Evening star., 1901-12-28
NOT WHAT SHE EXPECTS

'I met in New York the other day said
the experienced wife Of an army officer,
who put in a good many years of service on
the far western frontier "a girl who has
got sore disillusionment In store for her.
She is rich in her own right, the daughter of
a rich New York widow, who was raised
here in Washington, and she is going to
marry, next month, a young second lieu
tenant who entered the service from civil
life, and who, after his service In the Phil
ippines. has already been ordered to duty
at very far western infantry post. All
that this rich and accomplished young wo-
man knows about soldering is what she
has seen of it around Washington and New
York-the trimmings on the tunic of SOL
diering, to speak. For some years past
she has been much mingled with the army
society of New York and Washington, and,
from her manner of speakig, it all seems
very grand and glorious to her. l feel for
the child in the awakening she is going to
have. She can't seem to disassociate the
Island, for example, which is a charming
spot only across a beautiful stretch of
water from New York. or the soldering
that she has seen at Fort Myer, which is
only step across the river from the most
beautiful of American cities-she can't ap-
pear to realize, 1 say, that the sort of SOL
diering with which she is familiar Is utter
ly and absolutely different from that which
lieutenant husband for good many years
to come. She goes from charming, luxu-
rious home, in the most lovely quarter of
New York. to post that is notoriously dis
NAL and gloomy. AS the wife of a second
lieutenant, and very junior second lieu
tenant at that, and, moreover one from civil
life-1 need not dwell upon the latter dis
tinction-she will have to take just what
ever quarters are dished out to her hus-
band. 1t doesn't make any difference that
she has been used to living in home such
as the wives of the senior officers of the
post never lived in-the junior officer sets
up his menage just where 1t is pointed out
to him, and all of the heartaches of his
wtfe's over the better accommodations of
the seniors don't help the situation little
bit. The young woman has some magnifi-
cent furniture Of her own, and a lot that
her mother wants to give her, and she conf
IDENTIFY expects that she will have room to
scatter this fine furniture around her new
home. None Of US who has met her has
had the nerve to tell her yet just how COM
pletely hopeless it would be for her to even
think of taking her fine furniture to such
quarters as her husband will be assigned
in the post they are going to.
LAS an only daughter the young woman
has been a good deal spoiled, and she has
been used to having her own way ever
since her childhood. When she gets to the
little infantry post to which her husband
is assigned she will find out that there is
just as much rank and seniority among
army wives as there Is among the hus-
bands, and am afraid she is going to Suf-
fer sadly when she gets mixed up in her
first few battles when the matter of femi-
nine prerogatiye is the issue. She will not
only find herself mixed up in that old quar-
rel between the women of the staff and the
women of the line, but she will find her
self, as the wife of a second lieutenant
from civil life, such a really minute factor
in what might properly be called the scrap
that her humiliation is bound to be intense
Her husband is really fine young fellow
and she is naturally very proud of him,
which will cause her to suffer all the more
acuteiy when he has to take his solemn or
violent wiggings from his superiors for I'M
aVOidable mistakes. She will not be sta
toned near superb city like New York or
Washington, where she can take refuge
when the littlenesses of life at military
post begin to pail upon her, but she will
be near one of the most dreadfully dull and
uninteresting towns in the United States
If eight or ten miles may be called near
She will have to do great deal of her own
work, for servants are scarce out that way
and enlisted men in the service are per-
mtted to do less and less dog-robbing,' as
lieve the child could boil mess of pota-
toes or properly dust a piano if she tried
her hardest,
Dress parade and guard mount are per-
fectly lovely-yes, on clear bright mornings
in and around Washington and New York
But oh! their tediousness, the tediousness
of life itself, for man, woman and beast in
far western American infantry post, She
who speaketh knoweth, too, or she
wouldn't have these wrinkles to show for
| her knOWleGGei''