Note 4 — Modern Manila

There are numerous second- and third-rate hotels in the city and suburbs. The old “Fonda Lala,” which existed for many years in the Plaza del Conde, Binondo, as the leading hotel in Spanish days, is now converted into a large bazaar, called the “Siglo XX.,” and its successor, the “Hotel de Oriente,” was purchased by the Insular Government for use as public offices. The old days of comfortable hackney-carriages in hundreds about the Manila streets, at 50 cents Mex. an hour, are gone for ever. One may now search hours for one, and, if found, have to pay four or five times the old tariff. Besides the fact that everything costs more, the scarcity is due to Surra (vide p. 336), which has enormously reduced the pony stock. There are occasionally sales of American horses, and it is now one of the novelties to see them driven in carriages, and American ladies riding straddle-legged on tall hacks. In Spanish days no European gentleman or lady could be seen in a carromata4 (gig) about Manila; now this vehicle is in general use for both sexes of all classes. Bicycles were known in the Islands ten years ago, but soon fell into disuse on account of the bad roads; however, this means of locomotion is fast reviving.