The daily Alaskan., 1916-09-25
The Golden
 Heart
 By BARBARA PHlPPS

mYaQeQ- During the war between tue states many a Union soldier woOed and won & southern girl whose antagOni~n against the Union armies was very bitter. There seems to be something in the social relations that defles the horrors of war.
 Lieutenant Joaquin Molina, young Spanish officer just out of his teens, was during the last years of the last century sent with his command to Cuba. Those were the days when General Weyler was attempting to crush the Cuban revolution by execu- ton and imprisonment, and both he and Spanish soldiers were hated by the downtrodden Cubans.
 Lieutenant Molina was encamped with bis regiment near sugar planta- ton owned by one Leandro Reyes. The officers were received at the plantation with civillty, If not cordiallty, for Reyes did not care to antagonize them, though his sympathies were all for free Cuba. His daughter, Inez. dark eyed beauty of seventeen, saw Molina, and notwithstanding she hated him us an enemy of her country she fell at once under the spell of love, a spell that was mutual, for Molina recipro- cated.
 True, the lady did not at once ac- knowledge that she had given her heart to the young Spaniayd. lndeed, she was struggling against her enthrallment.
 It was not long before the two passed from a mere acquaintance to an acknowledgment of what they felt for each other. Inez, though she ad- mitted her passion for the young off, cer, refused to become his betrothed on the ground that he was engaged in the work of subjecting her country men to the yoke of the king of Spain. He pleaded for her to at least with. hold her decision till the war had end ed, but she replied that the end of the war, whatever it might be, would not alter her decision.
 When MOlina's regiment was order ed to Santiago there was a sad parting between the two, during which Inez gave way and told her lover that if Cuba achieved her independence he might come back and ask her again. Encouraged by this, he took one kiss, Which she permitted, and tore himself away. He left her a parting gift-a little gold heart he wore on his watch chain.
 Molina fought at Santiago, and when the end came he was shipped with his regiment to Spain. He asked for leave in order to visit Senorita Reyes, but, owing to the terms of the surrender, was unable to obtain one. He was obliged to defer seeing her again fur a final reply to hls proposition till he had gone to Spain. Then. if neces- sary, he would resign his commission in order to seek her.
 When Lieutenant Molina reached Madrid he found 1t impossible to ob- tain a leave to return to America. He would have resigned his commission in order to go and claim Inez, but his mother. .dissuaded him.
 "WhatT' she said. "Win you cross the Atlantic to claim a girl you are not sure of? If you resign from the army. what career have you? And you will not find 1t pleasant to live on the income furnished by your wife's fa- ther."
 Molina was thus persuaded to put off the matter so near his heart from day to day, till at last. having thought less and less Of 1t, he drifted away from 1t altogether. He was thrown in with girls at home who desired the atten- lions of young soldier who had been through the last struggle to preserve Cuba for Spain. In few years he married one of them. and his Cuban romance was looked upon thereafter as a pleasant dream.
 Fifteen years passed. Molina had in the meantime resigned from the army and had been elected a member of the cOrtes. Ten years after his marriage his wife died and left him a widOwer without children. Fourteen years after the close of the Spanish Ameri- can war he was appointed to a proml. nent place in the Spanish legation at Washington. While there he was one night attending a reception of the president and was introduced to a lady of middle age who, though a na- tive of tropical America, where wom- en bloom and fade early. was still beautiful He did not catch her name, but saw at once that there was Span ish blood in her veins
 eve have met before. senOr." she said.
 'lndeedr' looking at her scrutiniz. tngly. When? WhereT
 'Tn Cuba"
 q have not been to Cuba for fifteen years. While there met a number of ladies'"
 "To one of them you gave a token"
 "A token"
 "Yes."
 Inserting her fingers under the neck of her dress, she caught chain and Il