The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 28, 1904, Page 11

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. - 11 ";\-\P-No EDU DD o NG REPRO Scwo DU BY ROBERTUS LOVE. r. LOUIS, Fet —Perhaps the n novel sight to be seen in s these midwinter days is ve Filipino ca at work in building at World's Fair at St The w carpenter suggests ar v, & and plane uses none of v his bolo—which facetiously term a corn- complete houses, € itions and all s one other tool that he uses t is a small ham- ush home his hand ructs »ors, P to now watch the half at the World's their part of the the scores of house the Filipino neluding the 1500 Filipino na- brought over for A number of the buiit entirely by the others they furnish of nipa leaves and bam- ork. The Filipino build- covering a tract of forty acres, re more than three-fourths completed. Months ago many carloads of bam- boo and nipa from the Philippine Islands were delivered on the ground. Then the brownie got out his bolo and sct to work. It was merely necessary actin will hat exposition period houses are being pincs, wh the attice e for SATIONA L AN A NORMAL - AT TREvoriosSE CTION FAauRL Yor him to yank his bolo from its sheath or scabbard, which he wears belted to his waist as an American army offi- cer wears his sword. A Filipino with- out this bolo scabbard at his waist would feel like a Missouri River cat- fish in the Sahara Desert. This short, thick, sharp knife is his constant com- panion. Its blade is about ten inches long and has two edges. Sometimes the hilt is handsomely carved, for the Filipino takes as much pride in his bolo as does the Mexican in his sembrero. The bolo is the Filipino's badge of citizenship. Long trunks of bamboo trees lle in stacks on the ground. They are slim poles, jointed here and there, some thick enough to make 'stout supports, others so thin that they are easily pli- able and can be bent and tied into TR_\CUL.T\JFEE HONIPs FRAsSSs. AT THE WORLD'S Fas BLILBING, MNaTiy e knots. Our Filipino carpenter squats him- self upon the ground, with a padded plank under him these chilly days. He selects from the pile a bamboo pole and gets to work with his bolo. Dili- gently he scrapes and shaves, turn- ing out curling shavings that in his own land he would use for the mak- ing of mattresses. With tedious care he continues scraping and shaving with his sharp knife until the bamboo is re- duced to a strip which bends double under its own weight when lifted by one end or the middle. - Thus treated, the strip is used for weaving in the basic plan of the roof. A lattice of these strips is laild on the unshaven bamboo poles as supports, the poles’ themselves being fastened to the sills and comb by strings made of a na- s L ON T HAATOHMEDS COMNMSTRUC T, tive grass or rattan cord. As a mat- ter of fact, these poles are sewed down, the needle being made out of a plece of bamboo. In some instances the bam- boo “nail” s used, being driven into a hole cut in the bamboo pole. The lattice work completed, then comes the nipa. The Filipino puts on layer after layer of these broad, tough leaves, similar to the palm from which fans are made. With his hand-made needle and his natural thread—some- times it also s hand made, being shaved down from bamboo strips—he sews the thick thatch securely together. Does it turn water? Shingle roofs sometimes leak; the nipa roof never, provided it is properly put on, after the most approved manner of the Fili- pino carpenter. It is rather slow work, but -it.is sure. The na- FIL\P \NO SOYvERNMENT tive stands on scaffolding made entirely of bamboo, tied with bamboo strings. If he happens to tear his trousers he patches'the garment with his bamboo needle and bamboo thread. Nature is kind to the Filipino. What more could any man ask than his house building material, his furniture stock and his clothes repairing apparatus right at his elbow? During the snow blizzard in latter January the Filipinos at the world's fair kept indoors most of the time. Some of them were very much alarmed because the snow continued to fall for nearly two days. They were afraid that they would be snowed in so that communication with the city and nec- essary supplies would be cut off. But ag the islanders never saw any snoy until they came to St. Louls their fears can be forgiven them. One of the large buildings already completed on the Filipino tract is the grand restaurant. In front of this building a Filipino band of forty pieces will play during the fair. The roof is of bamboo and nipa. The interior finish is in native Filiplno woods, some of “ them of extreme hardness and splendid gloss. The “Intramuros,” or walled oity of old Manila, accurately reproduced,.is also completed. Visitors entering the Filipino reservation from the main part of the exposition will cross a heavy, solid-looking bridge that spans the Laguna de Bay. This is reproduced from the celebrated Puente de Espana, crossing the Pasig River at Manila. The substantial