ties. How excitedly
they talked and gesticulated over the elevated railways and cable-cars;
the height of the buildings; the suspension bridges; the magnificent
private residences, which at first it was hard to convince them were
not in reality hotels; the theatres, parks, and churches, though they
shook their heads sadly at so many of Protestant denomination. When,
however, they were told how many Catholic churches were in New York
alone, they regained their lost interest, and grew more enthusiastic
than ever, while the English-speaking padre, in his excitement, fairly
screamed his uncertain vocabulary in our direction, though when he
addressed his confreres in Spanish his voice was of normal register.

A few days later, as an evidence of their enjoyment aboard ship, the
padres sent each of us a silver medal of the Santo Nino and a history
of the image written in Spanish, _con superior permiso_; a lithographic
picture of the Holy Child in its shrine, giving but a faint idea of
its appearance; and a queer stone jar, the shape, if not the size
of those in which the forty thieves were hidden. These jars were
full of those delicious pastry cakes already mentioned, _ojaldres_,
they are called, made by the sisters of the Convento Maria Natividad
de Albero. Rich the cookies were, and crisp, fairly melting on the
tongue, but each one, wrapped in its protecting bit of tissue-paper,
was "a gastronomic delusion and a dyspeptic snare," to be treated as
were the forty thieves themselves by the implacable Ali Baba.

It is not at all impossible that some of our distaste for Cebu arose
from the fact that, on the several occasions of our visits there,
we were coaling, a circumstance which would detract from the Pearly
City itself. No sooner were we at anchor than huge _cascos_ came
alongside and the coaling would begin.

Inky black shapes flitted back and forth through great clouds of dust,
each carrying a basket on its head. Hoarse commands were shouted,
demoniacal voices answered somewhere from the pit, and then would
come a period of comparative quiet, followed by what seemed to be
a burst of frenzied rage from the different lighters, though in
reality I believe the natives were on the best of terms, and were
just inviting each other to dinner. This state of affairs continued
without intermission for eight days on each of our several visits
there. For eight days the soot fell alike on the quarter-deck and the
forecastle. The ship