Manila in your pocket

"IT is a very sad thing," Oscar Wilde once said, "that nowadays there is so little useless information."

Going through my old notebooks, I realized that I gathered a lot of information that can be useless when taken at face value but which, when woven into an essay, can provide interesting asides that help an otherwise static narrative move. For example, the pocket guide to Manila published in 1881 by Juan P. Gutierrez-Gay as "Manila en el bolsillo" [Manila in your pocket] naturally contains obsolete data that have become historical within the past century.

When people talked about Manila during the Spanish period, they usually referred to the Walled City or Intramuros. (The Manila we know today extends beyond the walls and is Metro Manila, or what was once called "Greater Manila.") The suburbs of Manila were composed of the seven towns: Binondo, San Jose or Trozo, Santa Cruz, Quiapo, San Miguel, Sampaloc and Tondo.

How were these different from the 22 towns of the city: Ermita, Malate, Paco or San Fernando de Dilao, Santa Ana, San Pedro Makati, Pasig, Pateros, Pandacan, Mariquina, San Mateo, Tambobong or Malabon, Parañaque, Caloocan, Novaliches, Las Piñas, Navotas, Muntinlupa, Pineda, San Felipe Neri or Mandaluyong, Taguig and Montalban? Perhaps the Pasig River was the demarcation line.

The guide contains a list of all the principal streets in Manila and suburbs. Aside from directions, the length of each street comes with a brief description. San Miguel, for example, is described as the aristocratic district or suburb because the most luxurious and elegant houses are found along its main street. Malacañang is the most famous structure there today.

Of the five public monuments listed, only three survive today: Carlos IV now in front of the Manila Cathedral, Isabel II in front of the Puerta Isabel near the National Press Club building, and Anda in a rotonda near the Port Area. There used to be a monument to Magallanes (that's Magellan to you and me) on Magallanes Street and a monument to Pineda (who was he?) in Malate.

If you got sick in Spanish Manila, there were five hospitals to choose from, but Hospital de San Juan de Dios was the most prominent. Known for its cleanliness and the caring of the Sisters of Charity, the hospital had a ward exclusively for foreigners attended by the English physicians Juan and Ricardo Burke. The Hospital de la Convalencia, considered a branch of San Juan de Dios, was described as well ventilated, and was best for convalescence. The San Lazaro Hospital specialized in a number of diseases like elephantiasis, skin diseases and all types of syphilis. The Franciscans were in charge of San Lazaro. There was a Military Hospital, and for those who traveled to Laguna, there were the hot medicinal waters of Los Baños (The Baths).

Today we have bottled water that is generically called "mineral" by the ignorant who don't seem to know the difference between spring water, mineral water, distilled water, filtered water, or plain tap water put in a bottle. Any bottled water is called "mineral water." But in the Spanish period, you had a choice between still and fizzy water, or "refrescos gaseosos." These could be purchased from the drugstores of D. Carlos Plitt, Don Pablo Schuster, or A.S. Watson (is this the same Watson Drugstore in Hong Kong that also sells distilled water to this day?) "Agua con gas" [water with gas] as well as "agua sin gas" [water without gas] was served in the various cafés in Manila. Potable water came from the Pasig River, which wasn't as polluted as it is today. There was Algibe de S. Fernando that provided good and cheap water. The most expensive water came from Mariquina, transported in clay jars by men from the town. Two "banga" [big clay jars] of water sold for four "reales."

Café de la Campana was so famous it was listed even if it had burned down and had not reopened at the time the guidebook went to press. There was also Café El Suizo and the Café La Espereanza, where one could take coffee or chocolate, wines, liquor, sweets, pastries and full meals. These had gaming and billiard tables.
What caught my attention were "helados," or "ices," served in these cafés. These could be anything from ice cream, sherbet or plain shaved ice with syrup.

Where did the ice come from? There was a time when ice was imported from Wenham Lake in Boston. Ice was cut from the frozen lake, loaded on ships and exported all the way from the United States to India. A stopover was made in Manila. I can imagine people buying ice or chilled water from the ship, wrapping this in a sack or rolling the ice in rice husk and running home as fast as they could to preserve most of the ice before it melted.

I have seen photographs of the Insular Ice Plant that once stood at the foot of the bridge leading to Quiapo and I thought ice was brought in by the Americans. But in 1881, there was already an ice factory on Barraca Street in Binondo, owned by Don Julio Witte. Ice was continuously produced but there was no fixed price for it. The price varied, going up and down just like the mercury in thermometers.

All the above may be useless information indeed, but one day if and when the time machine is invented, historians like myself can travel back to Spanish colonial Philippines well-prepared by obsolete tourist guidebooks like "Manila en el bolsillo" or Manila in your pocket.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu