The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-05
THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

he stands upon the firm ground of fact,
leaving suggestions as TO what might
or might not have been, to the ro-
mancers.
Here is his tribute to the American
soldier and he had learned to know him
well long before the army left for Cuba:
Upon the dock at Tampa the roll of
regiments and battalions and compa-
MES was called and not a man was
found missing from his place, though
there was not a single soldier of the
$4,000 present who was not aware that
the bullets of the Spaniards were the
least OF the dangers that awaited
them. And to the tackles" of
the navy, they knew when the word
came that they were not going upon
war like other wars, the puppets of
human passion, but upon the duty
which the prince of peace imposed with
the words Feed my lambs They had
CHOSEN a part, the reward of which is
beyond the hazard of battle and cannot
be taken away by adverse fortune in
war"
The incidents and adventures that be-
fell that magnificent failure, the Gussie
expedition, off the coast of Mariel he
tells with wonderful vividness. 1t is
story in itself 1t brought about the
i1rst fight made by American soldiers
upon Cuban soil, and, in Mr.. Bonsal S
devotion to detail, one can close one S
eyes and almost see that skirmish in
the jungle and the retreat to the boats
There was no mobilization of the
corps at Tampa" he says, "as is so
commonly believeds The army simply
grew out of scattered elements hurried
and jumbled and dove-tailed together
from every section of the world He
had intended to say and it is quite a
matter of news even at this late day,
that the embarkation was practically
complete on June 7. But the proof
readers made it July I, and the most
ignorant must have known that San
Juan, El Caney and La Lomita de Sc
villa had been won by then. This is
not the only error of its kind; there are
many more. Bonsal will be read in
Madrid. He has many admirers there.
and what will they think and say?
Quien sabe? 81"
The picture that he paints of the
landing at Daiquri on the 22d of June
the struggle of the soldiers and horses
through the surf to the sands of Sibo-
ney, the flag-raising at sunset of that
first day on the mountain top at Los
Alteres, the methodical precision of the
trained regulars and the over-powering
curiosity of the volunteers on the jour
ney to the front. are all evidences of
an observing master mind.
Then comes the battle of La Lomita
de Sevilla, so inaptly and erfoneouslN
called Las Guasimas. Gov Roosevelt
ridicules and resents the word 'am-
bush" IF, says Bonsal, cit is to be
ambushed when you receive the enc
my's fire quarter of an hour before
it is expected, and when the troop is
in formation, then most certainly L
troop of the Rough Riders was am
pushed on the morning of the oath" It
is pathetic story, indeed that he tells
of Capt Capron's death, and his last
words would be a glorious epitaph over
the monument of that brave young vol
unteer. ut was good fight. No troops
could have done better"
Not a single detail is omitted that
might enable the reader to comprehend
all that life in camp and along the pick
ct line meant in those long and weary
days of waiting at Sevilla. That fear
full march to the battleline on the night
of June 80, the hurly- burly of the day
that followed at San Juan, and in front
of the entrenchments at Eel Caney, the
deadly discipline of the regulars, the
deathless courage of the volunteers,
the leaden stream of the rifles, the mis-
siles of the machine guns, the shrapnel
fire of the batteries, the booming of
the big guns and the spiteful snap of
the sharpshooters in the trees, all are
noted in his grand panorama of war,
even to the shattering of the bushes,
the bullet-perforated lace work in the
leaves of the trees and the clipping Of
the tassels off the guinea grass
How graphically he tells the horrors
of that night after the battle, and in
deed, of many nights of horror that fol-
lowed on, and of that frightful, and to
many poor wounded fellow, fatal ride
to the hospital and dear old Clara Bar
ton at La Garde's headquarters. God
bless her. rings through all his lines
and who is there among American sold
iers at least, who would not beg a BEN
ediction upon the head Of that dear
soul?
Last of all are the stirring scenes of
the siege and the surrender. He
avoids comment of opinion. 1t is a
graphic description that will live long
in the memory of the one who reads it,
And, through it all, he is fair, even
generous, to Shafter. In that respect
he is the one notable exception among
newspaper correspondents If he leans
toward condemnation anywhere, it is
against the people for whom the Amer
lean soldiers paved the way to liberty