But he was a jewel despite his eccentricities. He could produce the most elaborate and varied buffet suppers I ever saw and I never knew a cook who could make such a wonderful variety of cakes and fruit tarts and cream-puffs. He took a real delight in their construction, and for two days before a reception he would spend all his time filling every pan in the house with patisseries elaborately iced in every imaginable colour.
I began at once to give an afternoon reception every week and if it hadn’t been for my disagreeable, but capable, old Ah Sing I should have been in a constant turmoil of engagements with caterers and confectioners. As it was, I never had to give an order, really. “Reception Wednesday, Ah Sing,” was all that was necessary, and except for a glance now and then to see that the muchachos were giving the floors and the furniture a little extra polish on Wednesday morning, the only preparations I had to make for receiving two thousand people were to put on an embroidered muslin gown and compose myself.
These afternoon receptions were public, our only form of invitation being an “At Home” notice in the newspapers, and considering the unsettled state of Manila society in those days, it is really remarkable that we had so few unwelcome guests. There were a great many derelicts and generally disreputable people, both American and European, trying to better their fortunes or add to the excitement in our agitated community, but we suffered no unpleasant consequences from our open hospitality, though every Wednesday the Palace was thronged and every Wednesday many new faces appeared. Army and Navy people, civilians of every occupation and many foreigners—Germans and British mostly—came nearly always. I remember especially the first instalment of American school teachers. They were, for the most part, a fine lot of men and women who had come out with high hopes and ideals and an enthusiastic desire to pass them on. There were some pretty girls among them and a number of very clever looking men. I believe they used to enjoy my parties as much as anybody in Manila. They were homesick, no doubt, especially the girls, and I suppose the sight of so many friendly American faces cheered them up.
The Filipinos had to have a little coaxing before they began to avail themselves very freely of our general invitation. But by asking many of them personally and persistently to “be sure and come Wednesday” we prevailed on a good number to believe they were really wanted; and after a little while there began to be as many brown faces as white among our guests.
Speaking of school teachers reminds me that it was just about this time that our minds were relieved of all anxiety with regard to Bob’s and Helen’s education. My husband had wanted to send our ten-year-old son back across the Pacific and the United States, all by himself, to his Uncle Horace’s school in Connecticut, and I had opposed the idea with all my might without being able to offer a satisfactory substitute plan. But now a school for American children was opened and they were as well taught as they would have been at home. Moreover, Bob and Helen found a large number of congenial companions, and I don’t think I ever saw a happier set of boys and girls. They lived out of doors and did everything that children usually do, but their most conspicuous performance was on the Luneta in the evenings, where they would race around the drive on their little ponies, six abreast, or play games all over the grass plots which were then, and always have been, maintained chiefly for the benefit of children, both brown and white.
My husband’s change in title and station made very little difference in the character of his duties, but it gave him increased authority in the performance of them. The onerous necessity for submitting legislation to an executive whose point of view was different from that of the Commission came to an end, and he was able to see that such laws as the Commission passed were put in operation without delay. Under General Chaffee the feeling on the part of the Army against the encroachments of civil government gave way, slowly but surely, to an attitude of, at least, friendly toleration. It was as if they said: “Well, let them alone; we know they are wrong; but they must learn by experience, and, after all, they mean well.”
General Chaffee and General MacArthur were two quite different types of men. General Chaffee was less precise, less analytical. General MacArthur had always been given to regarding everything in its “psychological” aspect and, indeed, “psychological” was a word so frequently on his lips that it became widely popular. General Chaffee was impetuous; he was much less formal than his predecessor both in thought and manner, and Mr. Taft found co-operation with him much less difficult. He made no secret of his conviction, which was shared by most of the Army, that civil government was being established prematurely, but he was not unreasonable about it.
He refused at first to listen to the proposition for the establishment of a native Constabulary. This had been the Commission’s pet project ever since they had been in the Islands, and it was a great disappointment to them to find that the opposition which they had encountered in the former administration was to be continued.
What they wanted was a force of several thousand Filipinos, trained and commanded by American Army officers, either from the regular Army or from the volunteers. The same thing had been done with success by the British in India and the Straits Settlements, by the Dutch in Java and by our own General Davis in Porto Rico, and as the insurrectionary force had dwindled to a few bands and to scattered groups of murderers and ladrones, so acknowledged by everybody, there was no reason why a native constabulary should not be employed to clear these out.
This plan was among the first things submitted to General Chaffee, but he was evidently not impressed. “Pin them down with a bayonet for at least ten years” was a favourite expression of Army sentiment which sometimes made the Commissioners’ explanations to the natives rather difficult.