The age-herald., 1899-06-11
TN Il That Are s4$-BY PAUL FRY. N " )>S$ SS~A

The story of the Rough Riders." as told by Governor Roosevelt fin his book on the subject, teaches one special lesson above all others it may contain, and that is that American pluck and energy will win every time. In the recital of the story of the now famous Rough Riders" Governor Roosevelt goes back to the very inception of the idea of such 0 regiment And those at all familiar with the incidents of the war will remember the lack of orderly management in the various departments a the head of the organization of the army and also the accoutrement of the regi- ments.
 Had Colonel Roosevelt and Colonel Leo nard Wood a particle less of executive ability and indomitable energy and good American push" the chances are that the Rough Riders never would have left the shores of their native country. Realizing this Colonel Roosevelt fin his narrative speaks of a book, recently reviewed in these columns-Anglo-Sa Superiority by NJ Demolins-of which he eays. M. Demolins, in giving the reasons why the English-spealIing peoples are superior to those of Continental Europe, lays much stress upon the way in which 'militarism deadens the power of individual iniative, the soldier being trained to complete sup pression of individual will, while his fac ulties become atrophied in consequence of his being merely a cog in a vast and per fecay ordered machine. I can assure the excellent French pubicist that American 'militarism,' at least of the volunteer sort, has points of difference from the militar n Continental Eprpnn "a ai chief of a newly raised American regiment, when striving to get into war which the American people have undertaken with buoyant and high-hearted indifference to detail, has positively unlimited opportuni- ties for the display of individual initiative, and is in no danger whatever either of suffering from unhealthy suppression of personal will, or finding his faculties of self-help numbed by becoming q cog in a gigantic and smooth-running machine"
 
 Colonel Roosevelt was occupying his spare moments reading this book during the journey by rail from San Antonio to Tampa, which took just four days, and he adds that he doubts If anybody on the trip will soon forget it. After reading the des- crption of the difficulties experienced by the commanders of the regiment, I am sure we will all agree that there was no un- healthy suppression of individual initia-
 
 chief wants to get anything or go any where he must do it by exercising every pound of resource, inventiveness, and au- dacity he possesses. The help, advice and superintendence he gets from outside will be of the most general, not to say super ficial, character. If he is a cavalry officer he has got to hurry and push the purchase of his horses, plunging into and out of the meshes of red tape best he can. He will have to fight for his rifles and his tents and his clothes. He will have to keep his men healthy largely by the light that na- ture has given him. When he wishes to embark his regiment, he will have to fight for his railway cars exactly as he fights for his transporta ton when he comes to going across the sea; and on the journey his men will or will not have food, and his horses will or will not have water and hay and the trains will or will not make con- nections, in exact correspondence to the energy and success of his own efforts to keep things moving straight"
 Colonel Roosevelt's narrative seems to be a perfectly candid, truthful relation of the events concerning his popular regiment. He gives many interesting details, which head like romance so absorbing and full of eX- citing interest are they But never does the recital become tedious from the first page to the last. The reader is intensely concerned about every thing from the daintiest of eastern club men to the veriest cow-puncher of the far west, who exclalm- ed to a friend on his way to Cuba: "Oh- oh, Jim! ma hat blew into the creek!" And if these details of preparations for war are interesting and the descriptions of the many brave, noble fellows who made up the regiment, what can be said of the recital of the actual engagement? Colonel Roosevelts account of the engagements is corroborated by the descriptions of other reliable writers of the actual scenes of the war. Those who though correspondents, like Richard Harding Davis, were never theless in the forefront all the while and in the thickest of the fight
 No one could be more fitted to write such a book than Colonel Roosevelt his previous literary efforts gave him the nec- essary training in concise pictorial narra- tive, while his splendid and varied public career gave broadness of view and wis dom of judgment to his intellect. It is splendid volume, one to be read with in- terest and pleasure by every adult; one, too, that should be read by every boy in the land, and girl, too, for our girls must be patriotic and informed on these string national events. To prove how absorbing