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

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

all at the table heard him:" Thank you, madam, it
is always flattering to hear such things, even when
they are said for politeness only, but when one
knows that they come from the heart it is doubly
pleasant." That was not so bad, considering the
general's well-known feeling toward the Commission.
July 4, I901.
UDGE TAFT was inaugurated Civil Governor
J of the Philippine Islands to-day. The ceremony
took place in the morning on the plaza facing the
Ayuntamiento. A platform had been erected on the
massive stone foundations of the "New Palace,"
which have been laid many years. I have been told
that the money for the erection of this building was
voted and paid by the Spanish Government, but that
it was appropriated by the officials in charge of the
work, and that in Madrid in the archives one may
see a picture of the finished building and a description of it representing it as completed. The building, however, was never erected except on paper.
The plaza is a cool, green square, with a fountain
and large trees. On one side stands the cathedral;
opposite it is a row of Spanish houses. On the
third side is the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall.
The participants in the day's ceremonies gathered
in the Ayuntamiento. On the platform three hundred seats were reserved for those whose position
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