While Wood was serving as a Judge, General Bliss realized the position of the Lieutenant and sent him a shoulder holster that bore an interesting history. It was constructed so that a small, leather-covered piano wire fitted into the muzzle of the revolver, with a hand-spring circling the cylinder. When wanted, the gun would fairly leap into the hand. The holster had been given to General Bliss by his lifelong friend, "Whispering Smith," who had designed it and carried it for many years for the Santa Fe railroad, and who was rated as one of the fastest gun men of the early West.
The holster had been of particular interest to Wood, for his initial experience in Mindanao had almost been his last, due to a stiff holster. He had been a Third Lieutenant then, only three days in Mindanao, and had gone with a group of brother officers to the wedding of a friendly Moro. The other officers had worn no side arms, but Wood a youngster of twenty-one, had been proud of his new service revolver and holster, and had worn them. The officers were given a place of honor on a high platform.
The groom approached, with bales of silk, brass gongs, and a retinue of shackled slaves to complete the purchase of the bride. As the wedding party watched, one of the slaves escaped into the bush, and the young Moro was disconcerted and lacking in the payment. Hastily he asserted the prerogative of his rank and clapped the nearest of his men into the slave line. It was a matter that could be straightened out later, for this policy of degrading a free tribesman was contrary to Moro law.
The procession moved on, the young free Moro sullen in the slave line. The wedding got under way, and the slaves were seated on the floor in front of the officers' platform. As interest turned to the bride, the young free Moro seized a barong and went to work on the crowd. The slave keeper dropped, split from shoulder to pelvis; the Moro turned to the officers' platform.
Wood alone was armed--and his holster was stiff and new. For the longest seconds of his life he tugged at the weapon--it came free at last and the Moro went down under Wood's accurate fire.
That evening, a solemn-faced young Constabulary Lieutenant went to his quarters to accomplish an exemplary job of holster pruning.
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