The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1899-11-25

and also the jeers OF all the girls and of all
the boys who had not gone to the front be.
fore them.
The next we heard OF those three was by
letter. First from Letitia to Jeanette
like this:
Frank Pilsbury has proved a devoted
and useful escort. | don't know what I
should have done without him. Fred
laughs at him and wonders what he does
with himself down here, but tell Fred
that if il had not been for my little dude, )
as he calls him, l could not be here. And
it is great thing to be near ones soldier
boy, isn't it? So l have much to thank
my little dude for"
Then from Fred Stimms
''Letitia is up at the hotel, and see her
abont every day. Frank Pilsbury is all
right. He keeps out Of the way when
Letitia and | are together, which is what
he's here for, | guess We call him the
chaperon. don't know how he puts in
his time, except its loafing on the hotel
veranda and about the Cuban settlement.
They say he talks Spanish like dago."
Just before the transport started for Cuba
the second weak in June-who should
turn up at home but Letitia
Every body said she had done right not
to stay till the very last. The parting
would have been too severe a trial for her
nerves. She did not bring back Frank
Pilsbuty with her. She seemed to have
misled 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 follow
ing came from the United States camp near
Santiago 1t was dated "Daignon, June
9th. 1t was letter to mutual friend
OF Stimms and myself. This is true copy
DEAR CON- am not we'll. A good
many of US in camp here in the same fix
1t isn't 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
''los Americanos. One OF them, in big
straw hat and little less ragged shirt and
trousers than the Others with revolver
and big maohete came forward and shook
hands with me. Then he said GLOW is
Letita?" Then l saw that is was Frank
Pllsbury. He sneaked of from Tampa
three weeks ago with some sort of dis
patches for the Cnbans, and they say he
landed at MatanZls and made his way right
across the Island. | couldn't believe it,
hut Garcia has photographs that he took on
the way. frankie hos one Of those little
dnky ''Slap Bang" cameras with him.
Tue Cubans are afraid of him and think he
is the presidents eldest son. Toe Span
iaris took him for al. English tourist. Now
they are going to fit him ont with decent
clothes an send him TO Washington. How
he did it all don't know. suppose it
was his Spanish and getting 30 chumuy
with all those stiff dudes up at the hotel |
can't write any more. The shook seems TO
have given me chill. | believe we shall
he fighting tomorrow. Hone ! may get
killed. Yours, FRED STIMMs
This letter SETS US all in a ferment OF ex-
element Everybody went and asked
LetitiG for information. Everybody felt
there must be more mystery behind this.
Letitia smiled and said she had lost sight
Of Frank during the latter part Of her stay
at Tampa. She supposed she government
must have sent him on some special mission
to Cuba because he had travelled there be-
fore the war was ever thought OF and knew
the country little.
| think we all felt somewhat ANNOYED.
Jeanette unacc0untably got downright
angry and began treating Robinson, who
had been obliged to stay ct home on ao-
count of his mother and sister, very I'M
kindly.
Poor Fred had one consolation, and that
was that Frank was not at Santiago on the
LIST of July-had, in fact, started home
with his mysterious dispatches 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 scratch, though he did
go to grass later on with severe attack of
fever.
By the Fourth Of July, Frank came home
a little browner and less plump than be-
fore, 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 goings on he said he was sick
and tired Of all that. The Cubans, he said,
were very dirty. Then he wandered off
into a discussion of the metropolitan FASH
ions in millinery.
The next thing he did was to rent a
small house.
Then the local papers printed AN author.
lied statement OF the marriage OF Frank
Pilsbury and Miss Letitia Helmund at
Tampa, Fla, on the 22nd day OF May,
1898, with full particulars.
When somebody asked him what he
meant by breaking the heart o! Jeanette
Brennan, he answered: "Her heart is not
A l. 81.