e man's influence
and contact. There are some exceptions, but I have most frequently
observed in the houses of Europeans married to native women in the
provinces, that the wives make the kitchen their chief abode, and are
only seen by the visitor when some domestic duty requires them to move
about the house. Familiarity breeds contempt, and these _mesalliances_
diminish the dignity of the superior race by reducing the birth-origin
of both parents to a common level in their children.

The Spanish half-breeds and Creoles constitute a very influential
body. A great number of them are established in trade in Manila and
the provinces. Due to their European descent, more or less distant,
they are of quicker perception, greater tact, and gifted with wider
intellectual faculties than the pure Oriental class. Also, the Chinese
half-breeds,--a caste of Chinese fathers and Philippine mothers,--who
form about one-sixth of the Manila population, are shrewder than
the natives of pure extraction, their striking characteristic being
distrust and suspicion of another's intentions. It is a curious
fact that the Chinese half-caste speaks with as much contempt of
the Chinaman as the thorough-bred Filipino does, and would fain
hide his paternal descent. There are numbers of Spanish half-breeds
fairly well educated, and just a few of them very talented. Many
of them have succeeded in making pretty considerable fortunes in
their negotiations, as middlemen, between the provincial natives
and the European commercial houses. Their true social position is
often an equivocal one, and the complex question has constantly to
be confronted whether to regard a Spanish demi-sang from a native or
European standpoint. Among themselves they are continually struggling
to attain the respect and consideration accorded to the superior class,
whilst their connexions and purely native relations link them to the
other side. In this perplexing mental condition, we find them on the
one hand striving in vain to disown their affinity to the inferior
races, and on the other hand, jealous of their true-born European
acquaintances. A morosity of disposition is the natural outcome. Their
character generally is evasive and vacillating. They are captious,
fond of litigation, and constantly seeking subterfuges. They appear
always dissatisfied with their lot in life, and inclined to foster
grievances against whoever may be in office over them. Pretentious
in the extreme, th