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

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

the famous reconcentrado camp, a beautiful piece of
ground. Some of the nipa shacks are still standing.
The natives who were confined there were so well
satisfied that, when the time came to break up the
camp, the general could not get them to move until
he turned them out by force.
November 12, 1902.
TO-DAY we are resting, for we are worn out
after a long trip we took yesterday to Taal and
the volcano. We started from the house at six
o'clock, an hour later than we had intended, and
were then delayed by sleepy lieutenants, who kept
us waiting for them half an hour longer. Finally,
the men were gathered in, and the Dorety and two
ambulances started about half-past six on the long
drive to the lake of Taal. The first stage of our
journey was through a delightful country. The
freshness of the night was still in the air, and the
trees and bushes were glistening with dew. The
distance between Batangas and the town of Taal is
about eighteen miles, and there is an almost continuous row of nipa shacks between the two places.
In all parts of the Islands the ravages of war in the
country are soon repaired. The nipa shacks were
almost all new, and the villages really looked more
prosperous than before the war. It is in the towns
that one realizes the ruin and destruction the war
has caused. The first story of the better-class dwell323