The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-19
Mrs. Aguinaldo's Baggage.

IN an uncensored dispatch bearing
date of Manila, Nov. 16, the crafty
ing intelligence is communicated tt
the world that Lieutenant johnson,
| with Troop NJ, Third cavalry, captured
yesterday at San Nicholas twelve bar
rels containing the wardrobe of Aguin-
aldos wife, some personal effects, the
records of the secretary of war and
much commissary and medical sup
plies" When such an important cap
ture is effected as this, it is evident that
! General Otis is making substantial
progress.
Up to the present time Mrs. Aguin-
aldo has not been conspicuous figure
| in the Philippine war. We have been
I hearing a great deal about Mrs. Kru-
ger; how she is an honest, industrious,
| thrifty old lady, getting up at o'clock
in the morning to boss the chores, cook
the hired mems breakfast, skim the
| milk, feed the hens, air the beds, get
the children off to school, do the wash
ing and sweep the house; how she pre-
pares the dinner, entertains the callers,
sprinkles the flowers, weeds the onion
bed, gathers the eggs, churns the
cream, sorts the potatoes, pets the
cats. mops the kitchen, bakes the
bread, scours the pans and spanks the
kids: and how after supper she sits up
far into the night darning stockings
and patching Paul's overalls while Paul
himself reads aloud the SD Psalm and
offers caustic comments on the world,
the flesh and the devil of a Chamber
lain.
But of Mrs. Aguinaldo we have heard
nothing at ALL The correspondents have
persistently ignored the first lady Of the
Philippine land. Quite likely they have
never met her and know nothing about
her. But why they should allow their
ignorance of the subject to operate as
bar to their writing columns upon it,
is not at all clear-it is violative of all
presidents and seriously shakes ones
faith in the correspondents enterprise
and gall Up to the present all that
the world has ever heard of Mrs. Aguin-
aldo is that she recently presented her
HuSDalu Will d pOy, WIZ was iltiulCu
George Washington Aguinaldo on the
spot. The correspondents even neglect
ed to send along the regulation COM
ment mother and child doing Well in
such cases made and provided. Cen
eral Otis having abolished all censor
ship, the failure of the correspondents
to do their duty to Mrs. Agulnaldo is
inexplicable.
The dispatch printed in the introduce
ton Of these remarks throws just
enough light on the subject to arouse
extraordinary curiosity. Unfortunately
the dispatch is anonymously worded;
the reader is left in doubt as to whether
the twelve barrels were devoted exclu-
sively to Mrs. Aguinaldo's wardrobe
the other articles mentioned being
|. found on the side; or whether they
were all shoveled and damned into the
barrels together. The fact that refer
ence is made to much commissary and
medical supplies" inclines one to the
former hypothesis. Obviously Mrs
Aguinaldo has an extensive assortment
OF gowns and things, fact that stamps
her as stylish dresser, and being that,
she would strenuously object to having
her best petticoats and nobbiest shirt
waists packed in with the canned beef,
the bareback, the arnica and the anti
septic cotton; so that it is reasonably
certain that the entire twelve barrels
We're devoted to Mrs Aguinaldo's exclu-
ciy he
Saratoga trunks. but these were OBJ
jected to by her husband, first because
they would excite more attention than
barrels secondly because they were not
go easy of transportation, and lastly
and chiefly because he hadn't any Sara
toga trunks to give her.
Following her husband as a devoted
wife should, Mrs. Aguinaldo is an ex-
tensive traveller. Ilitting about from one
gay capital to another with suddenness
and speed. Often at the request of her
lord and master she has arisen in the
middle of the night, packed her barrels
and been on the move, barrels, baby
, and all, within an hour; skipping by
the light Of the moon as IL her life de-
pended upon it, as perhaps it sometimes
did. At every fresh capital Mrs.
Aguinaldo would have her barrels rolled
into the back yard of the temporary
white house and proceed to make an
elaborate toilet, as befitted the wife of
the president of the republic and COM
mander-in- chief of the army and navy.
The dignity of the office must be sus-
tanned, and it would never do for Mrs.
Aguinaldo to exhibit any mud splashes,
| thistle burrs or other stains of travel.
The loss of her purple and fine linen
is the severest blow that this estimable
| lady has sustained since the war began;
and It's results may be fraught with i'm
porrance. She is realizing now as she
never did before the actual horrors of
| war. With nothing to her back but
her travelling dress, and that probably
the worse for wear and tear and violent
/