drawn by water buffalo (carabao) or in baskets on the heads of women, who are the breadwinners of the lower classes. For the entire 60 miles between Manila and San Fernando the road is bordered as far as the eye can see with fields of rice and sugar cane and banana plantations, while native towns and villages are as close together as the towns along the best railroad lines in the United States. The province of Pampanga is especially rich in cane fields, and there are districts not reached by the railroad where great quantities of sugar go to waste annually for lack of transportation. With facilities for marketing the product the out- put of sugar from this district could be increased many thousands of tons annually. The same can be said of coffee, tobacco and chocolate. The finest tobacco is grown in the northern provinces, and immense quantities are consumed in the home market. Imagine a population of 8,000.000 people, each one of whom smokes from 25 to 100 cigarettes daily, for the habit is universal
among men, women and children alike, and most of whom smoke cigars, and one can get some idea of the consumption of tobacco. Add to this home demand a good foreign market and the tobacco business would assume gigantic proportions. There is certainly field for the investment of capital in railroads, plantations and the manufacturing industries necessary for the preparation of the products of the islands for market.
There was a large crowd assembled at the San Fernando station when we arrived. An elegant carriage, drawn by four gaily caparisoned and decorated white horses, was in waiting for President Aguinaldo, while the Calle Real (the royal road, as the main thoroughfare everywhere is invariably called) was lined with soldiers, who faced inwards from opposite sides of the street, the men. being at intervals of about five yards, and the line extending along a distance of nearly two miles. Between these lines we drove in the fine carriages our host, who had gone up the day before, had
