GIRL AS A SOLDIER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 348, 26 March 1910, Page 10

GIRL AS A SOLDIER.

DISGUISED SHE FOLLOWS HER LOVER TO THE FRONT.

The story of how a pretty Spanish girl rejoined her soldier lover at the front was brought to light bv a correspondent or the Mirror.

At the beginning of the war a regiment quartered in one of the northern towns of Spain was sent to the front. One of the soldiers belonging to this regiment was at the time engaged to an extremely pretty girl, who was serving as table-maid in the same town.

On the eve of the departure the soldier called on liis "movia" to s-ay goodbye, and was rather surprised "to" find that instead of (being dissolved in tears, as he had expected and almost hoped, the girl was tranquil, and to all appearances satisfied -with the situation. He reproached the girl for her apparent coldness, but she only answered: "Never mind, Jose. I know what I do and why I am doing it. This' separation will be much shorter than you suppose."

The next day the regiment left ior Melilla, and a few hours afterwards Soledad. the girl, also left the house where she was serving and went to Madrid.

Nothing more had been heard of her, until a week or two ago one of the officers who was going down with his regiment to Melilla, was called aside by the sergeant at one of the stations on the way to Malaga, where the troops were to embark.

Among the men, said the sergeant, was a soldier so young and pretty-raced and timid that he thought it must be a ■woman in disguise. Brought up before the officer, Soledad —for it was no other—quickly confessed her identity, and begged to 'be allowed to continue her journey. Determined not to be separated from Jose, she had managed, by some means or other, to obtain a uniform, and. following the first regiment starting for the front, she had squeezed into the station and into a railway carriage unperceived.

Her timidity, however, and feminine appearance .had roused the curiosity of the sergeant and so her adventure'was .brought to a sudden end. The officer reproved her mildly TOr her thoughtless escapade, but. unable to resist her entreaties, promised that she would be sent to Melilla.

True to his word, he arranged that she should be employed in one of the hospitals, and he paid the expanses of a feminine outfit and of the journey out of his own private pocket. '