The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-03-03

into service our spanish English pocket
and made ''gailant and meri-
torious'' efforts at exchanging the compli-
ments of the season, after which Senior Jorge
Capuiong, the church organist, and must
clan of no mean ability, favored us, ON the
piano. with ''Sobra las Aias,'' Over the
Waves) and 'Jota Aragoneza'' (Aragonese !
Waltz.)
Seuorita Rarcelisa Taguiau, "chic"
Filipino belle of about sixteen, with a fetch
ing manner that some of American
bellies would be proud to possess, then sang,
''Declamacion Contra ell Poder Espanol"
IAN in. ec,ive against the Spaniards,) aud.
as an encore, sang Tagalo song. not a
word of which either Lieut.. Hay myself
understood, but we applauded it to the echo
and cried out, ,'sBueno, bueno!" ('sGood.
Good!')
With a package of Duke of Durham, the
PADRES sister proceeded to roll cigarettes
for the crowd, including the women, who.
as matter OF fact, smoke even more than
| the men. Indeed, every man, woman and
child in Luzon is ga natural BORN smoker.
Knowing how fond the natives are of
American bareback. we sent over to the
company house and got about fifty, which
were distributed among the ssplebians'' as
<ASu'HAiuoS Vue spanish christmas
gifts) We then got from the officers mess
| some sliced ham, sardines, olives and hard
/ bread. which were served to the ss4oo' and
to which they all did full Justice, except
the Padre, who, although very hungry,
| could not eat anything account of his
fasting, preparatory to taking communion
| at early mass few hours hence. His be-
ing hungry and not being able to eat, while
q ole
Americano.'' seemed to be a source of great
amusement to some of the party, and the
| reverend gentleman was the object of con-
| siderable good-naturec ssjoshing.''
After all of the party had appeared to have
satisfied their appetites-whch, by the way,
were indicative of health and vitality-there
| were still on the platter abou, twelve hard
tacks. One of the ''hombres, men of
the lower c1ass-Chinamen, uneducated
Fiipinos, etc., are called ''hombres'' Span
ish tor "men'D by the Americans, who re-
minded me of the tramp character in ssI49e,"
did little ''haying while the sun Shines
on his own hook, at once wrapping the
hard-tacks in his kerchief, remarkine,
'sTengo muchos .pickininnies' - (ssI have
many pickannnies'') Since the advent of
the Americans,-the word ssPickaniny''
the natives. The PADRES sister, woman
of considerable savoi,- tai>e, gave him
piercing look. and said something in Tagalo-
I don't know what it was, but it must have
been awful. think it was, s.you darn
hog;'' for, he immediately put back one of
the hard-tacks.
The time until 5 O'Clock q. IN. was spent
most pleasantly in song, music and chat.
The party then started TO leave lint If
would never do to allow such gathering to
go by without something which would re-
mind of ''Home and Mother,'' one more
number was added to the programme; s.Can-
tado Despues ell Bale; par Ell Segundo
Teniente, Chas. E. Hay, Jr.''-that is to
say, Hay sang, s.After the Ball.
Mid lots of hanhshaking AMI a pande-
monium of 'sBuenas noches'' (..Good
nightly ''Buenas Pascuas' ('sMerry Christ
mas, y ETC., the party then disbanded-and
the recollection of those American sardines,
olives, ham and bareback will long linger
in their memories.
About 500 Christmas morning. Padre
Benito Cebrero arrived at our quarters at
the head of native band-and such a band!
Some of the Volunteer soldiers, who had
passed through Aliaga month two be-
fore, had ''pinched,'' among other things,
all the musical instruments they could get
their hands few old casts-off, how
ever, that had been buried in out-of- the way
places, escaped, and these were the instru
ments used by band. They included
one bass that looked like a punctured tire
just from the repair shop; four wind instru-
ments that used to be clarnets; a one-time
alto and two comets, of which was al
most as long sliding trombone sson the
home rum 1t was, however, surprising
the good music the sshombres'' made with
this collection of instrumental bric-a- brac.
headed by the Padre, Lieut.. Hay, myself,
and few other prominent citizens of the
''burg," proceeded to Gale Real, the
''swell'' street of Aliaga, where the soldiers
had made preparations for the and
other contests of the day.
The first thing the programme was a
225 yard hurdle race, which was followed
by the putting the shot contest.
Then six of the Cinnamon attached to the
company faborers, tried their legs in
yard dash, which was by the fleet
footed All Hung Chang.
After the ''legrace. - the natives, for the
first time in their lives, witnessed a genuine,
old time American cake-walk, such as only
colored soldiers give, and which evil
i've