The poor people have no way whatever of storing rain-water, and either beg a few quarts each day from the rich people to whom they are feudally attached, or else they fall back upon the ground wells, or pozos, which, even they know, breed fevers and dysentery.

By no means every house has its well.  Sometimes there are only two or three to a block.  Sometimes the well is merely a shallow hole, uncemented, to catch the seepage of the upper strata.  Sometimes it is a very deep stone-walled cavity.  Rarely is there a pump or a windlass or any other fixed aid for raising the water.

When a fire starts, therefore, with such an inadequate water supply, nothing can be done except to tear down communicating houses or roofs.  Enterprising natives who live even at a considerable distance, usually mount their ridge-poles and wet down their roofs if they can get the water with which to do it.

In the immediate vicinity of the fire itself tumult reigns.  Filipino womankind, who are so alluringly feminine, are also femininely helpless in a crisis, and if there be no men around to direct and sustain them, often lose their heads entirely.  They give way to lamentations, gather up their babies, and flee to the homes of their nearest relatives.  Often they forget even their jewels and ready money, which are locked in a wardrobe.

Meanwhile, if there be men folks about, they make a more systematic effort to save things, and as all relatives and connections who are out of danger themselves rush in at the first alarm, quite a little may be rescued.  The things which are traditional with us as showing how people lose their heads at a fire are just as evident here as in our own land.  They throw dishes, glassware, and fine furniture out of the windows, and carry down iron pots and pillows.  The poor gather their little store of clothing in sheets, release the tethered goats, puppies, game-cocks, and monkeys, which are always abundant about their shacks, and toddle off with their doll trunks in their arms.  The sight is a pitiful one, especially when the old and decrepit, of which almost every house yields up one or more, are carried out in hammocks or chairs.  Yet in a few hours all will have found shelter with friends, and probably the suffering consequent upon a fire is less than in our own country, where people have more to lose and where the rigor of climate is a factor not to be overlooked.

There is very little use in combating fire under such circumstances, and perhaps long experience has contributed to the apathy with which such disasters are treated.  The American constabulary and military officials generally turn out their men, and lend every effort themselves to quell the flames.  Here and there individual Filipinos, such as governors or presidentes, who feel the pressure of official responsibility, display considerable activity; but, on the whole, the aristocratic, or governing, class rather demonstrates its weakness