Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-03-01

500 ~ .h1l'SFoll. uon Know how
ne uts his time except its loafing
on the hotel veranda and about the Gu
ban settlement, They say he talks
Spanish like dago."
Just before the transports started for
/ Cuba--the seconu week in June-who
should turn up at home but I.etitia,
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 p" 1t was a letter to
a mutual friend of Stimms and myself.
ms Is a true copy:
Dear Con-l am not we'll 4 good many Of us
IN camp here are in the same fix 1t isn't the
miss OF my regular meals that hurts me; II is
the shock ] have had. \ lot Of Garcia's soldiers
met us on the beach when we landed They were
cheering for ''los Amcricanos." one OF them in
big straw hat and little less ragged shirt and
trousers than the Others, with revolver and
big machete, came forward and shook hands with
me. Then he said, How is Letitiagn Then /
saw that II was Frank Pilsbury. lie sneaked off
from Tampa three weeks ago with some sort of
dispatches for the Cubans, and they say he landed
al Maianzas and made his way right across the
island couldn't believe it, but Garcia has pho
tographs that he took on the way. frankie has
{ .
with him. The Cubans are afraid OF him and
think he is the presidents eldest son The Span
lards took him for an English tourist Now they
are going TO fit him out with decent clothes and
send him 70 Washington How he did it all /
don't know. | suppose it his Spanish and
getting ohummy with an those stiff dudes up
at ,he hotel ! can't write any more. The shock
seems to have given a chill believe we
shah be fighting tomorrow Hope ! may get
killed. Yours, FRED SrnlMs
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 though; of
and knew the country a little.
think we all felt somewhat annoyed.
Jeanette unaccountably got down,
right angry and began treating Robin
son, who mad 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 ut Sant-
ago on the LIST of July had, in fact,
started home with his mysterious dis
patches several days before that.
Freds 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
later on with Il severe attack of
fever
BY the Fourth of July Frank came
home a little hrowner 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 goings on,
he said he was sick and tired of all
that. The Cubans, he said, were very
dirty. Then he wandered off into
discussion of the metropolitan fashions
in millinery.
The next thing he did was to rent n
small house
Then the local papers printed an au
thoriZed statement of the marriage Of
Frank Pisbury and Miss Letitia Hell
mund ut Tampa, Fla. on the 22d day
of May, 1898, with fun particulars
When somebody asked him what he
meant by breaking the heart of Jean
nctte Brennan, he answered: Her
heart is not broken. Ask Robinson. |
That was n ruse, you know Public !
opinion was against my marriage with |
I.ctitia, 50 we had to elude public opin
ion Ask Letitia."
Letitia being examined. said Il new |
er gave Mr.. Stimms authority to say |
we were engaged He chose to give ii |
out. and it was not my business TO con |
tradict him Yes, the MatanZas cXpe- |
dition was my idea Still. Frankie |
isn't half such fool rs 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 I
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.