Arizona republican., 1903-04-13

ought not to run too high, for such ex- pactation is not unlikely to be disap- pointed. By this time the captain president has probably learned exactly what is being said of him in hundred newspapers on this side of the con
 tinent. There is nothing in his blo-
 graphy as compiled either by Thomas
 Byrnes or by Robert Pinkerton incon-
 sistent with the supposition that he is
 already preparing to submerge his
 identity in the underworld, previously to reappearipg by and by in some new
 field of endeavor with new name that
 shall add another to the long string of
 aliases which stretches from BaIlentine
 to Bellairs.
 ''The continued public attention to the case of Captain Edgar Gerald Bel lairs will proceed from something eiss
 than ordinary newspaper interest n the career of an uncommonly adroiJ and adventurous swindler.
 Testimony is accommodating in the columns of our contemporaries as t. the functions of this ex-convict during
 the period of his close intimacy with General Leonard Wood in Cuba. both before and after the successful attempt to discredit General Brooke and to make at Havana the vacancy into which General Wood immediately stepped. The latest contribution to the increasing stock of information about Bellairs' services to General Woods professional interests and administra- tive glory is supplied by the Herald, which says:
 General Leonard Wood, so long as he remained in Cuba, was an ardent friend of Bellairs. Other correspond ents friendly to General Wood know that the despatches written by Bel lairs were censored by the general At all times Bellairs was ready to sing the praises Of the officers, though his sweetest songs were re- served for General Wood and those about him.
 Besides supplying on Sunday last this very important statement by the general manager of the Associated Press, Mir. Melville E. Stone, that when reports of Bellairs' bad character haG decided Mir. Stone to discharge him. General Wood said he was all rigil. and begged us to keep him. the World made on it's own authority the follow ing statement:
 '' Immediately on the accession Of General Wood to the military governor ship of Cuba, Bellairs began to prosper. * General Wood granted him many courtesies which were refused to others. Because of his connection with the Associated Press. Bellairs was in q position to prevent publicity being given to any of the mistakes of General Wood, who, until his unheard-of pre- motion, was 8 surgeon in the regular army.
 'Bellairs became General Woods personal and intimate friend. He was dined at the palace by General WooG, and because of his friendliness to Ger eral Wood was given pcrquisites which enabled him to live far beyond what his mere salary as d newspaper writer would have permitted.
 During his stay in Havana, Eel iairs, as the personal friend of General Wood. was furnished a home in the magnificent building occupied by Gen eral Ludlow. Slowly but surely reports were heard in the United States re- garding every army officer unpopular with General Wood. These reports were detrimental and as q result the president and war department anxi- ous not to embarrass General Wood in his administration of affairs, ordereI them 1.-the officers denounced by Bel lairsI away. These reports ennanated from an ex-convict whose picture is in the rogues' gallery. . professional swindler and the personal friend e General Leonard Wood
 'BeIlairs, upon leaving Cuba. boasted that he had made Leonard Wood Without mentioning Bellairs and his part in the making of General Wood, the Springfield Republican day before yesterday said of the general results ot the methods pursued at Havana In Woods interests:
 -' It is the simple truth that when General Wood succeeded General Brooke as military governor of Cuba. the new nation had already been sue cessfully started It was General Brooke and his aids who ended Cuba's days as an utterly prostrate colony-,- rather than General Wood and thos~ who served under him. For the war in general order No. 3S, to credit General Wood with liftinS Cuba from a condition of utter pros tration.' and in naming him alone IS deserving of thanks for that achieve ment, is so unjust to the officers who labored in the field before he rose to the chief command, and so grievous . distortion of history, that protest be7 comes a duty in order that the record may be kept straight and true
 "The clarificati0n of history concern ing events in Havana during the year 1899, and concerning the part which the convict Bellairs bore to General Woods professional advancement. promises to be a rapid process from now on.
 But the incident of this whole ama=- ing story which has stirred to indigns tion every honorable American heart is the recent appearance of General Woods convict friend and serviceabIe eulogist as the agent of an effort t0 destroy Governor Taft at Manila by the same methods which he formerly employed to pull down General John Rutter Brooke at Havana, and for q similar