The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-11-28
II MADNESS OF
BEMTO
BY LEO CRANE.


aches in me time remarked old Ser
geant MacManus, leaning his chair back
against the wall, but never nothin' TO
compete with the outrageous fury o
that little potbellied niger. Perhaps
we may hav' heard o the little Teller
who run amuck up near D~agupan?" he
asked casually of the listening group.
The men shook their heads. for they
were a new lot just out from the States,
and as green as grass in springtimc.
The sergeant had had his hands full
trying to beat some of his discipline into
them before their going up country,
where the rebels wou put the dainty
fishing touches. Occasionally, however,
he would prop himself back in a corner
of the w~hitewashed barrack, and hold
forth to the respectful attention of an
entire
Well, then we may take me word that
he was a wonderous terror. He stood
on'y four an a half in height, an he
was quite lengthy bout the waist, but
for all that, his movements were equal
to a West Injian ~harrycane in motion.
Nv had me hands dipped into three
wars-the great big affair back in the
COS, a fierce little out an outer down
on the Gillian coast, an this rumpus
which is by no means a gentle argu-
ment, but the lump sum of it all
wouldn't balance the worry caused by
that roaming lunatic.
We first heard the news hat he
were loose from Dagupan, where he had
most killed four men an had been chas-
ed through the jungle nigh onto a mile
by half a regiment. Now from Dagu-
ma IN Son lorna 6n Whprn L hannnnn1
to be along with the Seventh, was some
thirty tidy miles. an every yard o the
way that escaped hyena did som'thin'
atrociOus. By the time he had gOne
half the distance, the whole country
was il a state of wildeyed terror, an
we had orders to shoot him or sight.
Mos people just thought he was "a
ordinary maddened native that someone
had watercured gently for the sake ,
his soul, but / knew better, me lads,
an there were few people who know as
much as meself about that little matter
-on'y four Others-well, say FIVE then,
cause there was the woman The
Rear Rank" knew o it, an the cap'en,
who started the ball arollin'.'
IF the rear rank knew it," said q
young fellow, there must have been
more than four in the secret"
"Ah. not so fast, daddy, not so fast.
The Rear Rank" as I an mos every
one else called it. happened to be three
men, an why we spoke of 'em as the
Rear Rank 1 don't know, cause there
was three Dutchieg a Maine Coast
Yankee an another feIIar in the same
line. but the men never counted 'em i'll
the matter at ALL To the regiment
there was on'v three men in the rear
rank. an all of them was Irish. Ye
could tell the brand as 500 as we
caught 'em fair to the eye. They We're
4 fine lot o men, too. One was born in
Kerry, one in y, Yawk, an tother in
the Soudan, but for all that. they was
Irish clear through. Ye would never
contest the argument o surroundin' in
fuences after we heard the. Soudan
breed talk onct. He had. a bit of bro I'd
brogue like Daniel O'Connell.
1T all came about in the usual way,
which is, as We all know, through 4
Woman Wimmen. lads. are dangerous
pfaythingS in a strange country-ld
ldvise We to select anythin' on the list,
from toddy to lead, an yen die easier.
It happened by some luke or other, the
cap'en, an he was a young man, so We
can't blame him overly much, fell into
q shindy along with a native woman
Now, when [ say a native wOman young
green-eared priVates, don't go for to
turn yer noses so high. cause she was a
lady. mind We. an | can lick the man
who says the cap'en didn't have good
dc1S. Il oCt1I ISI IIAC OiON 49,
know a good thing h | see it. She
was the purtiest creature-WeI I've
seen damn few wimmen in the states
to equal her. Ye' nav to go back to
the green sod for WINNER fashioned a.
she was. me lads. She had but one rare
fault overlooked by the cap'en-she was
married.
But to come back to the ravin' Mig
ger. an the cause o his frenzy. We
were holdin' down a little village by the
name O. San Fernando, a place on the
railroad. an not far from the fightin'
at agupa An just outside o San
Fernando vas where the cap'en met her
first. She was the wife o a potbellied
niger merchant. who, by the way had
more money than the payroll o the
army. which he had made by squeezln'
Chinese coolies. She lived in a beauti-
full gardenlike place. filled with SER
wants. an flowers. an birds, an all the
rest o things that an ugly man thinks
will make a pretty woman love him.
The on'y blight on the landscape was
the owner, who was also her husband,
an answered to the name o Benlto
Flores. Seems he had subsidized her
father when she was a kid, an accord
in to their heather customs. n be-
longed to him for good an all. worse
luck or none. However. she seen the
cap'en. an I want to tell We the cap'en
was somethin' to see an after haVtn'
that choice bit o San Fernando Niger
~DoiSonin' the atmosphere, l a hardly
find il in me soul to blame the little
Anyway, after havin one
short little conversation with the cap'en
casual like. it became the hardest sort
o Labor for him to shake that native
woman An not that she was a bad
mind We, for h were not-but
she didn't know any better-she were
a tropic an tropics are queered natured
folks, as yell find shortly.
1.-The cap'en told me all about It ,ne
night. An the reason he told me, young
men, was cause / saved his life onct
in the wild country, an then besides he
knew I was oldest and best sensibled
man in the regiment an he knew he
could count on me. An this is how the
Whole thing was:
1.-The regiment came troopin by hel
garden one day, an he stopped TO get {
drink o water, hearin' a fountains
SnIaSh in the Shrubbery o the granC
lcokin' place an hopin' the water'd bt
better than most o the vile stuff we
had to drink. By good luck or bad. the