The Little Home Shop: shrine of native art

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The Little Home Shop: shrine of native art
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 8 (No. 11) November 1928
Year: 1928
Rights
Fulltext: 16 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL November, 1928 The Little Home Shop: Shrine of Native Art By Mrs. George Read “How did you become interested in the gongs of the Bogobo?” one wants to know. “Was your sister thinking of writing some compositions for the Bogobo gongs? Did she come out as a representative of some musical research society? her idea to secure To how many people in Manila is The Little Home Shop just a vague name? Yet what a shrine of native art it is! On our first visit to The Little Home Shop we felt at once that a definite personality was responsible for the atmosphere of the place. It could not be, otherwise. We have been in Manila long enough to have heard glowing accounts of the Misses Metcalf—of their hardi hood, their resourcefulness, their spirit of adven ture complementing their high love of humanity. We had heard half-tales of their pioneering in Mindanao in the early years of the century. The vicarious adventures and philosophy of Alfred Aloysius Hom have no more savor than the exotic saga of the sisters Metcalf; how and why they came to the Philippines and what they have done during their long stay. They have done their adventuring in the proper spirit. They have been sent on no missions, though presidents have encouraged them and governors have rescued them. There is something inspir ing about the thought of these two women struggling with a deadly usual existence in New England, suddenly leaving it behind them and, like Emerson, the philosopher of their soil, “writing on the lintels of the door-post, Whim” and going off to the farthest comer of the globe to seek personal contact with barbarians. Fur thermore, subsequently to make a friendly and pleasant contact possible by virtue of their rich sympathies and the power of the imagination. One can fancy them saying with Emerson, “My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself, and not for a spectacle.” “We came to study the gongs of the Bogobo!” is the first startling revelation. “Here is one of them. My sister was the musician, and she could tell you all about it. She was the leading spirit and the pilot for the two of us,” says Miss Metcalf with a decided movement of the head. “I was just the machinery. We have heard one man play on as many as seven gongs in the interpretation of one song.” Corner in The Little Home Shop examples of these gongs for a collection? Did she wish to lecture on these tribes?” “Oh, no! She came out as a free lance. We first went to the Boer War—in St. Louis.” Apparently, the first day of their visit to the Exposition grounds, the Misses Metcalf became deeply interested in the Philippine Bogobos, who had faced a series of misfortunes since they sailed away from their jungles in Davao. Smallpox had broken out among them; the first victim of it was the American inter preter who had been their guide and friend. They were left almost helpless. They were put in quarantine, of course, and kept there for months before they were allowed to put in an appearance the Exposition. This delay resulted in a second, and one might almost say greater misfortune. The Moros, brought also to St. Louis, had secured all the best gongs, and when the Bogobos were at last permitted to perform they were given only third-ratejand broken instruments. The Habit after every meal, and note how your pep and vitality will be increased! Of course there's a reason— T A N S A N besides being the purest natural water known — free from every trace of bacillary life and earthy deposits — has been conclusively proved to be an invaluable tonic owing to its RADIO-ACTIVITY! Iloilo F. E. Zuellig, Inc MANILA TANSAN of drinking a glass of sparkling Insist on “Bear” Brand! 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But somehow we managed it.” The first thing they did when they came out to the islands was to visit the families of the Bogobos they had become acquainted with at the Exposition. All Miss Metcalf’s casual references to insurrections, to being hidden out in the hills, in danger of their lives, to being the only Americans within miles and dwelling among a people whom it had taken them six months or so to assure of their amicable inten tions, to being secreted in nipa huts by rivers rife with crocodiles, were given in the most humorous and philosophic manner. It was quite as if she had maintained that leaving Beacon Street suddenly and going off to the farthest uncivilized point therefrom, was all in the day’s occupation. “We had a very hard time getting started here,” she remarked, in answer to a question regarding the little shop. “Neither one of us was blessed, or cursed, with the commercial spirit. We started out by making handker chiefs. A friend suggested it. We had to do something. But we did not start The Little Home Shop until the last time we came out from a visit home. In the meantime, in the southern islands, we had made a collection of Bogobo household utensils, clothing, pottery, handcraft products of all descriptions—after wards all