The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-12-05

But his mind was in a turmoil and
he knew sleep while in that state to
be an impossibility. 1t was with a
vacant unsettled decision that he
drew a drawer and lifted out box
of beautifully tinted stationery. He
laid the sheets carefully before him
on the blue blotting paper, picked up
a pen and eyed it critically, and then
stopped to think. Presently the pen
went over to the ink we'll, then re-
turned slowly to the paper, and Muir
ray began to write in a broad mill
tary scrawl:
"My Dear Miss O'Halloran:-The
events of the war between Spain and
the United States of America are now
being numbered by years gone by and
unless memory is exceedingly active
and rctentive one who participated
in some of the circumstances con-
nected With the brief but glorious
conflict, is liable to forget most of
the smaller details with the passing
of time.
"Hence offer the following inter-
rogations to tax your recollection
and to determine the extent of the
impressions made upon your mind
in the enactment of certain little adj
ventures which l am about to conjure
up again, perhaps as much for my
own pleasure as for your concern.
"Iou will remember, Miss O,Hallo-
ran, a certain day in 1899, 1 believe
it was in the month of March, when
native couriers from San Jose pre-
coded column of marching troops
and entering quaint and quiet little
Guines proclaimed the arrival of
Gen. Lee from Havana? Gen. Lee,
the friend of the down-trodden.
oppressed and starving Cubans, was
approaching and there was joy in
every home. Barefoot muchachos
hurried hither and thither crying in
their e:Scitement: Gen. Lee aqhi; Ell
dos Lee. viva la Cuba Y Anerica!'
''The rich ordered their carriages.
the reconcentrados mustered strength
to walk, and tottering babes tried
again to proceed on their tender feet;
all in one grand assemblage to pay
homage to Lee-to see, to welcome
and to worship Lee, their god and
their protector. He, who was likened
unto the man from Nazareth, had
been driven amid insult and shouts
CT derison from the wharf in Havana
a few months before, was returning,
as he had predicted he would, with
an army to support him and the doc
trine he upheld. The army was from
n,.tI nd
the doctrine was the same kind that
made ii so.
do you remember how the bells
in the cathedral rang and drowned
out the cheers of the rich and tho
rabble. How every Cuban patriot
barred his head and sank to his knees
as Lee rode through the narrow street
bidding the lowly to rise to their feet
as he, did so. How stately and
soldierly Lee looked on his invincible
grey! 1t seemed there were not half
so many people in all Cuba as lined
that dusty thoroughfare that day;
evidently the Spanish had not
murdered you all. l remember the
tears sprang to the generals eyes as
a poor, starving reconcentrado stag
gered beside his mount and kissed
his booted foot. All, the Cuban is a
grateful people! The chanting of
prayers of gratitude as we passed
through the gathering is plain in my
ear to-day.
'But you did not know me then:
perhaps you did not notice me, but
afterward, sweet thought, you did
How thirsty and hungry 1 was after
the nights ride out from Havana
when ! entered small and dingy
almacen to get meal and glass
of water.
81 flush with shame as recall how
bad my Spanish was then. but time
and association with a Spanish-speak
ing people have improved it wonder
fully. A great crowd. bent on char
acter study of the first Americans tc
enter that part of the interior fol
lowed me into the little store, ane
/ stared and gazed, yes fairly gawkec
at me as I seated myself at table.
being an American was equal to the
occasion and gawked back as asked
for water. That is, tried to ask fol
water, but 1 think asked for every
thing but water. What volume O.
laughter arose as butchered every
thing having semblance of the latii
! language. The proprietor of the place
kindlytook down popderous diction
: airy and through this medium w
strove slowly but successfully t.
communicate our thoughts and ais
our wants. Just in the midst of tn
predicament and when our labor
were hardest, little girl, or what
supposed to be little girl, steppe'
briskly yet shyly to my side and in
quired in words of English and II
tones sublime:
"'May l ask what the gentleman
desires? Perhaps l may be OF. som
service to you as an interpreter?'
ITO BE Continued