The Civil Governor of the Province had full arbitrary power to enforce the regulations relating to public performances, but it was seldom he imposed a fine. The programme had to be sanctioned by authority before it was published, and it could neither be added to nor any part of it omitted, without special licence. The performance was given under the censorship of the Corregidor or his delegate, whose duty it was to guard the interests of the public, and to see that the spectacle did not outrage morality.
The ostensible purpose of every annual feast all over the Colony was to render homage to the local patron Saint and give thanks for mercies received in the past year. Every town, village, and suburb was supposed to be specially cared for by its patron Saint, and when circumstances permitted it there was a religious procession, which was intended to impress on the minds of the faithful the virtue of the intercessors by ocular demonstration. Vast sums of money were expended from time to time in adornment of the images, the adoration of which seemed to be tinctured with pantheistic feeling, as if these symbols were part of the Divine essence.
Among the suburban feasts of Manila, that of Binondo was particularly striking. It took place in the month of October. An imposing illuminated procession, headed by the clergy, guarded by troops, and followed up by hundreds of native men, women and children carrying candles, promenaded the principal streets of the vicinity. But the religious feeling of the truly devoted was shocked by one ridiculous feature—the mob of native men, dressed in gowns and head-wreaths, in representation of the Jews who persecuted our Saviour, rushing about the streets in tawdry attire before and after the ceremony in such apparent ignorance of the real intention that it annulled the sublimity of the whole function.
All Saintsʼ Day—November 1—brought a large income to the priests in the most frequented parish churches. This is one of the days on which souls can be got out of Purgatory. The faithful flocked in mobs to the popular shrines, where an effort was made to place a lighted wax candle at the foot of the altar, and on bended knee to invoke the Saintsʼ aid on behalf of their departed relatives and friends. But the crowd was so great that the pious were not permitted this consolation for more than two or three minutes. Sacristans made them move on, to leave room for new-comers, and their candles were then extinguished and collected in heaps, Chinese infidel coolies being sometimes employed to carry away the spoil to the parish priestʼs store. The wax was afterwards sold to dealers. One church is said to have collected on November 1, 1887, as much as 40 cwts., valued at ₱37 per cwt. This day was a public holiday, and in the afternoon and evening it was the custom to visit the last resting-places, to leave a token of remembrance on the tombs of the lamented.
The Asylum for Lepers, at Dalumbayan, in the ward of Santa Cruz, was also visited the same day, and whilst many naturally went there to see their afflicted relations and friends, others, of morbid tastes, satisfied their curiosity. This Asylum, subsidized by Government to the extent of ₱500 per annum, was, in the time of the Spaniards, under the care of Franciscan friars.
In January or February the Chinese celebrate their New Year, and suspend work during a week or ten days. The authorities did not permit them to revel in fun to the extent they would have done in their own country; nevertheless, Chinese music, gongs, and crackers were indulged in, in the quarters most thickly populated by this race.
The natives generally have an unbounded passion for cock-fighting, and in the year 1779 it occurred to the Government that a profitable revenue might be derived from a tax on this sport. Thenceforth it was only permitted under a long code of regulations on Sundays and feast days, and in places officially designated for the “meet” of the combatants. In Manila alone the permission to meet was extended to Thursdays. The cock-pit is called the Gallera, and the tax was farmed out to the highest bidding contractor, who undertook to pay a fixed annual sum to the Government, making the best he could for himself out of the gross proceeds from entrance-fees and sub-letting rents in excess of that amount. In like manner the Government farmed out the taxes on horses, vehicles, sale of opium, slaughter of animals for consumption, bridge-tolls, etc., and, until 1888, the market dues. Gambling licences also brought a good revenue, but it would have been as impossible to suppress cock-fighting in the Islands as gambling in England.[8]
The Spanish laws relating to the cock-pit were very strict, and were specially decreed on March 21,1861. It was enacted that the maximum amount to be staked by one person on one contest should be 50 pesos. That each cock should wear only one metal spur. That the fight should be held to be terminated on the death of one or both cocks, or when one of them retreated. However, the decree contained in all a hundred clauses too tedious to enumerate. Cock-fighting is discussed among the natives with the same enthusiasm as horse-racing is in England. The majority of sportsmen rear cocks for several years, bestowing upon them as much tender care as a mother would on her infant. When the hope of the connoisseur has arrived at the age of discretion and valour, it is put forward in open combat, perhaps to perish in the first encounter. And the patient native goes on training others.
Within twenty minutesʼ drive from Manila, at Nagtájan, on the right bank of the Pasig River, there was a good European club (since removed to Ermita), of which the members were chiefly English-speaking merchants and employees. The entrance-fee was [Pesos]30; the monthly subscription was [Pesos]5, and [Pesos]1 per month extra for the use of a fairly good library.
The principal hotel—the “Hotel de Oriente”—was opened in Binondo in January, 1889, in a large two-storeyed building, with 83 rooms for the public service, and stabling for 25 horses. It was the first building specially erected in the Colony for an hotel. The accommodation and board were good. It ranked with the best hotels in the East. [In 1903 the building was purchased by the (American) Insular Government for public offices.] In Manila City and Binondo there were several other Spanish hotels where the board was tolerable, but the lodging and service abominable. There was a telephone system established throughout the city and its environs.