The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-09-21

tragedy, no line OF suffering In hu -rr
childish facs to-day-ll her sorrov 81,
anguish are over. She Is q happy unother
welded and honored vito. and her sai,
And thereby hangs the tragedy that had
snedowed her life for the last year.
fhree years ago. when she was little MGR.
snan ID years old. Katherine Cummings m.i
Clarence Hamm at an evening party at IN.
nouse OF mutual friends in Stapleton, where
hather1nes father. Mr. James
Is a prominent business man. Thu youne
man. VINO was handsome and dashinx and
q member OF a ~weIl-known Jersey city
family, continued the acquaintance Of nret-
". modest little Katherine and rraduaiIv
mings home.
SENT HER YOUNG HUSBAND
TO THD WAR
II was a case Of love at first sight. as Il
Afterwards developed. and at the expiration
OF q year and a half, one April day in 1901
the boy and girl slipped of to Newark and
were secretly married. No parental consent
was gwen and none was asked. as both real
Hed that 1t would be refused on both sides
On the score OF their youth. The girl re-
turned to her fathers house in Stapleton
sno the boy. who was employed in a New
York Office. continued to live with his
mother and sister in their comfortable Jer-
sey City home.
All went well Until one unluckv dav tha
secretly welded husband lost his position.
ana after casting about for something to do
an adventurous mood seized him and he en-
listed in Company l. Twenty-seventh United
States Infantry. under Captain a. L. Chris
ue OF Jersey City, who was formerly Cap
tain Of Hamm's company. in the National
Guard.
But a few weeks after his enlistment
company 1 was ordered TO the Philippines,
ana then came the prelude to the child
BRIDES rrG -panv--a > a-adn- --hf,L ia a.
elimination only three weeks ago.
Rather than leave his pretty bride of a
rev months behind. the young bridegroom
was determined TO desert-to do anything,
In fact. rather than be separated from her.
But the brave little bride would hear no
talk of deserving for her sake. She urged
him 10 be brave and do his duty, promising
TO be faithful and true to him until the
long. weary two and a half years service
had been spent and he should return to
acknowledge her as his wife.
On December s. 1901. the Twenty-seyenth
United States Infantry sailed out of New
York Harbor for the Far East. The poor
little bride OF II was too Frustrated to say
good-by at the embsrkation of the troops.
At a midnight tryst. a few days previously,
they exchanged their heart-breaking good
by-at least. il was heart-breaking for the
girl. As for the young soldier, II is no in
Justice TO his tenderness 10 say that he
did not feel the bitterness of the parting as
SIS chiio-VlIe olo. Tor parungs are always
eadder to the one who Is left behind TO
watch and wait for a none too certain re-
turn.
SCRIBBLED A MESSAGE
TO HIS WIFE.
While the grief-stricken and uIiacknowl-
edged wife was pouring out her very heart
in tears in the now desolate Staten Island
home OF her father. the handsome young SOL
der was bidding good-by to his mother and
sister on shipboard. His heart was heavy.
TOO. but a man can conceal grief better than
o woman. and then, too. had he not the
prospect of adventures whole two and a
half years of dashing. fascinating soldiers
life before him? And such things do much
TO make a man forget the grief of parting
from the woman he loves
A few minutes before the transport left
New York Clarence Hamm scribbled the