Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

Sunday was a laborious day. Dancing began at
ten o'clock in the morning. At twelve we sat down
to a long dinner. One of the dishes was a young
pig served with a delicious green sauce. It was
roasted out of doors, over a bed of coals; a bamboo
pole thrust lengthwise through its body served as a
spit. It was turned by a relay of small naked boys.
The old women basted it continually, and kept law
and order among the lazy little Filipinos with the
basting spoon. The mahogany table seated thirty
guests. At each place were three handsome French
plates with a crest in the center. In front of each
cover was a solid silver tray holding three delicate
wineglasses. The center piece was a large bust of
a Roman matron in frosted glass supporting a pyramid of fruit on her head, and amidst the array of
sweets were two immense vases holding bouquets of
silver and gold leaves and flowers. In spite of the
Roman matron and the glass vases, the table was
handsome.
I passed another long evening watching the
ceaseless whirl of dancers, whose heelless slippers
never seemed to tire of gliding over the shining
floor. Some of the guests did not go to bed at all,
and were eating sweet cakes when we came into the
dining room at dawn, ready for our early train.
One can entertain numberless guests in the Philippines. A supply of clean straw mats, and as many
rolls of cotton covered with turkey-red calico, is all
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