ves very well.

To this _sociedad de recreo_, or casino, there are many subscribers,
including the Governor and his family, if he has any, and all the
considerable people of the place, who for many years kept out those
of lower caste than themselves by the ballot, which is the mode of
electing candidates, who must be introduced by two members. However,
at last the funds of the society got so low, that the admission
of many new members was requisite to bolster up the concern with
their entrance-money and monthly contributions, and, of course, a
much more indiscriminate set were admitted, than formerly used to go
there, which caused one or two people to absent themselves from the
assemblies for some time, as no one, of course, chooses to introduce
his daughters among people he does not wish to associate with. On
the whole, however, the place has benefited by the new people; that
is to say, it is more gay than before they came, which is the chief
consideration to one careless of the precise social degree of any
handsome and pleasant girl whom he may meet at the place.

All the ladies sit together; and the men, who dare not, apparently,
trust themselves so close to their brilliant and beautiful eyes,
as we fancy we can do with impunity in Britain, promenade up and
down the ball-room, or in one of the large ante-rooms contiguous to
it. No doubt their tindery and inflammable temperaments, whenever
love-making is concerned, has something to do with this arrangement;
as, if a young male acquaintance of any damsel took a seat beside her,
it would be certain to attract the papa or chaperon, to the spot, to
see what was going on, as their most likely subject of conversation
would have a strong leaning towards a flirtation, or downright
love-making, at which nearly all the Spaniards are great adepts;
the flowery expressions of their language being peculiarly suitable
for such sentimental recreations.

Besides the principal theatre, where Spaniards are the actors,
there are two native theatres, where plays are represented in the
Tagalog language, and written to suit their ideas of the drama; the
subjects represented being principally tragedies connected with their
historical traditions, and of their fathers' earliest connections
with their European conquerors.

But their mode of representing these subjects is scarcely suitable
to any one's taste but their own, as the amount of vociferation,
and drawling singing of the women who