Among the lower classes there is no idea that a young girl can respect herself or take care of herself.  Girls are watched like prisoners, and are never allowed to stray out of the sight of some old woman.  It is almost impossible for an American woman to obtain a young girl to train as a servant, because, as they say, we do not watch them properly.  This jealous watching of a child’s virtue is not, however, always inspired by the love of purity.  Too frequently the motive is that the girl may bring a higher price when she reaches a marriageable age, or when she enters into one of those unsanctified alliances with some one who will support her.  Filipino men are merciless in their attitude toward young lower-class girls, not hesitating to insult or annoy them in the most shameless way.  I once forced a little maid of mine to wear the regular maid’s dress of black, with muslin cap and apron, and she was certainly a joy to the eye; but one day I sent her out on an errand, and she came back almost hysterical under the torrent of ribald admiration which my thoughtlessness had brought upon her.  A seamstress will not remain alone in your house while you run into a neighbor’s on an errand without bolting herself in the room; and, if you are to be gone any length of time, she will not stay there at all, simply because she is afraid of your men servants—­and justly so.

However, in respect to such matters, things are changing fast.  The Filipinos who love us least, high or low, rich or poor, admit that the American idea of treating every self-respecting woman with respect is a good thing.  They remark frequently the difference between now and former times, and say, with admiration, that a woman can go past the cuartels or the fire stations, without encountering insult in the form of galanteria; and the electric street-car line, suspected at first, has gained the confidence of nearly all.  Many Filipino families of the upper class permit their daughters to go to and from the American schools on the trolley car, and it is no uncommon thing to see three or four youngsters, all under ten, climbing on and off with their books, asking for transfers, and enjoying their liberty, who ten years ago would have been huddled into a quilez and guarded by an elderly woman servant.

Lastly, a bill for female suffrage was introduced into the Philippine Assembly a few weeks ago.  It is one of those “best” things which Filipinos all want for their land.  The young man who introduced it had probably been reading about the female suffragist movement in England, and he said to himself that it would be a fine idea to show this dull old world how progressive and modern are the Philippine Islands; and so he drafted his bill.  Nothing seems to have been heard of it, and it was probably tabled, with much other progressive legislation, in the hurry of the last days of the session.  Another bill was one to put an annual license of one thousand pesos (five hundred gold dollars) on every minister of the gospel, Protestant or Catholic.  I suspect its parent of having been coached up on modern French thought.  However, that is not pertinent to the woman question.  What I desire to do is to give a correct impression of a country where real conditions are such as I have described them, and ideal conditions have advanced to the point of a bill for female suffrage.