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

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

a burst of music and the " Washington Post " march
came floating to our ears. The village band in the
cleanest of white shirts, the tails flying in the breeze,
were ranged with their instruments under the win(low. They played a long programme, which was a
veritable torture to our ears, so out of tune were
their instruments, but they played with vigor and
con amore. The repertoire included the " Poet and
Peasantt" overture, Sousa's marches and two-steps,
the " Manila Waltz," and half a dozen gay little
(lances. During this concert we ate the good things
provided by our host, waited on by the polite and
attentive gentlemen of Apalit. There was no end
to the sweets which were pressed upon us after we
had finished soup, a fish, like shad, from the Rio
Grande, and tame ducks, a gift from the presidente
of the town. There was a great variety of new and
interesting fruits, and we did full justice to it all,
while listening with open ears to the stories of
hikes through the jungle and the driving out of a
band of robbers that had lived by raiding the province of Pampanga from time immemorial. The
headquarters of this robber band had been across
the Rio Grande, and the ladrones were in the habit
of suddenly descending on the unarmed and defenseless inhabitants of Apalit and the neighboring
barrios "to gather tithes," as they called it. No
wonder that the Pampangans from Apalit to Calumpit beg that the " captain " may stay with them
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