g enough to be born there; and this was great fun. It is
not too much to say that the institution he represented is illustrious.

The cathedral of Manila is within the walled city and of immense
proportions. It was shattered by an earthquake, and in its
reconstruction wood rather than marble was used for the supporting
pillars within, but no one would find out that the stately clusters
of columns were not from the quarries rather than the forests, unless
personally conducted to the discovery. Here 2,000 Spanish soldiers,
held under the articles of capitulation, were quartered, consumed
their rations and slept, munching and dozing all around the altar and
pervading the whole edifice. The other great churches, five in number,
in the walled city, were occupied in the same way. The Archbishop
was anxious to have the soldiers otherwise provided with shelter,
and if not all of them could be restored to their ordinary uses it
was most desirable, in his opinion, the cathedral should be.

It is estimated that 2,000 of the American soldiers in the
expeditionary force are Catholics, and Father Daugherty was anxious to
preach to them in English. During the call upon me by the Archbishop
this subject was discussed, and the suggestion made that the Americans
had tents in great number that they did not occupy and that would
probably not be preserved by keeping them stored in that hot and trying
climate. They might be pitched on the Luneta, which is beside the sea,
and the town thus relieved of 13,000 men, who, herded in churches,
produced unsanitary conditions. This seemed reasonable, and the policy
of the change would have a tendency to develop an element of good-will
not to be despised and rejected. It might be that the cathedral alone
could be cleared without delay or prejudice with a pleasant effect,
and if so why not? His grace was certainly diplomatic and persuasive
in stating the case, and his attendants were animated with zeal that
the Americans should have the credit of re-opening the cathedral
for worship. It was true the Spanish garrison first occupied it,
but if the necessity that its ample roof should protect soldiers
from the torrential rains had existed perhaps it had ceased to be
imperative. The matter was duly presented to the military authorities,
and the objection found to immediate action that the Spanish prisoners
of war should not for the time be located outside the walled city. They
must be held where they coul