St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-10
TEDDY RoosEvELT's STEW.
The Reugh.RidIng Colonel's Way oi
CheePing Hts Men 1T q Crit.
ieal Tine.

CAeerise Ms Men ~ q Crit-
teal Tine.
An incident illustrating Col. Rcose-
velt's devotion to the men Of his regi
ment was tod by Trooper Burkho!der
Of the rough riders. Durkhclder wa.
ali through the active campaign will
the rough riders and returned Will
them to Camp Wiko1. He was ava!
on furlongh on account Of slight at
tack of swamp fever when the rough
riders were mustered out, and thus
missed, as he puts il, IAN opportunity
to say good-by to the most gallant
commander and the truest man tha;
q soldier was ever privileged to fight
under"
"Only us few men who were with
him." said Burkholder, "know how
considerate he was of us all the time
There was one case in particular that
illustrates this better than any | car
recall. 1t happened after the figh'
at La Quisimas. The men were tiret
with the hard march and the fight
ing. and hunger was gnawing at ever,
stomach. Besides. we had our frs;
men killed there, and. taking it al.
in all, we were in an ugly humor. TIL,
usual shouting, cracking OF jokes ant
.natches Of song were missing. and
everybody appeared to be in the
dumps. I suppose We were all think.
ing Of poor Ham Fish and the rest OF
the fellows who had been dropped in
the short scrap.
"Well. things hadn't improved bit.
In fact, were getting worse along TO-
ward meal time, when the colonel be-
gan to move about among the men
speaking enccuraging!y to each group
I guess he saw something was up. and
no doubt he made up his mind then
and there to improve at least the hu-
NOR of the men. There's an old say
ing that a man can best be reached
through his stomach. and I guess ne
believes in that maxim. Shortly alter
ward we saw the colonel, his cook and
two Of the troopers OF company J
strike out alorg the narrow road to-
ward the town, and we wondered wha:
was up II wss probabl an hour OF
so after this, and during little rest
ing smell in our work Of clearinggroune
and making things little camplike
that the .avory and almost forgotten
odor of beef stew began to sweeE
through the clearing Men who wer.
working stopped short and began tt
sniff. and those who had stopped wort
for breathing spell forgot to breathe
for second. Soon they Joined IL
the shifting. and I'll wager every one
Of us was shifting Is hard IS he knew
how. Oh. but didn't that smell fine.
We weren't sure that il was for us
but we had smell of it. anyway
Quickly dropping spirits revived ane
as the fumes Of :hs boiling stew be
| came stronger the humor of the mel
improved. We all jumped to our worl
with a will. and picks. sho'eis an
axes were Piled in race-horse fashion
while the men would stop now ane
then to raise their heads and draw
long breath and exclaim:
| ".Wow. but that smells good.
1--WE were finally summoned 10 feed
| and then you can imagine our sur
prise. There was big boiler and be-
| side it a crowd of mess tent men dish
ing out real beef stew! We could
hardly believe our eyes. and l had te
| taste mine first to make sure il wasn't
dream. You should have seen ths
| expressions on the faces OF the mer
as they gulped down that stew. and
we all laughed when one man yelled
"'And it's got real onions in it
tool
"Af.er we had loaded up we began
| to wonder where IT all came from
and then the two troop men told
how the colonel had purchased the
potatoes and onions while his owr
| cook secured meat from Sihoney.
"You probably won't believe it. but
| the bushel of potatoes cost Col. Roose'
Welt almost $50. and he had to pay
thirty-odd good American dollars te
ret the onions, but then he knew what
his men wanted. and it was always hi.
men first with him. There was rust
10 his ten: when We learned this. ana
IFS ou overheard the cheering. I'm SURE
you wouldn't wonder why the rough
riders all love their colonel.
81 SEE" said Burkhoider. shat IL
his address to the men at Camp Wi
kofY. the colonel told how he had te
hurry at the San Juan hill fight Il
save himself from being run over BY
the men. That's just like him to say
that; but he probably forgets thai
more than half Of the men never raj
so fast before and never will again =.
they had to run to keep up with him
llf Col. Roosevelt lived in Arizona, w
would give him any Office he wanted
without any election nonsense. ~