The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-10-03

49, Sy NNS
on the hotel yeranda and about the Gu
ban settlement. They say he talks
Spanish like a dago."
Just before the transports started for
Cuba-the second week in June-who
should turn up at home but Letitia!
Everybody said she had done right
not to stay till the very last. The part
ing would have been too severe a trial
for her nerves. She did not bring back
Frank Pilsbury with her. She seemed
to have mislaid him somewhere and
could not tell where he had got to.
About the end of July the news from
Cuba was becoming very exciting-the
news in the papers. Privately the fol-
lowing came from the United States
camp near Santiago. 1t was dated
"Daignon, June 81" 1t was a letter to
a mutual friend Of Stimms and myself.
This Is a true copy:
Dear Conf am not we'll. A good many Of us
in camp here are in the same f.. 1t isrjt. the
miss of my regular meals that hurts me; it is
the shock l have had. A lot of Garcia's soldiers
met US on the beach when we landed. They were
cheering for '1os Americanos." One of them, in
a big straw hat and a little less ragged shirt and
IiouSeIS UudH Cue OuneTS, Win q revolver anu a
big machete, came forward and shook hands with
me. Then he said, GLOW is Letitia?'' Then /
saw that it was Frank Pilsbury. He sneaked off
from Tampa three weeks ago with some sort Of
dispatches for the Cubans, and they say he landed
at Matanzas and made his way right across the
island. l couldn't believe it, but Garcia has pho
tographs that he took on the way. frankie has
one of those little dinky "Slap Bang cameras
with him.. The Cubans are afraid Of him and
think he is the presidents eldest son. The Span
iards took him for an English tourist. Now they
are going to fit him out with decent clothes and
send him to Washington. How he did it all /
don't know. l supposed was his Spanish and
getting so chummy with all those stiff dudes up
at the hotel. ! can't write any more. The shock
seems to have given me o chill. l believe we
shall be fighting tomorrow. Hope 1 may get
killed. Yours, FRED STIMMs.
This letter set us all in a ferment
Of excitement. Everybody went and
asked Letitia for information. Every
body felt that there must be more mys-
terry behind this. Letitia smiled and
said she had lost sight of Frank during
the latter part of her stay at Tampa.
She supposed the government must
have sent him ON some special mission
to Cuba, because he had travelled there
before the war was ever thought of
and knew the country a little.
I think we all felt somewhat annoyed.
Jeanette unaccountably got down
right angry and began treating Robin
son, who had been obliged to stay at
home on account Of his mother and sis
ter, very unkindly.
Poor Fred had one consolation, and
that was that Frank was not at Santi-
ago on the list Of July-had, in fact,
started home with his mysterious dis
patches several days before that.
Fred's friends also had the consolation
that Fred, in spite Of his own gloomy
ambitions, came out of all that fighting
without a scratch, though he did go to
grass later on with a severe attack Of
fever.
BY the Fourth Of July Frank came
home a little browner and less plump
than before, it is true, but with his
hair still smooth and parted plumb in
the middle. When we asked him to-
tell us about his mysterious goingss on
he said he was sickand tired OF all
that. The Cubans, he said. were very
dirty. Then he wandered off into a
discussion OF the metropolitan fashions
in millinery.
The next thing he did was to rent a
small house.
Then the local papers printed an au-
thorized statement Of the marriage Of
Frank Pilsbury and Miss Letitia Hell
mund at Tampa, Fla, on the 22d day
of May, 1898, with full particulars.
When somebody asked him what he
meant by breaking the heart of Jean
nette Brennan, he answered: "Her
heart is not broken. Ask Robinson.
That was a ruse, you know. Public
opinion was against my marriage with
I.atitia, SO we had to elude public opin-
ion. Ask Letitia."
Letitia, being examined, said: 81 new
er gave MIR. Stimms authority to say
we were engaged. He chose to give it
out, and it IA not my business to con-
tradict him. Yes, the Matanzas expe-
dition was my idea. Still, Frankie
isn't half such a fool as he looks"
Fred came home an invalid long be-
fore the other soldier boys. For three
weeks we all %conspired to keep the
news from him, SO that the shock
might not kill him. When he heard
the whole truth, he packed up and
went to the Pacific coast-San Fran
cisco Call,
The Wrong Slot.