If one had occasion to be out on foot at night,
it was wise to keep in the middle of the street and still wiser to
carry a raised umbrella.
Immediately after the American occupation some five hundred barrels
of caked excrement were taken from a single tower in one of the old
Manila monasteries. The moat around the city wall, and the _esteros_,
or tidal creeks, reeked with filth, and the smells which assailed
one's nostrils, especially, at night, were disgusting.
Distilled water was not to be had for drinking purposes. The
city water supply came from the Mariquina River, and some fifteen
thousand Filipinos lived on or near the banks of that stream above the
intake. The water was often so thick with sediment that one could not
see through a glass of it, and it was out of the question to attempt
to get it boiled unless one had facilities of one's own.
Conditions in the provinces were proportionately worse. As a rule,
there was no evidence of any effort to put provincial towns into
decent sanitary conditions. I must, however, note one striking
exception. Brigadier General Juan Arolas, long the governor of Jolo,
had a thorough knowledge of modern sanitary methods and a keen
appreciation of the benefits derivable from their application.
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