Manila, being the metropolis, has its theatres, cinematograph shows, and music halls.  Nearly every year there is a season of Italian opera, in which the principals are very good, and the chorus, for obvious reasons, small and poor.  Most of the theatrical talent which wanders in and out comes from Australia.  One theatre, which American women do not patronize, keeps a sort of music-hall programme going all year.  There are many smaller theatres, where plays in the Tagalog language, the products of local talent, are presented.  I cannot say what is the trend of these at the present time, but seven years ago the plots nearly all embraced bad Spanish frailes who were pursuing innocent Filipino maidens, and who always came to an end worthy of their evil deeds.  The disposition to express racial and political hatreds in those plays was so strong that a friend in asking me to go naively pictured his conception of them in the invitation.  He said, “Let’s go over to the Filipino theatre and see them kill priests.”

Of course, there is no Puritan Sabbath in the Philippines.  Theatres, balls, and receptions are carried on without any observance of that day.  The Protestant churches make a valiant effort to keep a tight rein over their flocks, but with little success.  It cannot truthfully be said that most Americans here are either fond of church-going or fond of the church social, which, with its accompanying features of songs, recitations, and short addresses by prominent citizens, who were never designed by the Creator to speak in public, and its creature comforts of home-made cake and ice cream, has leaped the Pacific.

During my third year in Capiz a Baptist missionary arrived and took up his work.  He seemed to feel that he had a claim upon all Americans to rally to his support.  But, alas! they did not come up to his expectations.  Some were Roman Catholics; others, of whom I was one, had an affection for the more formal, punctilious service of the Church of England; and even two or three nonconformist teachers realized that a too open devotion to the missionary cause would hopelessly endanger their usefulness as teachers.

So the missionary carried on his services for nearly a year, and no single American appeared at them.  His congregation, which was largely recruited from the poorer classes, and which had been hoping for the social advantage which would be derived from the American alliance, naturally pressed the unfortunate missionary for a reason.  The sorely tried man spoke at last.  He said briefly that the Americans in Capiz were pagans.

On one occasion the missionary arranged a service for Thanksgiving morning and invited us personally.  Of course we all said that we should be glad to go.  But the astute padre of the Church Catholic was not going to have any such object lesson as that paraded before his flock.  He arranged for the singing of a Te Deum in honor of the day at half-past nine, just half an hour before the time set for the