Arizona republican., 1905-06-12

I don't know exactly why I married been a fool about women. The thing came so sudden, I just jumped and caught her on the fly. When she left me I went pretty much to the bad. Then Harry Maidslow disappeared, be- cause of debts and one thing or another and l turned up as Harry Roberts in St. Louis. That was just about when the Spanish war broke out. It was too good chance to lose, and I de- cd to begin all over again. So I en- listed in the regulars, joining the One Hundred and Fourteenth Infantry. I was hardly more than through the goOsestep, when we were sent to the Philippines.
 I was no slouch or shirk, either, but l knew more about eating than any thing else. and I naturally grayitated to the cooks tent and put him on to a lot of things the boys liked. I got to be rather popular with the company in this way, and when the commissary sergeant was appointed in Manila, I managed to get the place, although I was only a rookie. Perhaps the cap tain's wife helped me out some. She, being an officers lady, wasn't sup posed to know I was on earth. but somehow she noticed me, and fixed it up easy.
 Commissary work was a snap-little drill, no guard mount, leave of absence occasionally, and the run of the town in little ponycart. You see, each company had its quota of rations. We could draw them, or leave them and get credit There was maple syrup and candy, canned fruit and chocolate, and all sorts of good stuff in the storehouse that we could get at wholesale rates. By cutting down on fresh meat, and pinching on bacon, managed the com pany's accounts so that we could have hot griddIe cakes and maple syrup ev cry day. That's the way held my job. If ever become famous, it will be for having introduced pie in the Philip pines.
 Every morning drove around Man fla, visiting the markets with a man to help me, exchanging sacks of flour for fresh bakers bread and cakes, getting chickens, and so on, besides making friends right and left. About two nights every week I was dancing or flirting with the halfbreed women; Meztizas, they called them. That's how got into trouble.
 Her name was Senorita Maria del Pillar Assompcion Aguilar, and noth- ing that ever I saw could touch her for looks. She was the kind of a woman that makes you forget everything else that ever happened before. She and her brother owned about the whole of a province in the middle of the Island of Luzon. When she came into the room 1t was all over with me. There was more of the Spanish than the FiI- ipino in her, enough to give her the style and air of a lady, but she got her beauty from the tropics. Her hair was like one of those hot, black nights they have down there-silky and soft, drift ing around her face-but it was her eyes that made you lose sleep. They were blue-black, not melting, but wide awake and piercing. They were just a bit crossed-hardly a hairbreadth out, but that little cast seemed to make her even prettier than if they were straight. A Kansas sergeant told me that the family was in from their country place. and that the secret service people were watching her. She and her brother were suspected of knowing a good deal about Aguinaldo's plans.
 You remember that after the battle