The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-29
COLONEL LALA'S
SPECIAL DEVIL
By ALBERT SONNICHSEN.

surrounding bristled with men; only
the captain stood his ground. And
when at last the enemy turned on him,
he, too, lodged and sought refuge with
his men.
Having won what he considered a
complete victory, Diablo withdrew to
the end of the plaza to contemplate the
confusion he had wrought in the en-
emy's ranks, proclaiming his triumph
with loud noises that We're more bel
lows than the "baas" of his kind Ev-
identity he was satisfied to rest on his
laurels, for when the men reassem-
bled in ranks, he made no further hos
tile demonstration and disappeared be-
hind the walls of the municipal town
hall.
Next day he appeared again. but in
more peaceful mood. The first SER
geant approached him with a wisp OF
straw. and this Diablo accepted as a
peace offering. Later he came over to
the barracks and mingled with the
men, and while some were for re-
trieving the defeat of the day before,
the majority were glad to accept the
truce that Diablo offered.
Thus their acquaintance began. Di-
ablo saw that these men in brown uni
forms were not such bad fellows after
all. and accepted their presence with a
philosophical equanimity not to be dis
turbed by further serious strife. 1t
is to be suspected that his combative-
ness of the first day was prompted as
much by desire for personal glory as
by patriotic motives, for now that he
was accorded all the respect due to a
warrior of his calibre, he seemed to
think no more of his fighting compat-
riots in the nearby hills.
Not long after this the native fami-
lies of San Ramon began to return
70 ha4K. taI I.a.,
them their household goods. They,
too, were beginning to learn that the
Yankees were pretty decent fellows,
and comparatively harmless, except in
fight Perhaps Diablo would have re-
| moved even this latter qualification,
but then he could Judge only by his
own one experience. He had won
! where others had lost.
The Americans learned something of
! Diablo's antecedents from the return
| ing natives He had been brought
there by company of insurgent regu-
| lars from the Tagalog country as a
mascot He had always been on fair
| ly good terms with them, except that
! he occasionally displayed a very hasty
| temper when offended. He had strong
| likes and dislikes, and his dislikes usu-
! ally outnumbered his likes. The red
| trousers of the insurgent cavalry uni
| form were especially distasteful to his
| esthetic sense. There had been only
| one cavalry officer in San Ramon in
| those days, Col. Lala. who was there
! on some vague mission for the Tarlac
| government, and he. or his trousers,
became the object of Diablo's bitterest
| animosity. Whenever the Colonel APP
| peared in the plaza, Diablo's most in
| innate friends could not hold him
back, and the Colonel found 1t safer to
keep indoors. He openly advocated
| death for the goat. but the discipline
of the already half shattered insurgent
army was then too loose to permit OF
| such tyrannieal proceedings. With all
! his faults. the Tagalog regulars still
! had a genuine regard for their camp
follower That ne had not been taken
along in the retreat showed only how
hard pressed they had been.
As time passed Diablo became ap-
| parently as used to his white associates
as he had been TO the brown. He form
ed a rather intimate friendship with the
/ first sergeant who had been the object
| OF his special animosity the first day.
i Him he would sometimes honor with a
/ formal visit at quarters, but toward the
rest of the men, including the Colonel,