we happened to be there when a fire started in the Trozo dis- ^ *X 

 trict. Its Philippine population lives in nipa palm and bamboo 

 shacks. A strong wind was blowing and in less than an hour 

 about a square mile of them along the cholera detention 

 camps was destroyed. We happened to be the first white men 

 on the scene, for we ran down into the district as soon as the 

 fire started, and it kept us busy hustling the natives along. 

 During the excitement we managed to cut a good many 

 horses loose, carried a paralytic to a safe distance, helped carry 

 trunks, etc. until I thought I was dead, though Dr McCoy 

 kept it up beautifully. The most precious possessions of the 

 average Filipino are his fighting cocks and we ran across many 

 an hombre carefully tying his roosters together by the feet 

 while his wife struggled with the wooden chest in which the 

 family valuables are kept. San Lazaro Hospital was almost 

 burned but a fortunate change in the wind saved it. 



As recreation, and partly for the excitement, I have visited 

 several seditious Philippine Teatros with Mr Harvey, the 

 attorney general to the Constabulary (with whom we live). 

 The plays are in Tagalog but are not hard to understand. The 

 Catapman Society, organized against the Spanish Govern- 

 ment is still active against the Americans whom they consider 

 traitors (perhaps not altogether wrongly). It is continually 

 engaged in stirring up the ignorant natives against the Insular 

 Government; and Manila is its headquarters. In one play 

 entitled, Let the Traitor be Buried Alive, the events were 

 supposedly enacted between the Filipinos and Spaniards but 

 they introduced an Americano who was the most ridiculous 

 character imaginable. In the end the ladron with the national 

 red trousers buried the Americano alive, head first, and 

 stamped the ground down hard — just as the Sun of Philip- 

 pine independence rose in its glory from behind the three 

 sacred mountains and the Aguinaldo march was played. A 

 ban has been placed on such plays by order of Gov Taft. — I 

 enclose the program of another play we visited the next night. 

 This was a strictly first-class performance. The better natives 

 prefer American protection but the ladron element is still 

 strong and it requires constant vigilance on the part of the 

 authorities to head off conspiracies, etc. A general massacre 

 was planned for the 1 5 th of this month but nothing came of 



