The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-12-28
CUBA SNEN GOVERNOR
His Record as Surgeon, Soldier
and Executive.
COURAGE AT GUASIMAS
No Greater Character Brought
Out by the War.

| d man, SAID ROcheIOucauld. MAJOR
General Leonard Wood seems to be a
man who vas created by crisis. The
! after he had been appointed colonel of
the First volunteer cavalry, or Rough
Riders" saw him on the battle field when
the first volley fired by the Spaniards
during the late war was shot at him
and his men; while he was Governor of
Santiago Province, and facing problems
which would have appalled, most men,
saw him many times; saw him immedi-
ately after he had received his appoint
ment as Military Governor of Cuba
Always he was the silent man, who be-
| heved-in' his own words-that plaster
over mans mouth is as useful as elo-
! quence within it; the calm man with
nerve of iron, appalled, not by outlaws or
| dudes, not by enemies or their bullets,
| not by yellow fever or smallpox, not by
| dirt, filth or Reorganization; the tireless
! man whose muscles stood firm and brain
stayed cool after the most trying strains;
| the democratic man, who was ever ready
/ to listen earnestly to and try to help any
| one, from the President of the United
| States TO the most emanciated of Cuba's
| pickannines, and who has, on many &C.
casions helped both.
The bullets, to the thinking man, were
| scarcely less dangerous at Guasimas
| than are the problems which we're re-
Gently given him Military Governor. Of
| -.vi4l, D I,a
| intense earnestness of the intelligent
man who knows what faces him, but
he received them both entirely without
excitement.
| He is a tall man, of great physical
strength. He is neither handsome nor
ugly, but his face is wholesome, with
power in its steel gray eyes and evidence
of hard work in its wrinkles, which are
| far too plentiful for a man Of thirty-nine
years. There are corrugations in his
/! forehead and there is little bag under
| each eye which was not there before the
United States went to war with Spain.
These came from hard work. When he
was Governor of Santiago Province he
worked sixteen hours a day. He went
! to the palace in the morning at half
| past seven, and he left it at ten. Then
| he inspected things-and there were many
things to inspect. He had streets cleaned
whose accumulated filth had corroded
there undisturbed for full three hundred
| years. No one who did not know San
| tiago--the city of dirt and corruption-be-
fore the war. and who does not know 1t
now-as fairly salubrious and health
full town-can appreciate what has been
| done for that part of Cuba since our
war with Spain ended. Leonard Wood
! did not do all of it. He had many earn
| est helpers. His was the directing spir-
it. At noon he returned to the palace,
and seldom left again before midnight.
When the province, with its unspeak-
able filth, with its unhappy and disorder
! ~ population, with its plentitude Of dis
ease and excess of death, was turned
over to him he did those things which he
could do He found three thousand cases
of smallpox. Within sixty days he had
| Isolated these unhappy creatures and so
| thoroughly disenfected their previous
| surroundings that only fourteen hundred
| smallpox patients were left in Santiago
| Province and these were well cared for.
He did not quell, but he prevented, riots.
He fed the hungry. He revOlutionized
the town, and for the better. When vel
low fever broke out among our troops
and among the natives, he concealed II;
but he stopped it. He was in Washing
ton when it broke out; he was in San
| tiago as soon as a ship could take him
i there after its outbreak
At San Antonio he was the ideal mill
| tary organizer. He and Theodore Roose-
welt. with the assistance of Major Alex
ander Brodie had gathered a thousand
or more men together of characters
which made, in the aggregate, such hui
| man mixture as had not been seen be-
fore. There were cowboys from Arizona
and New Memico there were outlaws
whose previous records made it neces-
sary for them to enlist under assumed
names. and from falsely designated
towns: there were miners formers, hunt
ers from the West: there were college
men. business men and dudes from tht
East And yet Colonel Wood. who was
really in charge Of the regiment. discip-
lined them all. instructed them ali. han
died them all in a way which brought
out Of this seeming chaos such com
plete harmony that the hunter chose the
Fifth avenue swell as his "bunkie" II
his tent al San Antonio. and afterwart
the dude" warrior and the cowbol
soldier mingled their red blood in th'
trail at Las Guasimas an don the hill &
San Juan
An example OF the divergent clement
with which Wood had TO deal in the EARL
days OF the formation OF his regimen
dore retaoin shrdlu cmfwyp vbgkQj III
may ne cited in the characters Of Troop
ers McGinty and Hamilton Fish. Dur
slE the drills al San Anto1iio poor DC
Ginty. VINO was short. irish and RS
= headed found It utterly impossible L
march rhymicslIy with the other men
Wood called out to MIN.
"McGinty. Why don, sou keep step
McGinty's big eyes were fun o. troubl
his bowed legs had a rounder curve thar
ever. his voice vas ch0led with eu1otio'
as ne answered. Colonel. ! can't keel
step on foot. Give ne a horse an5 ca
keep step al right"
Hami'tor. Fish. t1e smart young nal
cf New York city. who was always 1re
cisely dressed. wlo Neat everywhere an
vEa knew everyone. started from kfssa
inston 10 join TIE Rough Riders" a. sa'
III Antonio He had with him his dress sui
MS SIX hat and q ticket Tor sleeotHi
= car. lie vas one 81 the eatch q reeT7l3'
= under charge q Sergeant BTyns- hi
: I valet was with him when Re started 70
IA rear ~ he train IN tae car va.ci
held his sleeping berth S@rseant Rrsn
an cd sol5ie--stopped h-n. made IN
90, his heels together ard salute -
, told him TIA; private soldiers did -
{ , = --..-s-.- 49, Iss,~ E-s-b. --s,-a