masonry Is excellently counterfeited in staff and wood. There are two other bridges across the Laguna de Bay, built of bamboo. In the waters near by are little huts made entirely of native materlals, thatched with nipa grass, both roof and side walls. In the trees not far away are queer-looking houses, where the tree-dwelling Filipino will have his 29y 1p-ae B habitat. The walled city is 250x350 feet in di- mension. The agriculture building, in which will be a wonderfal display of resources of the island soil, is 200 feet long and 75 feet wide. The forestry of the Philippines—wonderful mahoganies, tough banava and manave and many other woods of high commercial value —will be shown in a building 150x100 feet. Ethnology has a structure 150x75 feet. Education occupies a building 150x50 feet. The Filipino Government building is 150x100 feet, and the native dwellings about the central plaza oc- cupy 100x100 feet. There is to be a mar- ketplace, where the natives will buy their provisions, sell their wares, loaf and swap jokes, just as they do at home. Every tribe will be represented. house. ' GIRL FROM & | ¥ THE EAST By Marjorie A. Barkley L (Copyright, 1904, by T. C. McClure.) HERE was excitement among the young officers at Fort Wayne when Hicks, the little corporal who wcre his cap on the side of his head. spread the report that the girl from the East had come and had been escorted to Colonel Klein's During that first day there was an unusual amount of promenading in Officers’ Row. Lieutenants, sergeants and even corporals found time to walk, in approved military style, past the colonel’'s quarters, and there was one who showed signs neither of excitement nor interest. It was Captain Roberts. He told his friend, a first lieutenant. that he wouldn't go around the corner to see twenty girls; whereat the lieu- tenant grunted and said sométhing about behavior in the Philippines, add- ing with frank sarcasm, “You're a peach, you are, to pose as a woman hater after. cutting me out with the lit- tle senorita so clean that every fellow in the regiment was afraid to have you see his girl. I know you all right, old pal, and I'll bet with the rest that you take your little stroll in the row on the heels of some big-headed corporal. I passed the house, myself,” he owned boldly, “and I sa her, too. She's a regular beaut, Dick. But even his beSt friend failed to awaken the interest of the captain. He went so far as to get into citizen's clothes that same afternoon and leave the fort for a walk in the river road. This, by the critical corporals, was con- sidered stuck up. When the captain reached a sandy strip of beach a mile or more from the fort he stretched out at full length and gazed at the water where freight and passenger steamers passed on their routes to the Great Lakes. His thoughts, whether they were on commerce or navigation, were profound indeed, for he started ‘when he heard the rush of a woman’s skirts and saw from the corner of his eye that a girl was approaching. - He moved a little, but did not look in her direction until the girl stopped and said softly, “I beg your pardon, but isn’t this—it is! Dick, I knew it was you Captain Roberts sprang to his feet and looked into the girl's flushed face. “jt's Margaret, Dick,” she said. “Peggy. Roberts took the hand she offered. «peggy,” he sald wonderingly. “Peggy, you take my breath away. Where did you come from?” “I'm staying at Colonel Klein's, but where did you come from?” “You, at the fort?” he asked incredu- lously. “That's where I live. Sit down here on this rock. Peggy, Peggy Adams, do you realize how you have surprised me? When did you strike these parts?” “This morning.” “No! Then you're the girl from the East? They've been talking about you for weeks, “How lovel of them—and you “Why, I'm up there, too.” “Those clothes?” she said doubtfully. “Are ‘cits,’” he finished smiling. “I wear a uniform up there.” “Oh! And what are rank?” “Captain,” he said briefly. how you have grown up.” “Have 17" she laughed. “And so have you, about two feet higher; and you went to West Point after all?” “Yes, father insisted.” “Do you like the army? “Oh, yes, when we see active service.” “Then you have seen active service. In the Spanish-American war? Oh, tell me about it.” Roberts laughed. “T will some time,” he said. “I will tell you anything you ask, but let's talk about you mnow. Where have you been all these years? “School and college—and around at you—what “Peggy, place “That means traveling, I suppose, yet you never visited West Point?"” “Never. I didn’t know that you were there, that you had gone back. You know you sald—" “Yes, I said several things about that time. You haven’t forgotten then?” “Forgotten? Oh, Dick, I couldn’t for- get. Never. Wasn't it dreadful?” “It was rather a bad mess, but we— at least I—showed remarkably good taste, though you weren't as beautiful then as you are now.” “I can’t snub ycu for that,” the girl said with carefully lowered lashes. “It