RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS
who played "by ear" only. They had never been taught, but they could play, after a fashion, anything that anybody could whistle, sing or pick out for them on any instrument. They had listened to the American regimental bands and they had made selection for their own repertoires of such pieces as were easiest to play, hence the popularity of "A Hot Time in the Old Town," "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-ay," "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey" and things of like character. They did not know the words, or the "sentiment" of the songs; they knew only the tunes, and these they played at all times, for occasions either solemn or gay. Of my own experience I can testify that "A Hot Time in the Old Town" makes a perfectly good funeral march when reduced to a measure sufficiently lugubrious.
It didn't take us long to see the town and when my ears could endure the discords no longer I explained to the pleasant little presidente that I thought it was necessary for the ladies to return to the transport for a rest before it was time to dress for the evening festivities. He protested that the town was ours, that his house and everything in it belonged solely to us, but I was backed up by my husband and the ladies finally were permitted to go out to the Sumner for a short respite. No such luck for the men. They had to attend a prodigious luncheon, an afternoon banquete really, and then continue, for the rest of the day, their interviews with Lucena citizens and American Army officers. And, be it remembered, it was insufferably hot.
The banquete and baile that evening were typical Filipino entertainments, novelties to me then and intensely interesting. It was a procession, a meeting, a banquete and a baile every day for nearly seven weeks unless by a happy turn of events it became necessary for us to sail for our next port in the afternoon instead of at midnight as we generally did. Under such circumstances, if any special entertainments had been prepared for the evening, such as torch-
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