The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-30
I. OOKED IN VAIN
l. FOR CHANGES
Young Army Officers Surprise on
Returning from the Philippines.

recurring NOiu tnS uiltPPtncS,
Its queer what small hols We leave N
the puddle when we drop out OF vhv.
Isn't t1' observed a young army ofior
q New Yorker. who recently returned from
a long tour Of duty In the PHILIPPINES.
There Is Internationally lot OF triteneu
In that remark but the fact Itself Is a sours
Of never falling wonder 10 me.
@Iwas pretty ent husiastic gossoon wbsn
went rolhoking OF to the Philippines.
Tho Philippines weren't quite 40 we'll known
then a. they are now. and l didn't know
when started whe tber was ever schedued
to como back or not. Didn't give much or
any thou ght 10 the matter at that. -
well, l went through just about what
all the rest endured down there, saw
lot Of the boys pipe out with the fever, had
a mighty close fever shave myself got a
pisoe Of my shoulder clipped away by 4
bolo In tho hands of a Moro with whom.
at the time he tackled me, was oonveninE
upon the most anicable terms, and al
that.
And during all the time was down
there, New York, and everybody I bad
known In New York, including my Own
folks, seemed TO grow farther and farther
away from me in the haze. During Ire
last year that 1 spent in the Philippines
1t seemed TO me as II / had always been
there-that had been bonn and brought
up there and that my me emo ries Of ths
United States, and the good, whohsoms
folks there, including the girls, heavn
guard EN-, were the merest hgments Of
dreams,
i figured that things back in the States
and especially in my home. New York
would be vastly changed-change d 20 that
wouldn't recognize them by the time I
got back. l calculated that the elevated
and the City Hall would look about TIE
same, but couldn't but believe that 'moS
everything Use would look entirely differ.
emit had 1t In mind that all OF the foIh
that had known would be old looking.
even those whom had left behind looking
youthful and clipper. This is. am tod
by the older chaps, a bug that fellow gets
into his head after his first long whirl Of
foreign service; You see, events hsS
moved 40 swiftly with him that he can't
help but ina CINE that the a. me pace has been
kept up back In the place he left behind.
when / got OF the train at jersey City,
( was astonished TO find exactly the sans
him closely, but there wasn't a particle Of
| change In his face or shape He didn't
| in fact look as II he'd moved more than .
block OF two, just for exercise, since Id
started away.
Il eTpected to find my father and moths
| looking about 100 year, old. / arrived
Unexpectedly, and found my mother In
dustriously experimenting the spring house
cleaning, with q towel wrapped around be-
head, and keeping the maids 81 their tash.
My mother IL always cleaning house, any.
how, but, to my intense ama1oment,
found her looking precisely the Same q
she'd looked about q thousand times b.
fore when I'd been hustled about from
room 70 room while abe was engaged h
her favorite psstime Of moving the furnl-
ture about and busting things that didn't
need any busting.
sister was that instead Of wearing . dreSl
down to her shoetops, she had on one Of tbs
regular long variety, but otherwise she va
just about the same, With. perhaps, . b
Of extra sauolness, IL struck me, on Scooun
my bull terrier, that I'd raised fsou,
pup, had expected TO find q toothlesA,
rheumatic old chap, mumbling bread crusts
out In the back yard, but, when got homA
blamed II he wasn't wallopplng the hide q
another bull terrier out In the alley, and
had to hustle out there and pry him looss.
The recognition that dog gave me was worth
travelling all the way from the islands 70
get.
After greeting my mother and sister,
hoped on q car 70 go down and see my
dad, feeling convinced that he, at any rate,
would look old and careworn after the
million years or 80, since had gone away.
well, found him with his feet cooked
up on his desk, a cigar In his mouth, he
mustache pretty perldly twisted at The
ends, and he looked a whole lot huskier
than felt after the hard siege I'd been
having down below. All Of his bushes
associates looked exactly the same, too,
and when / recognized the very same ofico
coats that they d been wearing before went
away, had 10 pinch myself and wonder
whether all Of those Philippine swamps
and bolcs and ping-pinging Of Jorgensen
were not merely a jumbled dream in my
mind-whether I'd really left New York
at all.
and been chummy with before leaving
Down In the Philippines I'd somehow o.
another figured II out that all Of those girh,
had married and raised families, and ell
that-but there they we're, just as bloom,
ing and pretty as ever, and IL seemed hard
TO believe that so many SHOWS had come
and gone in New York since I'd seen them
last.
sIt's all easily accounted for, Of course.
feel q good twenty years older myself
than before / started away, II was Of
course, the first big experience OF my life,
and imagined, thoughtlessly enough,
that everybody / knew hack home was
having twenty years Of experience at the
same time. Instead Of that, they wep
just living placidly and comfortably