the waist and the surplus part
knotted and tucked with the thumb under the part already wrapped
around the body. The long, black, glossy hair of the young women hung
loosely down their backs, in many cases reaching below the hips--heads
of hair that almost any lady would be proud to own. Many of the women
had in their mouths long poorly-made cigars that were wrapped and tied
with small white threads to hold them together while the lady owners
chewed and pulled away with vigor at the end opposite the fire.

The time of our landing was in the midst of the rainy season, and our
clothing each morning when we arose to dress was as wet as if it had
just come from a wringer. Our underclothing could be drawn on only
with difficulty and the excessive disagreeableness of the feeling
added no little to the discomfort of the situation.

When the Spaniard, attracted by riches of these distant islands that
he had named for his King Philip, built the city of Manila, he modeled
it after the mediaeval towns of his European home. And it is well that
he did so, for, if we give credence to the city's history, its early
life was not one of undisturbed quiet. Not to mention the sea-rovers
of those early times who paid their piratical respects to the town,
legend has it that this old wall has saved the city on two separate
occasions from bands of Moros sweeping northward from the southern
islands. So Manila consists of two parts, the city "intra muros" and
the new city which has sprung up around it.

It was on the morning following our landing that I first stood upon
the old stone bridge that for one hundred and fifty years has borne
the traffic between the old city and the new. The strokes of eight
o'clock were pealing forth from the tower of a neighboring _ecclesia_
when I purposely took this station that I might see the current of
Manila's life when flowing at its height.

At short intervals along the entire length of the bridge stood in its
center a line of well-shaped American policemen in neat _Khaki_
uniforms and russet leather leggins. Thousands of pedestrians were
pouring across the bridge in a ceaseless stream. Between the two lines
of pedestrians moved in opposite directions two lines of vehicles and
carts. It was indeed a cosmopolitan mixture of people. There were
English bankers, French jewelers, German chemists, Spanish merchants,
foreign consuls, officers and privates of the American army, seamen
from foreign warships lyin