Identifier: recollectionsoff00taft (find matches)
Title: Recollections of full years
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Taft, Helen Herron, 1861-1943
Subjects: White House (Washington, D.C.) Philippines -- Description and travel Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead & Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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thenoonday sun. Why far-famed? I asked. Then he explained in a way which made me understandthat the Luneta is not what it is, but rather what it standsfor in the life of the community. He said that in the coolof the evening there weje bands in the bandstands and thateverybody in the world came and drove around and aroundthe oval, exchanging greetings and gossip, while the chil-dren with their nurses played in the sand on the narrowbeach. It didnt sound exciting to me, but I was afterwardto learn that the Luneta is a unique and very delightful in-stitution. We tore on at a terrific rate and came, at last, into a nar-row residence street where the rapid clatter of our poniesfeet awoke echoes from closely set houses which looked asif all their inhabitants were asleep. And they were, ofcourse, it being the siesta hour. The houses were nearly all built in the Spanish style with high stone basements—covered with mouldy whitewash— and frame superstructures overhanging the street, and 98
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A CARVED VARA OR PHILIPPINE MAHOGANY BED NOW INMR. TAFTs ROOM AT NEW HAVEN RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS screened from the heat and glare with finely woven, greenbamboo curtains. Here and there the nipa shack of thelow class native had elbowed its way into this fashionableneighbourhood, and through open spaces I caught glimpsesof wide stretches of thatch roofs in the near distance, wherehundreds of these inflammable huts were huddled togetherin native quarters. When the end of the street came in sight I began to won-der. It seemed to me we had driven many miles. Well, where do we live? I asked. Have you taken ahouse in the country? Not quite, said Mr. Taft, but nearly. It was the last house in the street, surrounded by a veryformidable looking, high stone wall. The first thing Iknew wTe had whirled through a gateway and were drivingpast a row of soldiers who stood at attention, with theirguns held stiffly in front of them. I knew our house hadto be guarded, but it was something of a sho

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