The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-03
CARRIED MESSAGE TO GARCIA.
Major Rowan Soon to Retire From
 unfted States Army.

uaited states Army.
 1 Chicago Inter-Ocean.
 Major Andrew $. Rowan. U. s. A., is about to retire voluntarily from the
 service. The news will be received
 with regret by the army. where MaJoi
 Rowan Is justly popular. and also by all who wish the army well. In Major Rowan the army loses the kind of of-
 deer of which an army can never have too many--the modest, capable man. who does his work and makes no fuss about H.
 Born In Virginia, graduated From West Point in 1881, Andrew s. Rowan entered the service as second lieuten- ant in the 18th Infantry. was promoted drst lieutenant in 1890, serving a few months tn the sth Infantry, and then transferred to the 18th. He had not been content merely to go through the routine of garrison duties in time of peace. He had acquired facility in the Spanish language. and studied the ge- ography of various regions where he thought the army might be called to active service.
 Because hc knew Spanish. because he knew the topography of Cuba. and be- cause he had shown himself on various occasions brave and prudent solder. Lieutenant Rowan was selected In the spring of 1898 to go on a hazardous mission. He was to get Into the inte- rior of Cuba and into communication with the insurgent leader, Calixto Gar cia, to find out to what extent Garcia and his followers could be depended on to CO operate with an American expe- ditionary force in the war then immi nent.
 He crossed from Jamaica in a saiI- boat with a single companion. Gu ban. He made his Way inland to Gar cia's camp in the hills, delivered his message and observed the situation. He went on across the islard to the north coast, and made his way in another sail boat z50 miles l., Nassau.
 He did what he was sent to do, and refused absolutely to pose or be posed life. He would have been hanged or shot If the spanish troops had caught him. That. however. was Just a part Of the days work for Andrew 5. Row an, and from his viewpoint
 The incident appealed to the imagi- nation of a writer of talents. He wrote a short prose poem apout it--a kind of sermon. in fact, showing why the man who carried the message to Garcia had done an admirable thing and how. 1t was timely bit of eu- lOBy or tne man Wno oOes the uay S work in the day, without complaining or parade-Just goes ahead and does 1t.
 The writing was we'll done, like the deed 1t celebrated. It struck the pop ular fancy. and the idea 1t set forth has stuck in the public. consciousness. It will probably live longest of all it's authors somewhat voluminous work, No anthology of American prose would be complete without 1t.
 That writer of talent should have been thus moved ta celebrate deed worth doing Is threefold advantage. First to the writer. who by taking a really worthy theme and treating il well has secured for himself a remem- brance that nothing else he has done would have obtained. Second to Row an. whose well-doing thus became im- pressed upon the public consciousness as we'll as becoming a matter of off, cial record And most of all, to Amer lean youth who by the conjunction were given a new and vivid inpres- sion of the merits and, value and worthrl mess for emulation sef the plaTho whO goes right. ahead ana does, hts. pAaitri duty. without shrinking or 'strutttng. without a moments hesitation. and without a thought of the reward.