Alice in Asia: The 1905 Taft Mission to Asia, Philippines

Philippines

August 1-5: Nagasaki to Manila

August 5-13: Manila

“At last we reached Manila. We were met by Governor Wright and his daughter, with whom we were to stay, and drove up with them to Malacafian Palace, in victorias drawn by scuttling native ponies. After all my youthful wishes to live at Malacafian, I found it a little disappointing. It did not have for me the charm of the Spanish-American houses—the huge sombre palace in Havana and the Fortaleza in San Juan, though I liked my big, cool, dim lit room, where lizards of all sizes and shapes rustled about the walls and ceilings and the galleries looking out on the Passig River. Then began a continuous activity of entertainment and sight-seeing; an official reception at the Government Building; a parade in which 10,000 passed the reviewing stand—troops, organizations, floats with scenes representing native industries; many other receptions, and dances, at some of which I wore the charming mestizo, costume and danced the rigadon. As I remember it, the rigadon was a sort of lancers or quadrille. Secretary Taft, very light on his feet, danced in it, too. We went to Cavite, and on trips to nearby places. Though it was the hottest period of the tropic summer, we were up and out and doing even in the noon heat when all sensible residents of the tropics were taking their siestas. And hot it was. At the reception at Malacanan, I stood for hours with the Wrights and Mr. Taft, all of us literally dripping, while we shook hands with the hundreds of guests.”

“The Filipinos seemed united in their pleasure at seeing again the Secretary of War, their ex-Governor-General. He was greeted by everyone on all sides with extraordinary enthusiasm and affection and they laid themselves out to entertain him and his party. No one could have helped responding to their courtesy and hospitality.”

August 11: Visit to Bacoor & Cavite

August 12: Train to Malolos

August 13: Depart from Manila on ship Logan through the islands

“After perhaps a week or ten days in Manila, we all embarked on a transport for a tour of the islands. The party was augmented by many of the Manila officials, and their families, among others Ann and Marjorie Ide, the daughters of the Vice-Governor. Those two were romantic figures. Both extraordinarily good looking, their early childhood had been spent in Samoa, and they had come to Manila soon after we occupied the Philippines, “in the days of the Empire.” Ann was the child to whom Robert Louis Stevenson gave his birthday, as hers was on Christmas Day, so she got only one set of presents. They were amazingly pretty girls, with a train of admirers in tow. We went from island to island, landing, meeting the Governor of the Province and the Mayor of the town.”

“There was always a “banquet” at which there were speeches—the long-drawn, same, inevitable speeches. After the first few occasions of this sort, I began to get frightfully bored. The local head official would speak in Spanish; Mr. Ferguson, the interpreter, would bellow it paragraph by paragraph in English. Mr. Taft would reply in English and the interpreter would repeat his performance, this time in Spanish. He always stood directly back of and between Mr. Taft and me, and my eardrums ached. Most of the food on these occasions came from Manila and, as cold-storage facilities were meagre, it was usually in a state of melt and trickle; and the ants would get wind of it. I would see an investigating ant and would then arrange a trail of moist “dulces,” to point the way to the feast. That was one of the things Mr. Taft remonstrated with me about. He did not want the feelings of our hosts to be hurt. Neither did I, so that diversion had to cease. A plaint of his from time to time, was, “Alice, I think I ought to know if you are engaged to Nick, to which my reply was, “More or less, Mr. Secretary, more or less”; and that ended that.”

August 14: Iloilo

August 15: Parro, Molo

August 16: Bacolod

August 17: Zamboanga

August 18: Jolo

“When we got to Jolo, the whole day was sheer comic opera, too like George Ade’s musical comedy, “The Sultan of Sulu,” to be real; Mr. Taft, enormous in white duck; General Corbin, looking curiously like the Colonel in the show; I, the leading lady in bright red linen dress decorated with white shamrocks outlined with black, and a red parasol and hat. The rest of the party were well in the role too; the Congressmen and their wives; the Army and Navy officers; the two Ide sisters, Juliette Williams and others, quite as pretty as any chorus girls.”

“Mr. Taft and I leading, the party marched up the little wharf between rows of native constabulary in trig uniforms, though barefooted, to be met and greeted by an assorted collection of Datos and tribesmen, among them the Sultan of Sulu. The Sultan and the other Moro chieftains, wiry, savage looking, little Malays, were in their best costumes; jackets seeded with pearls or beads, silk shirts of crude colors fastened at the neck with jewelled pins in gold settings; trousers of striped or slashed silk held on around the waist by heavy silk sashes, through which were stuck bolos with elaborate hilts; and of course turbans.”

“We were escorted to the parade grounds, to a rather shaky grandstand that looked as if it were made of bamboo, to look at native dances and sham battles and bull fights. For the bull “fights” two bulls or two carabaos, I should say domesticated and certainly reluctant, were led in by ropes attached to rings in their noses. They were hauled and pushed towards one another and after bumping heads for a moment would pull apart whereat their drivers would urge them together again. The Sultan presented me with a pearl ring, and he and some of the Datos gave me a loose pearl or two. I was also given a Bogobo, Moro costume, a really charming costume of skirt, little jacket, and a barrel-like girdle hung with bells. There were thousands of Moros from the neighboring islands as well as from Jolo. The palms and the ocean were like a drop scene. One felt as though a highly colored stage setting had suddenly become real.”

August 19: Celebes Sea (?)

August 20 – 21: Across Mindanao from Malabang to Camp Overton

“So far as I recollect we had only one day of good honest exercise uninterrupted by feasting and speeches during the entire southern trip. That was when we landed at Malabang and went up the trail to Lake Lanao to spend the night at Camp Keithly, and drop down to Camp Overton the following morning. It was my first opportunity to use the side-saddle, only to find that the girths would not fit any of the animals provided; so there and then it was discarded, and I rode the trail on an Army saddle, my habit very much in the way. After that I always rode cross saddles. Quite a number of us rode; others, including the Secretary, were shaken to pieces in Army wagons. I do not see how Mr. Taft endured it. He was so heavy, and must have been so hot and uncomfortable. But he never lost his smile and his good humor.”

August 22: Cebu

August 24: Tacloban

August 25: Legazpi

August 26: Sorsogon

August 27-29: Sail back to Manila

August 30: Manila

“Before leaving the Philippines, we returned to Manila for a few days of good-by parties. That time we stayed with Commissioner Lagardo. I had a great big room, in one corner of which a little staircase led down most unexpectedly through a square hole in the floor. Out of that opening at odd hours of the day and night, small Filipino heads would suddenly pop up like prairie dogs, look at me with much interest and then disappear again.”

August 31 – September 2: Sail for Hong Kong