Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1905-03-22
THE 0'NEILL MONUMENT.

The passage of the O'Nelll monu-
 ment bill has been received in Pres
 colt and Yavapai county generally
 with great satisfaction and the peo-
 pie will look forward now anxiously
 to its completion. While it is called
 the O'Neill monument, it is intended
 that it shall commemorate the memory
 of every soldier from Arizona who fell
 on Cuban soil during the Spanish
 American war, and future generations
 may look upon it with pride and sat
 isfaction as a permanent testimonial
 of the patriotism and valor of their
 predecessors in the territory.
 While others have taken prominent
 part in the development of this terri tory during its early history, as we'll as in the more recent years, no indi-
 vidual who ever cast his lot in the young and growing territory and be- came identified with it's interests, gained a more extended fame than did the daring and brilliant Bucky O'Neill. His name was known from one end of the country to the other and when the news was flashed from the bloody battle field of San Juan hill that Buckley 'Neill, of the Rough Riders, was among the slain on that eventful day of July ?, 1898, it elicit ed columns upon columns of comment from the metropolitan press of the country, alike with that of the less pretentious ones.
 Probably no single death during the Spanish American war elicited as much favorable comment on the char acter and life of the victim as did that of Arizona's popular citizen and soldier when pierced by a Spanish bullet.
 He was a man of wonderful versatil- ity, brilliant conversationalist and as writer of short and pointed stories gained a national reputation, contrib uting to many of the leading maga- iznes and newspapers in the country.
 It %as this literary work which brought hIm so prominently into public notice, although he was known i as brave and daring man, in whom i there was, no fear, his very death being an exempli6cation of bravery even to a degree of recklessness. No monu- ment that can be reared to his me- mory can add to or detract from his character or reputation, to those of the present generation, who knew him so we'll and whose admiration he gain e l by his open handed, free hearted and by the possession of a personal magnetism, which attracted all to him, but it will serve to perpet- uate his memory among those who come after-the generations of the flu turs.
 It is fitting and proper that it should be erected in Prescott, too, the place which, after several years of roaming, he selected as his sbiding place and where he had established his home.
 It will be a fitting tribute also that the names of the other heroes who gave up their lives on the altar of their country should be inscribed up- on tablets of stone along with that of their brave leader, who was among the very first to enroll his name when the call for volunteers was issued.
 That the bill will receive the sigma ture of the governor goes without the saying, as the measure was incoIporat- ed in the republican platform of the territorial convention of that party and received the sanction of the pre- sent governor in the convention.
 Other men may have accomplished greater things than did Buckley but none braver ever lived. Let it be so inscribed upon this mon- ument as an example to the young of the present, as well as of those of the future and as an inspiration to lofty ideals of patriotism.