The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-24
Two P~rogresse. Through Porto Rico


President RoosEvELT's triumphant
progress in Porto Rico recalls with poig-
nant interest the equally sumptuous
and picturesque journey over the same
ground by General MILES eight years
ago. The concordance, in all respects
of welcome and rejoicing, is really won
derful. IL is true that General MILES
did not go from Ponce to San Juan in an
automobile. 1t is equally true that,
just at first, he honestly believed him
self to be there in the character of a
oonquering and bloodstained hero. The
fact remains, however, that the people
were awaiting him with a~ffectionate
enthusiasm and that they hailed his
advent n a pledge OF liberation from
Spanish tyranny quite as sincerely a.
the same people now see in THEoDoRE
ROOSEVELT the promise of amelioration
in respect Of a somewhat oppressive
American beneficenoe.
General MILES did not wholly under
stand the situation at the outset. He
with unsheathed sword, prepared 10
dreneh the soil in gore and fstten out
the hills with every dreadful, sanguinary
uproar. As a matter Of recorded his
tory, he mistook the first overture OF
joyous carnival for a hostile demonstra-
ton and slew several Of the well mean
ing natives as a measure OF military
precaution. This was only a passing
shadow. General MILES soon realized
the jocund, hospitable meaning OF the
popular ~outpouring; and as he went
along from town to town, greeted every
where by ~thronging multitudes, with
citizens in carriages and music, flowers
and reverent reclamation, he gradually
absorbed the truth that he was regarded
as a liberstor, a benefactor and a savior.
We harbor a very serious doubt whether
the educated. presrranged and per-
sonally conducted raptures over Preei-
dent RoosEvELT's visit to Porto Rico
are rs significant Of genuine emotion as
were the simple, untutored and neces-
sarily spontaneous ebullitions which
punctuated every measure in the radiant
hexameter Of General MILEs's poem
Of 1898.
We entertain no doubt as to the sin
certify OF the popular rejoicing v the
Presidents visit. The Porto Ricans
have much to hope. from his paternal
inquisition, inspired as il is by an unerr-
ing and a comprehensive insight. Their
hardships are much more definite than
they were eight years ago. But we are
by no means sure that the apparition
of General MILES, in those long past
days Of vague unrest and unclassiied
perturbation, was not more precious
in their eager, childlike eyes. He cara
cooled into the island, a gracious and
bedizened centaur, clothed in majesty
and beauty, crowned, or rather haloed,
with all the splendors of a tropical imagi-
nation, and his inevitable and impera-
tive claim consisted in the fact that
while they didn't exactly know what
they resented or demanded, they were
convinced that any conceivable issue of
delight could reasonably be expected of
a conjunction 70 magnificent.
Public interest, however, concentrates
upon what seems to be a startling par
allel. President ROOSEVELT within the
last few days has covered the same
ground which General MILES covered
eight long years ago. He went in an
automobiles snorting, painting, homi-
cidal and malodorous machine. Along
the same pathway, in 1893, General MILES
pranced and teetered on a fierce clay
bank horse, dressed up to beat the band,
buttoned, laced, covered all over with
swords, spurs, decorations. hyacinthine
forelocks and fine clothes. Neverthe-
less, we see the same old embroidery of
popular welcome, outpouring populations.
unlimited garlands and uproarious ac-
CARNATIONS.
1t isn't the same, of course, but how
interesting is the more or less ~specious
resemblance!