El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-09

The officer of democratic ante
cedents, who is supposed to
have thus accomplished Gen.
Miles's defeat, was afterwards equally
influential with Lamont's successor,
and when the Spanish war ~ out
was promoted from lieutenant colonel
to brigadier general of volunteers.
There is no doubt hat men have found
permanent Judgment in the war de-
partm emit who will make it the object
of their lives of thwart Miles's pet am
bition. And the dance goes merrily
on: the provision in the army bill to
revive the grade of lieutenant general
was defeated in the house on Friday.
PERSONALLY UNPOPULAR.
In the characteristics displayed by
Gen. Miles since the outbreak of the
Spanish war we may 6nd the cause of
much of his unhappiness. The other
one of the best known public men OF
the day r. marked to me that Gen
Miles, to his utter incomprehenslbility,
was personally the most unpopular Of
ficer in the American army, and had
been so for years. Then some
pact observations Of my own occurred
to me, which 1 ~thereupon re-
familiarity with the wal department
lasting through several years, giving
exceptional opportunities for hearing
army opinion. 1 had noticed with sur
prise in the course OF casual every
day Office gossip that Gen.
Miles was inevitably made
the instant subject of sarcasm
AID criticism whenever his name was
mentioned. The number of army men
''down on'' the ranking general of the
army, as well as their
vindicttve bitterness in all the
various forms in which their dis
like was express ed, was a most extra
| ordinary thing indeed. A further fact
that made a deep impression on me, q
civilian, was that one seldom or never
| heard in hat environment a friendly
remark concerning him. Sometimes
| his record as a soldier was derided-
secuted even. This feeling against
Gen. Miles 1 noted long before he came
| here to assure command of the army.
| Nor could I learn that he had won any
friends who ''loved him for the enemies
he had made"
This revelation did not surprise the
gentleman at all: he said he had fire.
~quently noted the same manifestations:
| that it was in fact notorious. Cont
nuiug, he said he could account for the
deep-seated army antagonism to Gen.
Miles only upon the hypothesis Of his
inordinate ambition, developed into a
phase OF exaggerated personal vanity,
which was sometimes infantile in it's
absurdities. This consuming passion
of eeotism made of him q managing
busy body of cesseless activity in the
prosecution of his personal interests, a
characteristic so perpetually in evil
~denceithat it had aroused the dislike of
the brother officers and kept the army
in q perpetual state of hot water. Per-
haps in this feeling OF hatred we may
find the explanation of Eagan's re-
have been the result of some eXtraor-
binary cause not apparent or war
ranted in this beef controversy.
HIS REALL FINE CHARACTERISTICS.
Now, the gentleman who gave This
reading of Sen Miles's character has.
like III myself, a high and genuine admit
ration for the general as q soldier. It
is difficult to reconcile UGH weakness
ss he described with Gen. Miles's 9TH
erwise fine characteristics, although
vanity is not unusual even in the
greatest of men. But Gen. Miles's high
compOrt with silly and ill-directed
vanity sHis record as a soldier is unim-
peachsble, He was one of the bravest
of the brave, and was severely wound
ed three times in the battles of the re-
bellion.
In an article of this nature 1t is no
more than Gen. Miles's due that these
facts should be carefully placed to his
credit. Yet it is difficult to square
this brilliant and successful soldier of
1865 with the army estimate and, in
some sort, the public estimate of the
same man to-day.