To help the development of the place, he purchased two adjacent building lots and on the tract of land so secured built a handsome and expensive home, where he subsequently entertained not only his personal friends, but guests of the government, as well as various persons who had no other claim on him than the fact that they were officers or employees of the government who were in need of a change of climate and could ill afford to seek it at their own expense.  Among his house guests were General Aguinaldo, Speaker Osmena and many other Filipinos.  It was Mr. Forbes’s idea, and mine as well, that members of the commission ought to set the example by building at Baguio.  I followed his example to the extent of buying a lot and constructing on it a simple and inexpensive house, thus obtaining the first and only home that I have ever owned.

Ultimately Mr. Forbes formulated a plan for the construction of a group of government buildings, a mess hall and a large number of small and inexpensive cottages for rental to government officers and employees so that the executive offices of the government might be transferred to Baguio during the heated term and it might become the true summer capital of the Philippines.  This plan was adopted in substance, and it was decided to transfer the bureaus of the government to Baguio for the coming hot season, so far as practicable.

Funds were appropriated for the carrying out of Mr. Forbes’s plan, but before the construction work had fairly begun there occurred, on October 17, 1909, a destructive typhoon.  Eighteen inches of rain fell in nine hours, and twenty-six inches in twenty-four hours.  The Bued River quickly rose fifty feet, carrying away trees and rocks which obstructed its course, and seriously injuring the road for miles.  Four of the largest bridges were swept away and the work of constructing government buildings, which was just about to begin, was greatly retarded.  It was not thought possible to transfer the bureaus of the government to Baguio for the coming hot season as planned.  Indeed, there were not lacking those who insisted that no one would be able to get there.  Mr. Haube, the energetic and capable young engineer in charge, had the road open on the twentieth day of December, and the projected buildings ready for occupancy in February, a noteworthy and highly creditable achievement.

It was then thought that the storm which had done such serious damage to the road was of unprecedented violence, but there was worse to come.  On July 14 and 15, 1911, a terrific typhoon swept across northern Luzon, bringing down one of the world’s record rainfalls.  Between noon of the 14th and noon of the 15th, forty-five and ninety-nine hundredths inches of rain fell at Baguio.  A mountain forming a part of the wall of the Bued canon split from the top and the detached portion toppled over into the river, damming it to a depth of about a hundred and fifty feet at a time when it was carrying an enormous