The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-10-16
WHY THEY LIKE ROOSEVELT


A oallant Fighter and . Coed RrovidSrr
All Admit. but II was the Little Thangr
Ne Did In the Days Before Santiago
That Made Him tire Idoi 81 His nGsa.
Three rough riders who came out OF the
West last sprinG. headed for Cuba and Giory,
were telling stories about Dol Roosevelt And
finally q young woman. who was LISTENING 80
hard that cara. oyos and mouth were ell wide
open. said In q rather Awostruck tone,
DO all the rough ridors bow down and Wor-
ship Roosevelt the way you dol"
Whereupon they Wagged their heads with
emphasis and Trooper Bell OF Company X re-
marked:
Where Amt one Of rs that Wouidn't lie down
and let the Colonel walk over us II IL would
accommodate him. After he led uS mp Ban
Juan hill. we'd have followed him anywhere.
II II had been up against all the BpaniaFdB on
earthl We've got 70 the point whore, II We
we're on top Of one Of the highest buildings In
Now York and the Colonel jumped on. every
man OF NJ would iumpon. too. Yes. wo would"
And Trooper Petit said In . soft. allow way.
That's right"
There Amt q man In this whole country"
continued Trooper Bell. mo, nor In any other
country, that could have done what Col. Roos0-
volt did with tina regiment Regular army
officers wouldn't have known their men and.
by Jove. II they had tried to make parade SOL
dlers out OF us they'd have lost an eye or wo.
We three come from the West and. I tell you.
all Of our crowd were looking for fight and not
for exact Information about the way to hold
our fingers when We saluted. You can't make
a parade soldier out OF . cowboy In three
woeks. / don't know a. you could ever mako
one out OF him.. But you can make . tighter
out OF him In three seconds. and all you need
10 the right kind Of q leader to keep your cow.
ho,, Nrnu, a0htln1 NJ Rha -Honn ktnnn
1.-The Colonel was the leader we needed. and
the proof o; 1t 10 that you didn't hear any kick
coming from him about his men. and you oan
listen from now till Gabriel blows his trumpet
and you won't hear any kick from his men
about him. You mustn't think he was ~careless
about discipline. When he snapped his fingers
things jumped. Everything he did went with
Q snap. He didn't spend time foolink. When
he wanted o thing he didn't ask somebody TO
ask somebody else to send somebody around
with It. He went and got what he wanted and
then he stayed by IL till no got 1t Whare he
wanted It, The other troops used to say:
"'oh. yeSl the rough ridsrsl they've got
this and they've got thatP
"That's all right. We did have things that
the rest didn't have. And why2 Simply be-
cause Col. Roosevelt hustled around and got
them for u.s."
Yea" interrupted Trooper Pollock. who had
been manifestly pining TO add his voice to the
pRan OF praise. DO you remember the time
the Colonel went into Santiago and got the
provisions for US 2 They have an old. bungle-
some kind OF o two-wheeled cart down there,
and the Colonel hired . lot Of these and went
up to Santiago to get SOM supplies which he
understood had arrived there. sent especially
to his regiment. Well. there had been some
kline OF an order about clearing the city Of col
diers, and one OF the officers In charge wasn't
going TO let the Colonel stay In town long
enough to get those supplies. The way I heard
1t was that Col Roosevelt told the officer that
he had come up to get those supplies. and II he
wasn't allowed to carry them down 70 the regt-
ment. he'd bring the regiment up to the sup
plies. And he got EN-"
"And then" interrupted Bell. "he brought
'em to campl Lots OF other officers would
have Galloped out to camp themselves and left
the supplies to get lost By the wayside; but he
stayed right By them TIL he got 'em whore he
wanted 'em. DO you remember. Petit. the
time we were detailed to go down to Siboney
and bring up those beansf"
II hould say Co."
"They were these little white beans; heavy.
TOO. / tell you. When We got there We found
Col. Roosevelt was there. too. and what did he
do but get us up o dinnerl By Jove. but we
had q fine dinner thatday. Don't you remem-
Der. we had potato and-and some kind Of to-
mato soup. guess It was tomato soup-and-
and-what else was 1t we had2 Iknow It was q
f1ne dinner. There was something else. Now.
what was III Oh. I knowl Il was bread"
The young woman laughed. She had ex-
pected beefSteAk or broiled chicken after such
rapturee. and then to have It announced. in q
shout Of triumph. that the " fine dinner" had
its climax in breadi
well. you needn't to laugh" explained the
troopers. Bread was O luxury those days"
"Yes." said one Of them. IL remember the
evening OF July 2-I think Il was that night
when We were In the San Juan trenches. We
were rather Shy on provisions about that time
and after figuring awhile they made out to
give Us two pieces Of bareback each. except
four Of US who got only one piece each. Wed
made the most we could Of our supper and I
was standing BY when the Colonel came mp.
The nrSt thing he asked was whether No had
had our rationS. such Is they were. They told
him we had.
IAN right he said. I'll have mine now
And he ate his two pieces Of bareback like the
rest Of u.s."
I'm toll you one thing he did that showed
the kind Of o heart mes got" said Trooper Pol.
look. 1T was when we left the trenches and
went back TO our last camp before We left the
Island. Each Of us had his equipment to carry.
ana We had plcRaxee ana shoVelD In addition
One young fellow was pretty nearly tuckered
out. and he was struggling alonR with his pick
besides his gun and the rest OF hls stun. You
remember that young fellow. don't you. Bell p
"Yes. and III tell you who he was. He was
ABon Of Gen. Babcock."
That's 90. Well. the Colonel came along,
and when he saw the boy he Just took the pick
" from him and carried 1t back to camp
himself. And not only that. but then he car
ried It down tho company street and put it In the
boys tenn. And I'll tell you something else to
show you how kindly his impulses arc. One
day after the surrender Of the city. I was Or
derby for the Colonel. and went with him and
some other officers down TO the railroad to sec
about sending some troops up to Santiago. I
held the horses until the troops got on. and
then the Colonel and the rest Of US mounted
and started OF at q gallop. Just then . sorrel
horse hobbled down outoi the brSsh and some
body said: There's Capron's horseV
"Capron and o'Neil. you know. were killed
early In the fighting. Al uuick m n 1aah tina