Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-05-20

/ grace's hand; and on the back of the
blade / filed notch for every Moro
| l killed with it. 1t was a beautiful
bolo, and the Spanish officers offered
me many pesos for it, but / would not
sell it, for it had belonged to my
father, and he had carved the hilt as
| none but he could carve hits of bolos.
| When we returned to Manila there
were nine no ches in the back of the
/ blade, and was corporal, for it does
not suit Filipinos to fight as the Span
iards fight, by shooting at great dis
/ tances, and We used to leave the white
soldiers far behind and wait for them
to come up after he fighting was over.
For good conduct | was transferred
| into the Guardia Civil of Manila, and,
! as a guardia, [ served many years. |
! had been married and we had one
! son, and he was more than th2 idol
| and Joy of his mothers heart,-for my
wife is a Visayan, and the love of a
| ViSayan woman for her frStbOrn is
| beyond the knowledge of man. He
| grew to be like me in strength and
| was proud of him, and prouder yet to
see how my mujer gloried in and loved
| him for his strength and size, for it
| made him like meme, a member of
| the ever-to-be-trusted Guardia Civil,
with my Mindanao medal to wear at
| the fiestas.
"And at last he, our Jose, was en-
| listed in the infantry as | had been,
and my mujer wept as she stood be-
| side me and saw him march in the
ranks, from pride that her 'muchacho'
was the tallest man in the line, and
his shoulders were those of man and
half,-and Visayan woman seldom
weeps. But |, l who Lad been a sol
der, did not weep, though | felt sad
and doubtful, for | knew that the
Spanish officers we're not as they had
been in my day, and that there was
discomfort among the lines. But l
gave him my bolo to wear and USE
the one with the nine notches in the
back of the blade, senior, with the hilt
which had been carved by my father.
1--WE saw him but seldom after that,
and knew not where he was stationed,
for the infantry soldier in the service
of Spain has little time but to serve,
and sometimes his mother would
grieve because he was not there with
her, and then rejoice because another
day had gone and the end of his serv-
ice was nearer.
Then came the mutiny. Your grace
knows, sin dudo, how it was arranged
that the regiments in Cavite should
kill their officers and the white resi-
dents, and then send up a rocket as a
signal to the troops in Manila to do
the same and capture the city. But
your grace perhaps, does not know
that it was through the Guariia Civil
that word CT the uprising was sent to
the .om1nandante in Manila; for the
Guardia Civil,-of which I was one,
senor,-whatever it's sympathies are,
is true to the cause to which it is
sworn-as true as the steel of the
bolo-and some loco among the mu-
tineers had told a friend who was
guardia. And when the rocket went
up from Cavite, the troops in Manila
had been disarmed and we, with the
white troops, were on our way to Ca
vite.
when we landed, the mutineers
had fed and were hiding, but they had
done their work, and when l saw it
ah, senior, the poor white senoras and
little children!-my blood became like
the hot yellow wine which the Ingleses
drink with soda-water and | cared not
that the mutineers were my country
men or that the bodies were those of
Spanish. Our hearts cried out for
vengeance, and we obeyed the orders
to enter every nipa-hut in Cavite and
drive our bayonets through the floor
for it was under them that tie mu-
tinoers were hiding-and the scars OF
our bayonets are there in tie Euts OF
Cavite to-day l entered two hut5 and
thrust my bayonet through the floor
of each until the screams below had
ce..,ed. Then | entered third, Ind
thrust. and there were no screams,
Lut a hand with a bolo came up
through the fioor and gashed my leg,
as your grace sees. I Pat my foot on
the bolo and thrust again with all LILY
great stre..:.th: and then the hand re-
la1ed and the fingers opened and shut
and tors At the bamboo strips on the
floor like a cats claws-and [ saw that
the bolo had nine notches in the back
of the blade and that the handle had
been carved by M father.
''Our son, the pride and joy of his
mothers heart-a Visayan woman's
heart. senor-was buried in the ditch
in Cavite with the others, and |, his
father, who had loved him and killed
him placed him in it-for 1 was
member of the Guardia Civil.
"That Is the cause, senior, of the
scar on my leg, and also the cause
of my not resenting the insults from
my mujer; for I had killed her first
born and destroyed her JOY in life. The
insults of woman to man are but
little to the loss of her first-born to
| Visayan woman; and If she can bear
her loss the better that should bear
In meekness what she says or does to
me in her anger, may We both live
thousand years"