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

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF
AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
MANILA BAY, June 3, 1900.
H ERE we are. The long journey of forty-six
days is ended and we are anchored in Manila
Bay, two and a half miles from the shore. At this
distance the city is only a shining white line between
the blue water and the bluer sky. Hot? You never
imagined the real meaning of that word, and yet
the thermometer marks only ninety-nine; the moist
atmosphere makes it seem many degrees higher.
Thin clothing and excitement are helping us to
bear the heat, for there is a sense of exhilaration in
the thought that we are at last in Oriental America.
We slept on deck last night to be ready for the
sight of land at the first glimmer of daylight. At
four o'clock I was up and dressed watching the
faint outlines of the coast range. The sky was
cloudless and the sea like glass. The atmosphere
was suffused with the soft dove color tinted with
I