Daily American Citizen

A TEXAN ROMANCE.

CHINAMAN ELOPED WITH A BEAUTIFUL MEXICAN GIRL.

And Is Now Insurgent In Luzon Holding High Rank in Aguinaldo's Army and Council--Wife Wants to Return to Her Parents.

A rich Chinaman who ran away with a Spanish girl in Texas turns out to be a diplomat and a general of the Filipinos.

Jose Acosta of Caldwell, Tex., has received a letter from his sister in the Philippine islands which furnishes a solution to a problem that puzzled a good many people in Texas about three years ago. A Mexican by the name of Santiago de Montemazo, who kept a popular restaurant in Caldwell for several years, had for some time in his employ a Chinese cook, whom he called Mate. He was a clever rascal of fine address, pleasing countenance, and features that caused many people to doubt his nationality. He, however, stoutly maintained that he was a Chinaman and said that his name was Li Mate. He accounted for the absence of that distinguishing hirsute appendage peculiar to his race by declaring that he had voluntarily parted with his queue when he made application to become an American citizen. He was rather popular with the patrons of the establishment, and those who know him best say that he was well educated and well read, and master of half a dozen languages.

Li frequently waited on the customers who patronized the fruit stand in front of the restaurant, and in this way it is supposed he made the acquaintance of Marie Acosta, the pretty young daughter of a very respectable Mexican gentleman who lived not far away. The girl's people never dreamed that the girl was receiving the attentions of the Chinaman until her disappearance from her home. So carefully did the young couple plan their elopement that no trace of them was ever found until a letter was received from Marie, mailed in San Francisco. She informed her brother that she had married Li Mate, and that they were going to sail in a few days to Manila, where her husband's people lived.

Nothing more was heard from the runaway couple until a few days ago. Now Senora Marie writes to her brother asking him to intercede with her parents and induce them to permit her to return to her old home with or without her husband. She insists that her husband treated her well, but says he is an officer with the Philippine insurgents, and that she has not seen him for nearly a year, though she has frequently received messages from him. Her husband, she says, belongs to a rich family, and he has never failed to supply her with an abundance of ready money. He advises her to return to the United States, telling her that he intends to make his home in this country if the war terminates in the overthrow of Aguinaldo's government. She foresees that the American army will finally triumph in the Philippines, and fears that many of the insurgent officers of high rank, including her husband, will either be shot or banished. Her husband is a member of Aguinaldo's congress, and at the same time an officer of high rank in the army. Gen. Otis, she says, has granted her permission to return to the United States, and she says her husband's people are willing to supply her with an abundance of money.

The old Mexican has written his daughter that the family will welcome her to her old home, but they all positively decline to receive her husband.

MR. AND MRS. LI MATE.