ne
place, a fierce tropical storm wrecked it at another, while careless
Moro trench diggers bruised it with stones at a third, which meant
many extra days of work for the Signal Corps at each of these places,
and for us idle ones a continuation of pleasant experiences, the
whole trip taking in all three and a half months.

Three and a half months of ideal summer weather from the last of
December to the middle of April, and real summer weather at that,
not the sham midwinter summer of the tourist who has his photograph
taken attired in flannels and standing under a palm-tree in California,
Florida, or the Mediterranean, only to shiveringly resume his normal
attire as soon as possible. The Philippine winter climate is quite
different, what some one has defined as the climate of heaven, warmth
without heat and coolness without cold, when men sport linen or khaki
continuously, and women wear lawns and organdies throughout the season,
with a light wrap added thereto at night--if it chances to be becoming.

In a few years it will be to these southern seas that the millionaire
brings his yacht for a winter cruise; it will be in these forests
that he hunts for wild boar and deer, or shoots woodcock, duck,
snipe, pigeons, and pheasants; in these waters that he fishes
for the iridescent silver beauties that here abound. It will be
on these sunlit shores invalids seeking health will find it, and
here that huge sanitariums should be built, for despite the tales of
pessimistic travellers, no lovelier climate exists than can be found
in Philippine coast towns from the middle of November until the last
of March. After that it becomes unbearably hot, and then one is in
danger of all kinds of fevers or digestive troubles, and should,
if possible, go to Japan to get cooled off.

Of course, even during the Garden-of-Eden months, one must take the
same care of himself that he would in any country, and most of the
travellers who write against the Philippine climate have, according
to their own statements, lived most unhealthfully as regarded diet,
shelter, exposure, and the like. During the hot season itself one
can get along very comfortably in the Philippines, if he makes it a
rule to live just as he would at home, only at half speed, if I may
so express it.

But aside from its possibilities for the leisure class, what a world
of interest the Philippines has in store for us from a governmental
and commercial standpoint! What a treasu