Beautiful Philippines: A Handbook of General Information — John Shaqi
Beautiful Philippines: A Handbook of General InformationPhilippine Islands. Commission of Independence
History
Beautiful Philippines: A Handbook of General Information
Philippine Islands. Commission of Independence
Philippines -- Description and travel; Philippines -- Economic conditions
Among the most notable monuments are the Rizal monument in the Luneta;
the Legaspi and Urdaneta monument near the Manila Hotel; the Anda
monument at the foot of the Malecon Drive; the Magallanes monument
near the Treasury building; the Statue of Elcano in the Ayuntamiento;
the Statue of Benavides at Plaza of Sto. Tomas; and that of Charles IV
at Plaza McKinley, and Queen Isabela II in Malate. The finest of the
recent ones, are the monument of Balintawak, a short distance out,
to commemorate the first cry of the revolution, and the monument to
the Katipunan and the Liga Filipina at Raxa Matanda, Tondo.
LIFE IN MANILA.--In Manila is felt the pulse of the world's
activity--the currents of political, commercial, and intellectual
thought of the world--more keenly than in New York or London. The
reason is simple. Each man here is an individual machine; in the larger
cities he is a cog. The elements of absolute economic dependence
being absent, the inhabitants are forced into contact with many
nations, together with all the social and economic relations which
that contact entails. In the press Manila is not overwhelmed with a
mass of unimportant news. The immensity of non-essential topics of
no general interest is spared the residents. Only the essential and
all the essential reaches them. Their horizon is not bounded by 42nd
Street nor by neighbor Peet's farm. One of the many reasons for the
happier life in Manila than in other cities of the world, so far at
least as foreigners are concerned, is the natural selection of the fit
and strong, which is invariably taking place. There are no crippled
and weak, no poor nor invalid people in Manila to pester you. They do
not come--they seldom dare. Only those looking for adventure, those
fitted to care for themselves, those determined to survive that come
to make this part of the world his temporary or permanent abode.
[No Vexing Conventionalities]
The conventionalities and prescribed forms of daily living are
absent. There is no Madam Gruncy to hector, there are no rules
of the elite class or the would-be Four Hundred. You come and
go unquestioned. You have absolute sovereignty over your own
affairs. There are no neighbors to tell the foreigner what to think
or how to vote. Neither a Democrat nor a Republican is disgraced for
being so. A society of men and women from all corners of the globe
accord respect to your judgment. Not living in San Francisco you are
not disturbed by its claims of superiority to Seattle or New York.
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