Last night was the evening of the reception given by the Manila teachers. We had arranged a farewell meeting of the Metaphysical Society so we had Mr. Atkinson’s private office all to ourselves. We were all there but Mr. Rievelly and [portion excised] there is any virtue in keeping one’s stomach busy to distract its attention from its woes, I fulfilled conditions yesterday. We could not stand the hinkle so we went to a place in the walled city. After lunch we had a long talk with our chief about conditions in Negros. He evidently is going to play us as social cards and Peggy anf I are not going to undeceive him. Then we had two ice creams on the Escolta, some sweet chocolate and in the evening sandwiches and lemonade and ice cream and cake. Let us hope that I shall live through this day. We had a native band to play for the dancing last night. It succeeded in making a lot of “noise” but not much music. Peg and [portion excised] stumped me to jump out the window and let Mr. Delano catch me so of course I did. Poor, dear Mr. Squier will be giving me a motherly word of warning soon.
I have had a rather good time watching our future pupils on our drives through the native villages. They live in nipa huts. Pigs and game cocks undernearth and about sixteen people in a room overhead. The small children wear a shirt which they frequently forget to button down the front and it is quite as cool as nothing. The women wear the camisa of abaca and several straight piece of cloth wound around them.
I have just been talking to two little Filipino girls who are selling peanuts. They are so cunning with their black eyes and brown skins. All the Filipinos love color orange seems to be the pet color. They are very clean about their persons even though they live like pigs. One of the most common sights on the Pasig is a set of women standing in the water beating their clothes on a rock, while around them their children and the carabaos take their daily baths together.
Most of the the teachers in the Thomas crowd seem to have succumbed to high living and the report on the sick list from every room is “extreme cramps.” I think Peggy and I must be thoroughly so acclimated. since we are two ice creams in the afternoon four sandwiches and lemonade in the evening and more at. I have just put a girl in my room to bed and I hope I shall not have to get up with her tonight. Most of them are scared but one or two are really ill.