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

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF

The acting governor gave a New Year's reception at Malacafian. There was a big crush; over
six hundred guests came during the evening. It
began about five o'clock, and an officer told me that
there was a scramble on the part of the representatives of the army and navy each to get in ahead
of the other. I don't know how true the stories of
the rivalry between army and navy are, but they are
always floating about. Last winter, at General McArthur's New Year's reception, the papers said that
several persons left the palace without going in,
because they had not been assigned to their proper
places. This year I think it was a " go-as-youplease " affair; at all events, the guests were not
kept shut up in a room half an hour, and let out
into the reception room according to rank, as they
were last year. To say, however, that the love of
rank has not invaded the civilian breast is not true,
for I heard two ladies earnestly discussing whether
the wife of the auditor ought to precede the wife
of the postmaster, or vice versa. That certain persons leave good manners behind them even on formal occasions like an official New Year's reception
was proved many times to-day, when certain Americans shook hands with the white members of the
reception party and passed the Filipinos by without
recognition of any kind. It is wearying to stand
three hours shaking hands, and I think to exhaustion
as much as to anything else was due my illness of
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