sounds genuine. You always were thor- oughly genuine, Dick.” “Yes, I was in earnest then,” he said smiling. “You were my first sweet- heart.” He laughed aloud. “My, how you cried when the minister refused to marry us. I flattered myself that you were disappointed; but it really was your pride, you poor little girl.” He regarded the poor little girl's Plushing face with tender affection. “I think that the old minister was the sweetest man I ever met. He knew that we were eloping. How gentle he ‘was and tactful. I have always thought of him with thankfulness akin to love.” “I thought he was a regular old “my high-heeled boots?"” -+ donkey, but it appears that I am the only one who was in real earnest,” he said tentatively. Peggy laughed. “Do you remem she asked, noring his remark. “Oh! dgn't I, though You tripped and I had the delirious j f catching you in my arms. But do 2 remembe how I saved money”? I'v red ov my wiliness more than onc ou know A BUILDING, REPRODUCTION ©OF AYUNTAMIENTS o MANILA a7 THE “WWORLD’S FAlRL I had only $25 to my name, and I said that carriages were too slow and that we would much better take a car. “I had forgotten that,” Peggy said. “but I remember how fighting mad you were when papa rushed in. You stooc¢ between him and me and sald, ‘S your daughter has consented to becon my wife?” Oh, Dick, wasn't it fun “Yes,” he sald slow ometimes it seems funny to me and sometimes it seems strangely tragic. That we were such babies is the only saving fact. Poor kids.” He sighed and turned his eyes from the girl's face. “I suppose you're engaged now?” he sald. “No.” “How does that happen?” 2 She shook her head. “And you™ she said. “Engaged? No, indeed. I never saw but one lovable girl in my life.” “And she wouldn't marry you?"” “She wouldn't. There will never be another. I lost track of her.” “But you didn’t forget her?" the girl asked softly. “I never forgot her for a minute. But it’s too late to find her now. She does- n't care for me anyway."” “Oh, Dick, don’t say that. Any girl ought to care for you. Just the fact that you stay true to one woman should be enough. Don’t give up and spoil it.” “Will you give me a recommenda< tion?” he asked smiling. “Say that none of my relatives were hanged, oz something like that?” “I could say much better things. I% is beautiful that you want to find her, I like it, Dick. And I think the girl will like it."” Roberts looked deep but he saw no self-consciousness. He forgot what he had read many times, that women are clever actresses. “Your advice may be good,” he sald after a few moments of silence, “bus what would you have sald yourself, Peggy, it I had hunted you up and had s into her eyes, told you about caring for you? The girl is very much like you. What would you have said?” “Oh, that's silly, Dick,” she sald quickly. “You know you wouldn't.”™ She looked past Roberts and frowned uneasily. “It's going to rain,” she mur< mured, “and I'm cold.” “Oh, I suppose so,” Dick sald gloom« ily. “She’d say that, too. That's why ¥ didn’t hunt her up.” “But it's going to rain. There I felf a drop, Dick.” Roberts rose quickly and looked to- ward the fort. “By jove, it is, Peggy. I didn’t nqtice those clouds. Here comes the nd. We'll have to stand under those s till it blows over. I'm mighty sOrry that I didn’t notice it.” He slipped off his coat and wrapped it about the girl's shoulders. “Oh, don't, Dick,” she protested. “Please. You know girls don’t take cold as easily as men. They're used to exposure.” They ran to a clump of trees and Roberts made the girl kneel by a low stone wall that ran at the side of the road. “Dick, I don’t there in the rain. coat.” He smiled down at her. “What a foolish little girl it is,” he said. “But I'll kneel beside you if you think it's safe.” She raised her questioning eyes to his. “I wish you would,” she said. “T don't like to have you take such a terrible isk, and just to protect me whe: can keep dry in this corner as well as not.” Roberts dropped to leaned against the wall “Peggy.,” he said, “ ‘Just to protect you’ I would give my life. Didn't you know that, dear?” There was tender- ness in his tone, and conviction. He spoke not passionately, but truly. Peggy locked her hands tightly to- gether and her lips quivered. It seemed a long time before she could raise her eyes. Then she met the earnest ques- tioning gaze of the man. “You may,” she said simply. ycu may.” The rain had ceased and the clouds had hurried on their way toward the east when Peggy and Captain Roberts entered the reservation and were met by the jovial colonel. “Well,” he said heartily. “Peggy, I've had a searching party out for you, but T just heard that you two were coming up the river road. This looks bad, bad. Why, we began to think that you and the captain, here, had eloped.” Peggy flushed and glanced at the younger man. Then she smiled at the colonel. “We did,” she sald demurely, “six years ago.” want you to stand Pleass take your his knees and “Dick,