is the main business thoroughfare of
New Manila, as that portion of the Philippine capital north of the
little river is called. South of the river is Old Manila, the walled
city of the old days of the Spanish conquerors. South of the walled city
lie two rather fashionable residence suburbs, Ermita and Malate.

But the Thirty-fourth was temporarily stationed in big nipa barracks at
Malate. It was in the newer Manila that the two boyish young sergeants
found their greatest interest.

It was a busy, bustling scene. There is nothing exactly like the Escolta
in any other part of the world. The whole of this crooked, winding
thoroughfare seemed alive with horses and people--with the horses in
more than goodly proportion.

Along the Escolta are the principal wholesale and retail houses of the
city. Here is the post office, there the "Botanica" or principal drug
store, operating under English capital and a Spanish name; down near the
water front is the Hotel de Paris, a place famous for the good dinners
of the East. Further up the Escolta, just around a slight bend, is the
Oriente Hotel, the stopping place of Army officers and their families,
of passing travelers and of civil employees of the government.

At this point along the Escolta are the busiest marts of local trade.
The sidewalks are crowded with hurrying throngs; the streets jammed with
traffic, for in Manila few of the whites or the wealthier natives ever
think of walking more than a block or two. The _quilez_, the little
two-wheeled car drawn by a six-hundred-pound pony, is the common means
of getting about. A dollar in American money will charter one of these
_quilez_ for hours, and the heat renders it an advisable investment for
one who has far to go.

Automobiles were scarce, though they had penetrated even this congested
Escolta. Here and there an Army officer or orderly appeared on horseback
in the crush of the street. If he attempted to ride at a canter the
horseman seemed to be taking his life in his own hands, with the chances
all against him.

Save for the lazy calls of drivers--_cocheros_--to their horses, the hum
of human voices was subdued. In the heat of the Escolta the people of
all colors seem to have reached a tacit understanding that it requires
less exertion to talk in low tones.

White people of both sexes appeared, clad usually in the white attire so
customary in the tropics. Filipino dandies affected the same garbing,
with the exception o