orm, then three steps down into a room about twenty feet
square. There were two windows in this room with heavy gratings. We
used it as a store room for the medical supplies. Returning to the
platform, there were two heavy doors that swung in, we kept them
bolted with heavy wooden bolts; there were no locks on any doors. At
the foot of the steps was a long narrow room with one small window;
it was directly over the part where the animals were. The hall was
lighted with quite a handsome Venetian glass chandelier in which we
used candles. From this room we entered the large main room of the
house; the ceiling and side wall was covered with leather or oil
cloth held in place with large tacks; there were sliding windows on
two sides of the room which, when shoved back, opened the room so
completely as to give the effect of being out of doors; the front
windows looked out on the street, the side windows on the garden,
on many trees, cocoanut, chico, bamboo, and palm. There was a large
summer house in the center of the garden and the paths which led up
to it were bordered with empty beer bottles. The garden was enclosed
by a plastered wall about eight feet high, into the top of which were
inserted broken bottles and sharp irons to keep out intruders. The
house was covered with a sheet iron roof. The few dishes that we
found upon our occupation were of excellent china but the three
or four sideboards were quite inferior. The whole house was wired
for bells. This is true of many of the houses, indeed they are all
fashioned on one model, and all plain in finish, extra carving or fine
wood-work would only make more work for the busy little ants. Even
when furniture looked whole, we often found ourselves landed on the
floor; it was no uncommon thing for a chair to give way; it had been
honeycombed and was held together by the varnish alone.

My first evening in Jaro was one of great fear. We were told by a
priest that we were to be attacked and burned out. While sitting
at dinner I heard just behind me a fearful noise that sounded like
"Gluck-co-gluck-co." An American officer told me it was an alarm
clock, but as a matter of fact it was an immense lizard, an animal
for which I soon lost all antipathy, because of its appetite for the
numerous bugs that infest the islands. Unfortunately they have no
taste for the roaches, the finger-long roaches that crawl all over
the floor. Neither were they of assistance in exterminating the huge