Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

as I came downstairs to go into town. This warlike preparation quite alarmed me.
"What is the matter? " I inquired.
" Oh, nothing, only an uprising is planned for today, ma'am," the sergeant cheerfully replied.
I hesitated a moment and then drove off, confident that if my diminutive coachman tried to kidnap me I could put him hors de combat in no time.
In spite of these warlike preparations Manila is a
tranquil city. Political affairs are much more encouraging than they seemed to be when we left
America. All organized resistance is over. There
are a great many bandits and robbers, but every
day they are being captured and their ammunition
discovered. The dreaded rainy season is worse
for the Filipinos than for our men, for now we
hold all the towns and they are "chasing themselves around the country," as a young officer
put it. They do not seem to be such a fierce
race as they are reported. They strike me as lazy,
polite, and good-natured. They may be treacherous, and everyone says they are, but on the surface the lower classes are certainly very agreeable.
We have a neighbor opposite who lives in a
nipa hut. He has a wife and two children, and is a
fisherman. Once or twice we have thrown candy
out of the window to the children. Last Sunday
morning the little girl came up the stairway leading
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