The age-herald., 1898-07-17
ROOSEVELT'S RIDE
 AT SAN JUAN


 Herald.
 San Juan. Cuba, July 4.-snce Colonel Wood was promoted to the command of a brigade Lieutenant-C Colonel Roosevelt has had complete control over the regiment of Rough Riders. He is, in consequence, very happy. and the devotion of his men to him is something fine to see.
 Roosevelt in the last fifteen years has played many parts-cowpoy, big game hunter, civil service commissioner, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy and writer of American history. He is now making American history, and making it very well.
 On Friday, when he was ordered to take his regiment into the open, he found the regulars lying in the grass under a heavy fire. They were being shot without being allowed to make any return.
 This did not seem good enough, and Roosevelt led his regiment through their lines and rode up ahead of his men toward the blockhouse on the hill. The younger officers and the colored soldiers of the Tenth followed instantly.
 No one who saw Roosevelt take that ride expected he would finish it alive. AS the only mounted man, he was the most con spicuous object in range of the rifle pits, then only two hundred yards ahead.
 It looked like foolhardiness, but, as a matter of fact, he set the pace with his horse and inspired the men to follow. He reached the blockhouse with four troopers before all the Spaniards had abandoned 1t, and killed one of them, who was stlll firing with his own revolver.
 The charge was followed almost imme- diately by another to the hill on the right, which he occupied with 300 men, the scattered fragments of six dismounted cavalry regiments.
 The Rough Riders have remained in this position ever since When I saw them yes- terday only half of the men were left of those with whom l started from Siboney ten days ago. Six of the eight troops have lost their captains, the rest are commanoeo by second lieutenants and sergeants. But the spirit of the men was high, and they were as cheerful and content as in the rocking chair days at Tampa
 Sharpshooters and cowboys were pottlns at Spanish guerrilas in the trees at the rear as impassively as though they were contesting for badges in rifle range. one man-Corporal Goodwin, of Arizona-snot
  hacks watching him. Bullets were passing over them continuously, and so close to tbe> crest that they moved about on thelr knees.
 Woodbury Kane, who is now first lieu tenant of K troop, showed me a spoonIui of tobacco in the palm of his hand ana begged the loan of my pipe. This was ms last bow1ful of tobacco, and he acceptea the fact with the most unruffied good hu- mor This regiment when it was first organized was criticised and ridiculed. It was com pared to the regiments of Bowery boys ard volunteer firemen who ran away at Bull Run. But the difference lay in the fact that the personnel of the men in this regi- ment is somewhat higher than that or the men who rob drunken sailors ana admin ister knockout drops to the eouhtrymen who go sightseeing on the Bowery. The Rough Riders. as they are now uhl- yersally called, have been in the two naro- est fights of the war and in the front oi each. They have lost in killed and wound ed half their number, and between the western man and the eastern man there IS nothing to be said of either except praise. The grit of the cowpuncher has never been doubted, but whenever we nave wished to illustrate the fact that tne swell will fight we have had to refer to tbe bravery of the English gG2srdsmen and dandies at Alma and Balaklava. Now we can refer instead to the courage or the voune men of the universities and of the Knickerboclxer club when they greed the mass at Ouasimas and charged up the hill nf San Juan. It is a more up-to-date ex- ample and the men are Americans.