Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-09-19
Colonel Roosevelt's Last Words to the
Rough Riders"
New York SUI


1t does not follow that because Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt shook hands with
the men of four of his troops at Camp
Wikoff yesterday and babe them a feel
ing farewell it is the end of his relations
as friend and mentor of those gallant
fellows. The fame of the Trough
Riders is imperishable. They may
never come together again to fight the
battles of their country, but as citizens
they will form an association, to meet
annually in the west or the east, when
memories of the Santiago campaign
will be renewed and the loving cup will
be passed. We may be sure that at
these reunions Theodore Roosevelt will
be first in their hearts, as he ever has
been; and that whatever civic honors
await him, their old colonel will be one
of them until taps sounds for the last
time. In the spot where the commander
and his men parted there was d certain
fitness, for It's undulating plains greatly
resemble the prairies where the cowboy
soldiers We're recruited. With the
horses feeding at the picket line, the
resemblance was very striking to a
plainsman. And it was also appropriate
that the farewell should be said in a
place bare to the skies. where those
rough spirits could breathe freely,
instead of in the cramped staidness of a
public hall.
The situation was one for heart thrObS
and tears, and neither officer nor man
was ashamed to show his eyes we're wet.
No one who has not seen Theodore
| pnncnunlt nr,nnr his houc in fhn CO.
Juan trenches can realize how close and
strong was the tie that bound them.
With his W hands the colonel dug in
the trenches beside them; on the brink
he slept among them; and he was hail.
fellow-well-met with them, and yet with
out a loss of dignity. Under a tree on
the ridge he lay n night with four OF
his troopers, when an enemy's shell
burst over them, killing three of the
men, the colonel and the other not be.
ing touched. No tent in a sheltered
nook for Roosevelt when his men were
exposed. rs
Americans must never lose sight OF
one pregnant fact which Colonel Roose-
welt laid stress on in his speech to his
men. They formed a regiment that
served as a type of American manhood
and American fighting ability; very few
aliens, very few %foreign-born men were
in it's ranks. Most of the Rough Rid
ers" first saw the light in the wild and
crude west, for it must be remembered
that it was a regiment of young men.
And men of Indian blood were among
them, so that, iguratively speaking,
there was the sight of the white man
and the red man he had hunted to the
death on the plains fighting side by side
for the stars and stripes. Let us say at
once, since it is strictly true, that NO
command ever raised among us for
battle contained so many sons of the
native soil. Hence the Rough Riders
were a type over which Americans
should love to linger. 1.-The west," said
Colonel Roosevelt, islands ready to give
tens of thousands of men like YOU
The east ought to know it, but a genera
tion has grownTup since the civil war,
and the memories of that struggle
were fading. 1t is one of the, fell.
cities of the organization of the
"Rough Riders" that men of the
east and men of the west met In its
ranks and learned to respect one an.
others s%taunchness and pluck. The
war has helped to bind the east and
west closer together, just as, it has
welded the north and south, Do not
let us be misunderstood when emphasis
is put on the American type for which
the Rough Riders stand. 1t would be
the grandest ingratitudc to forget the
invaluable services of the foreign born
in the war just terminated, but it is the
American spirit which strengthens and
permeatcs and leads our armies, and
that is the spirit which blazed forthlin
in the war of the rebellion and made
! our civil war the titanic conflict it was.
1t is that spirit upon which we must
depend to retain the glories W have
won.
So the colonel and his troopers shake
the mailed hand and part to engage in
the civic battle, which requires no less
manhood and daring than that which is
now only a glorious memory. In the
civic strife may they emulate each1the
other, as they did on the battlefield.
Fortunate is the land which has such
sons.