has introduced knickerbockers and promises to result in knee breeches.  On the transports that have traversed the Pacific the soldiers were fond of taking exercise in undershirts and drawers only and they swarmed from their bunks at night, to sleep on deck, sometimes condescending to spread blankets to take the edge off the cruelty of the hard wood, but reluctant to be encumbered with undershirts.  Their favorite night dress was drawers only, and they acted upon the false theory that one cannot take cold at sea.  The authority of officers was often necessary to impress the average soldier that he ought to have an undershirt between his skin and the sky.  The boys were during their long voyage very sparing in the use of shoes and stockings, and it has perhaps never before occurred in American experiences that there was such an opportunity to study the infinite variety of the big toe, and, indeed, of all the toes.  In active army service the care of the feet is essential.  The revelations on shipboard disclose the evils of ill-fitting shoes to be most distrusting.  One of the claims of West Point for high consideration is in teaching the beauty of white trousers, and our tropical army experiences will extend the fashion.  When General Merritt and Admiral Dewey parted on the deck of the China in Manila harbor, both were clad in spotless white, their caps, coats and trousers making a showy combination.  There was also a group of sea captains who had gathered to give the Captain of the China a good send-off, and they with the staff officers, were all in radiant white.  There was not a boy in blue among them.  The illustrious General and Admiral reminded me of Gabriel Ravel, when in his glory as The White Knight.  It would be hard to say which wore the nattier cap, but that of the Admiral was of the more jaunty cut, while the General—­gold cord for a band and gold buttons, especially became his blue eyes.  If the officers of the army, navy and transports could be photographed as they stood in dazzling array, as if hewn from marble, the fashion plate resulting would be incomparably attractive, and in the summers to come we shall find among the influences of our tropical adventure and possessions a heightening of the colors worn by American ladies, and a whitening of the suits of gentlemen, involving the necessity of “calling in” white coats, as well as straw hats on stated days in early September.

CHAPTER XIV

A Martyr to the Liberty of Speech.

Dr. Jose Rizal, the Most Distinguished Literary Man of the Philippines, Writer of History, Poetry, Political Pamphlets, and Novels, Shot on the Luneta of Manila—­A Likeness of the Martyr—­The Scene of His Execution, from a Photograph—­His Wife Married the Day Before His Death—­Poem Giving His Farewell Thoughts, Written in His Last Hours—­The Works That Cost Him His Life—­The Vision of Friar Rodriguez.