ations. That is what America has done to the Philippines."

"If the city of Manila could, by some genius of modern times, be laid
down in Europe and ticketed, labeled, bill-posted and guide-booked, it
would be famous," says one authority. The city contains an area of more
than fifteen square miles and is more densely populated per mile of
street than New York. When civil government was established in 1901 the
conditions were deplorable. The streets were narrow and filthy and there
was no sewer system to speak of. The river and dirty canals divided and
subdivided the city. There was practically no water system and disease
and death lurked in almost every shadow.

Now the city is fast becoming one of the world's great cities and one of
the most healthful cities on the globe. The streets have been widened,
many of them, and are kept clean. A water system brings pure water to
almost every household and a great sewer system takes away the filth.
The Manila Hotel is worth a million and a park or square on the water
front covers hundreds of acres of ground.

The great Y. M. C. A. buildings were thronged as in no other city the
writer ever visited. The fire department is up-to-date, the police
system well organized, and even in the great Bilibid prison the reforms
introduced are second to none in any prison. This prison covers
seventeen acres of ground, making it one of the largest in the world.
Many of its fifty buildings are built around a circle and in the tower
at the center, watchmen, who can see the entire prison, stand night and
day.

Through the kindness of the officials the writer was allowed to go into
this tower one afternoon as the five thousand prisoners came from the
shops, formed into companies and went through a thirty-minute drill. The
band played throughout and as the men were formed into companies we from
the tower could see each individual company although they were hidden
from each other. The great body of men moved like the wheels of a great
clock. They stood, knelt, touched hands, lay down, arose, walked and
exercised, keeping time with the music in a way that was wonderful to
behold. Cells for prisoners have long since been done away. They mingle
in companies in large sunny, clean, dormitories, where they visit, read
and sing.

In the heart of Manila there remains "all that is mortal" of one of the
most interesting spots in the eastern world. It is the old, old capital
city and its story is the stor