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"Or Main Street in our own little home city," laughed Sergeant Terry quietly. Certainly the scene was entirely different from anything that the two young Army boys had ever seen before. They stood on the Escolta, which is the main business thoroughfare of New Manila, as that portion of the Philippine capital north of the little river is called.
Far over near the Escolta somebody shot at a vagrant dog lapping water from a little pool under one of the many hydrants. The soldier police essayed an arrest; the culprit broke and ran; the guard fired; a lot of coolies, taking alarm, fled jabbering to the river side. The natives, looking for trouble any moment, rushed to their homes.
During our stay at Manila, our time was occupied in seeing sights, shopping, riding, and amusing ourselves with gazing on the throng incessantly passing through the Escolta of the Binondo suburb, or more properly, the commercial town of Manila.
"Foreigners favor parley one American general and chiefs and officers dead." Santa Ana is a suburb of Manila. The Rosario and Escolta are the main business streets of the city. Apparently the Insurgents must have thought that colonels were as numerous in our army as in theirs, for they reported two thousand of them killed on February 6, 1899, and threw in one general for good measure.
Further up the Escolta, just around a slight bend, is the Oriente Hotel, the stopping place of Army officers and their families, of passing travelers and of civil employees of the government. At this point along the Escolta are the busiest marts of local trade.
On the broad veranda of the barracks, well out of the rain, lounged half a hundred of the men of the Thirty-fourth. A few of them were at tables writing home letters. "Did you give my regards to the Escolta, Sergeant?" called Private Kelly, from one of the groups. "I didn't forget you, Kelly," laughed Hal. "Get those picture post cards for me?" called Corporal Hyman.
Perhaps such suits are not quite so becoming as the trim, tailor-made suits in New York, but they are a lot more comfortable. A short distance from the Escolta, or chief business street, is one of the many markets of Manila. The whole space is laid off with rows of bamboo booths.
Without the walls nearly all the trade is carried on, the Escolta and Rosario, on that side of the river, being the principal streets, built however without any regard to regularity, so that they are not handsome, but in them nearly all the best Chinamen's shops are situated.
As for fruit, some stunted sugar bananas about the size of a shoehorn and a few diminutive China oranges proved the extent of the weekly exhibit along the Escolta.
"No quilez around here for hire," said Hal, after looking up and down the Escolta. "Let's walk across the bridge over the Pasig. We'll be more likely to find an idle cochero on the other side of the river." As they started the sky was darkening, and the lightning beginning to flash, for this was in early July, at the height of the rainy season.
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