The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-11

! ulNlly lOSGLutT WIFI lulllt, llduE up
the cavalry division at Santiago"
So reads the dedicatory lines from
Theodore Roosevelts pen in the intro
duction to his story of the part played
by the First L. S. V. cavalry in the
Santiago campaign.
| AS an author. Theodore Roosevelt is
always interesting, and at times in
| tensely so. This is one of the times. As
| all the world knows, he was the colonel
OF this now famous regiment, and so
he has added to his graphic story and
brilliant bits of description the stamp
Of official authority.
| A considerable measure of egotism
enters into his story, justified, possibly,
| by the conditions and circumstances
| that attached to the period and events
OF which he writes. Indeed, it is a COM
mon quality of men like Roosevelt. In
his case it can certainly be pardoned
! by reason Of the very positive proof he
| has given to the world and particularly
to the writer of this review Of his moral
and physical courage
He begins his story in the year pre-
| ceding the outbreak of the war while
navy. Even then, while he was work.
ing night and day to get his depart
ment to intervene in Cuba, he formed
| the determination that if war came,
somehow or other he was going to the
| front. The one friend who stood close
| to Roosevelt in this waiting period was
DR. Leonard Wood, then an army
surgeon, now governor general of San
tagO province. What greater tribute
aa n ha TO va 1,g Ito
SO many Of the gallant fighters with
whom it was later my good
fortune to serve, he combined
in very high degree the qualities
of entire manlness, with entire up
uprightness and olesnliness of charac-
ter 1t was a pleasure to deal with a
man of high ideas, who scorned every
thing mean and base, and who pos
sessed those robust and hardy qualities
of body and mind for the lack of which
no merely negative virtue can atone"
What tribute from such a mani
The opportunity both longed for so
eagerly came when congress authorized
the raising Of three cavalry regiments
from among the wild riders and rifle
men of the Rockies and the great
plains Woods had commanded not
only regulars and Indian scouts, but
| white frontiersnen. Roosevelt had
lived among the cowboys and mountain
hunters; indeed, he had been one Of
them, faring precisely as they did
Wood was speedily commissioned as
colonel and Roosevelt as lieutenant
colonel of the First U. S. V. cavalry
That was the official title of the regi-
ment, but the public promptly chris
tened IL the Rough Riders. The diff
Guilty in organizing was not in selecting,
put in rejecting men. There was a del
uge Of applications from every quarter
OF the globe. A division could have
been raised without any trouble.
Inc men were equipped armed and
disciplined, thanks to Woods keen fore
sight, in spite Of the national UMPIRE
paredness, just IN time to enable them
to go on the Santiago expedition. Re
| cfulLs were drawn not only from west
and southwest, but from the eastern
CLUBS from Harvard, Yale, Princeton and
many another college. Harvard being
my own college," writes Roosevelt. L
had such swarm OF applications from
it that l could not take one IN ten.
What particularly pleased me was that
they did not ask for commissions. Tie
Harvard contingent was practically
| raised by Guy Murchie of Maine. He
saw all the fighting, did his duty with
the utmost gallantry and then left the
service as he had entered it, entirely
satisfied to have done his duty. No
man did it better"
OF the men who made up the bulk
OF the regiment, the men who came
from New Mexico. Arizona, Oklahoma
and Indian Territory, he says: They
were a splendid set, tall and sinewy
with resolute, weatherbeaten faces and
eyes that looked a man in the face
without flinching. In all the world
there could be no better troops than
those afforded by these grave hunters
of the mountains, these rough riders OF
the plains"
His book abounds with witty anec-
dotes and pathetic pictures, particu-
larly in reference to the personnel of
his regiment. One cannot help but smile
in reading of little McGinty, the
Broncho Buster, from Oklahoma, who
never had walked a hundred yards IL
by any possibility he could ride, and
who. when reprOved for his
inability to keep step on the
battle-ground, responded that he was
pretty sure that he could keep step on
horseback. When Holderman, in an
nOuncing dinner to the colonel and
three majors, genially remarked, IF
you fellows don't come everything will
get cold" he had no thought other than
a kind and respectful regard for their
welfare and was glad to change hts
| form Of address on being told that it
was not the conventional military form.
And then the nicknames! An Eastern
! club man was christened Tough Ike"
! his bunl5ie, a rough cowboy, The
| Dude" a huge Ted-headed Irishman.
"Sheeny Solomon" 2 young Jew was
called Pork Chop" one who in point
( of language and department was abnor-
mally quiet, was called Hell Roarer."
while another. who Was his exact anti
| thesis, was known as "PrayerfIl
| James"
/ What a description Of the voyage.
/ over the tropic seas to the unknown.
( We knew not whittier we were bound
nor what we were to do but we believed
/ that the near future held for us many
! chances Of death and hardship, of
/ honor and renown. If We failed, we
should share the fate of all who fail;
/ but We were sure that we would not
/ fail. We would score the first great tri-
! umph in a mighty world movement.
/ who would not have loved to listen
/ to the strange experiences told on ship
/ board by those masters Of men and
/ tanners Of hOrses2 Bucky O'Neil the
/ iron-nerved and iron-willed fighter from
Arizona, the sheriff whose name was a
/ by-wOrd of terror to every evildoer
white or red; the gambler who would
sit with unmoved face and risk every
/ dollar he had in the world; to Capron,
! who had spent years among the
! Apaches, and who again and again had
owed his life to his cool judgment and
/ great prowess. He looked forward
| eagerly to what the future held. He was
| sure it was either triumph or death
and death was the prize he won. O'Neil
was the only visionary. but he was
something more than a mere dreamer of
dreams. Who would not risk his life
| for a star said he. He had taken so
many chances when death lay on the
! .aza.l IL tiel.aA II aaa in al d..