The times., 1898-10-02
RooSEVELT'S STEW.
At His own Expense He Gave His
Men Royal Treat.
(From the New York SUM-


(From the New York SUM-
An incident illustrating Col Roosevelts
devotion TO the men of his regiment was
told by Trooper Burkholder, of the Rough
Riders, who before returning TO his home
in Phoenix Ariz., spent a few days at
the home of his friend, John Palmer, on
Throop Avenue, near Middleton Street,
williamsburg Rurkholder was all
through the active campaign with the
Rough Riders and returned with them TO
Camp Wikoff He was away on furlough
on account of a slight attack of swamp
fever when the Rough Riders were mus
tered out, and thus missed, as he puts II,
IAN opportunity to say good-by 10 the
most gallant commander and the truest
man that a soldier was ever privileged to
fight under"
"Only us few men who were with him, :"
SAID Burzholder. know how considerate
he was of US at all times. There was one
case in particular that illustrates this
better than any / can recall. 1t happened
after the fight at La Quasimas- The men
were tired with the hard march and the
fighting. and hunger was gnawing at
every stomach. Besides we had our first
men killed there and. taking 1t all in all,
we were in an ugly humor. The usual
shouting, cracking of jokes. and snatches
of song We're missing, and everybody ap-
peared to be in the dumps. l suppose we
were all thinking of poor Ham Fish and
the rest of the poor fellows who had been
dropped in the short scrap.
We'll, things hadn't improved a bit, in
fact were getting worse along toward
meal time, when the colonel began TO
move about among the men, speaking en-
couragingly to each group. | guess he
saw something was up, and no doubt he
made up his mind then and there to i'm
prove at least the humor of the men.
There's an old saying that man can
! best be reached through his stomach, and
! guess he believes in that maxim. Short
! " afterward we saw the colonel, his cook
and two of the troopers of Company L
strike out along the narrow road toward
the town, and we wondered what was up.
It was probably an hour or so after this,
| and during a little resting spell in our
| work OF clearing ground and making
! things a little camplike, that the savory
| and almost forgotten odor of beef stew
began to sweep through the clearing.
I Men who We're working stopped short and
! began TO sniff, and those who had stop
! ped work for a breathing spell forgot to
breathe for a second. Soon they Joined in
! the shifting, and I'll wager every one of
us was shifting as hard as he knew how.
| oh, but didn't that smell fine! We
| weren't sure that 1t was for us, but we
! had a smell of 1t anyway. Quickly droop-
| ing spirits revived, and as the fumes OF
| the boiling stew became stronger the hu-
| NOR of the men improved. We all jump
ed to our work with a viii, and picks,
| shoveIs and axes were piled in racehorse
fashion, while the men would stop now
and then to raise their heads and draw a
| long reath and eXclaim:
| sVEnyyi bIt smells good
we were finally summoned 10 feed, and
| then you can imagine our surprise
| There was a big boiler, and beside IL 9
crowd of mess tent men dishing out rea
| beef stew We could hardly believe oul
eyes, and I had to taste mine first to make
! sure 1t wasn't a dream. You should have
seen the expressions on the faces of tht
men as they gulped down that stew. anc
We all laughed when one New York MAI
yelled:
And it's got real onions in 1t, too e
After we had loaded up we began L
wonder where It all came from, and theI
the two Troop l men told how the colone
had purchased the potatoes and onions
and his own cook secured the meat from
| Siboney.
You probably won't believe it, but TIL
bushel of potatoes cost Col. Roosevelt
almost $50, and he had to pay
thirty-odd good American dollars
TO get the onions, but then HI
knew what his men wanted, and it wa
always his men first with him Their
was a rush to his tent when we learne'
this, and IL you ever heard the cheering
you wouldn't wonder why the Rough Rid
ers all love their colonel.
'T see" said Burkholder, that in hi
address to the men at Camp Wikof tn
colonel told the men how he had TO hurr,
at the San Juan Hill fight to save himsel
from being run over by the men. That!
just like him TO say that, but he probabl
forgets that more than half of the me
never ran so fast before and never vii
again, as they had to run to keep u
with him. If Col. Roosevelt lived in Ari
zona we could give him any Office HI
wanted without any election nonsense"