has been in operation but a few years.
There are six daily papers: El Diario de Manila, and La Oceania Española, both issued in the morning. The evening papers are: El Comercio, La Voz de España, El Español, and El Noticero.
The Nactajan Mess: Manila Jockey Club.
Tramways of a very primitive kind run in the principal streets. There are also electric lights in the public parks, along the Luneta, and in the finest business houses. A telephone system extends throughout the city, and there is a railway—the only one in the province—to Dagupan. It is a single track, and is 123 miles long. It was opened to traffic November 23, 1892. An Englishman has secured the contract, and English engines are used, whose speed is 45 miles an hour. This road has paid more than ten per cent. to the shareholders. There is also a steam road to Dagupan. Another branch railroad is under construction by the Government. Manila being on low peat-ground,—considerably lower in fact than the lake of Laguna, whose overflow forms the Pasig river,—in the wet season it seems an Oriental Venice; for the numerous creeks and canals that intersect the city and its suburbs are then flooded with water and thronged with native boats. Drinking-water is carried to the city through pipes from Santolan, on the river Pasig. Fountains are also distributed at convenient places throughout the city, to which the poorer people have access.
A new harbor is now under construction. For the payment of it special dues have from time to time been imposed upon the trade of the port: 2 per cent. on imports, 1 per cent. on exports, a tonnage tax, and a duty on fishing-boats.
There are several theatres in Manila, but they are very inferior. The opera is very popular, and is well supported. Foreign celebrities sometimes visit Manila, when the audiences are most enthusiastic and whole scenes are encored. In the theatre every one smokes, from the fashionable ladies and gentlemen in full dress, to the half-naked gallery-gods in the loft. Between the acts pretty mestiza flower-girls pass to and fro offering their fragrant wares to the onlookers. A theatre-night in Manila is one of unrestrained gayety—and the fun-loving Filipinos rarely miss an opportunity to attend a show. In the Palacio Square is a statue of Charles IV., and in front of the Variedades is one of Queen Isabella.