purchased by the University of Penn sylvania. At that time ours happened to be the only Bogobo collection in the United States. “We did have a time with the Bogobo hats! They were wonderful things. A dozen varieties, ornamented with brilliant feathers and cunning little bells. You’ve no idea what a sight it was to see a Bogobo horseman, a chief, riding down the trail on his sturdy little pony with his feathers flying and all.his little bells jingling. The hats were beautiful. But tremendous. Each was packed in a separate box. It took us weeks to get the collection off. “But to get back to the handkerchiefs. “Once we had completed a lot of them—hand embroidered, hemstitched, scalloped—we didn’t know what to do with them. It was through the goodness of friends who were interested in us and who liked the work, that we were ever able to TIRES The 26 million Dunlops now running are your guarantee that Dunlops will pay you on your car. These'millions of motorists must be right. The longer Dunlops have run, the more popular they have become.The ninth and greatest of all Dunlop plants was built at Buffalo, U. S. A., five years ago. Since then, Obtainable From All Dealers sell them. These friends would tell other people about the handkerchiefs and give our address, which, by the way, we changed five times in three months. We would go to one place and find it too expensive, and have to seek another roof. “This is the first house we ever stayed in, in Manila. It was a private house where there were two or three rooms to rent. We said the first time we came here that we would like to rent it for our own home some day. Much to our surprise, one day it was offered to us for rent. Bedtime Stories, Philippine Folklore, and More Applesauce by Geo. H. Reed Lieut. Commander U. S. Navy PHILIPPINE EDUCATION CO., INC. 101-103 ESCOLTA MANILA, P. I. It seemed too good to be true. But that was more than ten years ago and it holds many memories both happy and sad. It looked very much then as you see it now. Certainly no paint has been added since that time. The owner is very slow to make repairs. However, I don’t mind so much about the paint. I rather like the aged look of it.” We asked if the garden was in existence when they first came. Dunlop has climbed from 89th place to an undis puted position among America’s leading tire manufacturers. Let your next tires be Dunlop, and prove to yourself that Dunlop knows how to build maximum value into tires. “The garden—we planted it ourselves. Every thing prospered. Friends would say to us, ‘Look at that poor little vine, there. It will die with so much sun on it. It never gets any shade.’ ’Look at that poor little vine now,’ I said, when these same friends came through Manila a year later. It was higher than the house. Another said, ‘You can’t make a pergola out of that bush. It isn’t pliant enough.’ In a year we could have served tea under it and been as well screened as in this room. A new collection of Philippine verses, sketches, short stories, and “dramas” by the author of “Philippine Applesauce.” You’ll never forget “God Bless ’Em”, “The Chinese House Boy”, “Father Tries to Say Something”, “The Recall”, “The Prodigal Daughter”, and “Beautiful but Spoiled”—once you have read them—which—if you live in the Philippines, or have lived or will live there— you should certainly do. An excellent gift book, attractively bound and illustrated. P2.00 “After the handkerchief venture, we started selling baskets. Every kind of basket of native weave. We had them sent up to us from the provinces. Friends we had known would make them or get them for us.” These friends were the natives among whom they had lived for years. In her house you will always find two or three young Igorot boys who do everything. They work the garden, plant, prune, cook, serve the tea, write business letters, shop, and market. Miss Metcalf’s interest in them is much more than merely domestic, just as her interest in the girls who embroider and weave there, is much more than a commercial one. She does not consider them only as machinery necessary to the running of the shop. She laughs with them, she reproaches them, she praises, she corrects, in a spirit of understanding. There is something distinctly beneficent about the air of the little shop late in the afternoons when the embroiderers are going home. Miss Metcalf has had her tea and is engaging in a last few minutes talk with friends who invariably drop in at this hour. Conversation is suspended while she speaks to each girl individually, calling her by name. “Goodnight, Restituta. Goodnight, Resurrecci6n.” “Goodnight, Miss Sally,” each girl responds. “And now I must say goodnight to my dumb girl, Josefa. They always laugh when I do it.” She touches her fingers to her lips, then ges tures a demiarc with her arm. “The sun goes over the rim of the world, it means,” she says. The group of dark, smiling faces at the head of the stairs vanishes quickly below. It grows almost still in the house. A soft light fills the high opening near which the chairs are drawn. We observe the firm set of a certain head with its neat coil of snow-white hair. It indicates to us that the owner stands gently but_firmly foursquare to the universe. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL