A ball at a big Pampanga house is a sight that will be remembered. Capitan Joaquin Arnédo Cruz of Sulípan, on the Rio Grande, a wealthy native sugar-planter, used to assemble in his fine house the principal people of the neighbourhood to meet royal or distinguished guests. One of his daughters is married to a distinguished lawyer, my friend Don Felipe Buencamino, author of the remarkable State paper addressed to the United States Senate, and published in the Congressional Record of January 9th, 1900, pp. 752–53–54. Capitan Joaquin possessed a magnificent porcelain table-service of two hundred pieces, specially made and marked with his monogram, sent him by a prince who had enjoyed his hospitality.
He gave a ball for the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who afterwards declared that the room presented one of the most brilliant sights he had ever seen.
This from a son of an Emperor might seem an exaggeration, but brilliant is the only word that can describe the effect produced on the spectator by the bright costumes and sparkling jewellery of the women.
Their dress seems to exercise a fascination upon Europeans which the costume of any other eastern country fails to do.
Monsieur Paul de la Gironière, in his charming book, ‘Vingt Ans aux Philippines,’ says, about the Mestiza dress: “Nothing so charming, so coquet, so provocative as this costume which excites to the highest point the admiration of all strangers.”
He goes on to say that the women are well aware of this, and that on no account would they make a change. I will add my opinion that they are quite right, and may they ever stick to the saya, the báro, and the tapis under the Stars and Stripes, may they ever be as natural, as handsome and as prosperous as when the writer dwelt amongst them on the banks of the Rio Grande under the paternal rule of Alcalde Mayor Don José Fécéd y Temprado.
[1] The roller pinions in both Chinese and native mills are of hard wood.
[2] Crocodilus Porosus.