Manilan does not walk, so the broad drive was filled with
several rows of carriages passing slowly around the oval. To-day the
Luneta remains as it was in the old Spanish days, but its chief charm,
the seaward view, is gone. This is due to the filling in of the harbor
front, which has left the Luneta a quarter of a mile from the
water-front. However, a new Luneta has been made below the old one, and
the broad avenues opened up near by give far more space for carriages
than before. Every evening except Monday the Constabulary Band plays on
the Luneta, and the scene is almost as brilliant as in the old days, as
the American Government officials make it a point to turn out in
uniform. Nothing can be imagined more perfect than the evenings in
Manila after the heat of the day. The air is deliciously soft and a
gentle breeze from the ocean tempers the heat.

The best way to see the native life of Manila is to take a street-car
ride through the Tondo and Caloocan districts, or a launch ride up the
Pasig river. On the cars one passes through the heart of the business
district, the great Tondo market, filled with supplies from the
surrounding country as well as many small articles of native or foreign
manufacture. This car line also passes the Maypajo, the largest cockpit
in the world, where at regular intervals the best fighting cocks are
pitted against each other and the betting is as spirited as on American
race tracks in the old days. On the return trip by these cars one passes
by the San Juan bridge, which marked the opening of the insurrection;
the old Malacanan Palace, now the residence of Governor-General Forbes,
and the Paco Cemetery, where several thousand bodies are buried in the
great circular wall which surrounds the church. These niches in the wall
are rented for a certain yearly sum, and in the old Spanish days, when
this rental was not promptly paid by relatives, the corpse was removed
and thrown with others into a great pit. Recently this ghastly practice
has been frowned on by the authorities.

The average Manila resident does not pay more than fifty dollars in our
money for his nipa house. The framework is of bamboo, bound together by
rattan; the roof timbers are of bamboo, while the sides of the house and
the thatch are made from the nipa tree. The sides look like mats. The
windows are of translucent shell, while the door is of nipa or wood.
These houses are usually about fifteen feet square, with one large