The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-13
Wood, the Ve New Chief Of Staff of the Arrny4s Career
Indian Figter-Physcan to McKineys-Ardeat Athlet
by JOHN ELTRETn WATKINS.

washington, ~. u
Very shortly Leonard Wood, the man
who abandoned the art of dispensing
Pills of pliyslc and prophylatic pow
ders for the art OF dispensing pills
of lead and sinokcless powder, will
become the army's chief of staff. This
honor Will como to him while he is
sun In his fortics, and lie will be the
youngest man to command the army OF
the United States for a generation, or
since the days OF Grant and Sherman
This remarkable man is best known
to The public az the organizer and
colonel of the Rough Riders In which
Theodore Roosevelt became popular
idol during the war with spain.
No officer of tho army, with the ex-
ception OF Grant himself, has been
the recipient Of such bitter cnlumnies
and such unstinted encomiums as those
which have been hcaped upon his
head.
If We were limited TO one adjective
in which to condensc all Of the others
that correctly define Leonard Wood
that word would he "virile." 1T was he
who inspired the most radical of the
Roosevelt doctrines aimed at the clint
nation Of pureiness and paunch-
incss from our body militant. And
Leonard >. God has ever been able
10 accomplish what his chum and
boon companion never could effect,
by way OF example to all military
men-trc preservation of his own waist
line. But Theodore RooseYelts strug-
gle for physical vigor was an uphill
fight against the handicap OF a puny
boyhood. Wood had the advantage
OF Spartan boyhood.
a Spartan Boyhood.
His gymnasium was the saiubrfous
shore or Cape cod. where every breeze
is tonic and every gale stimulant.
1fithcr his father. a country doctor,
who had fought In tho Civil War.
moved from the old homc--Leonard
WOODS birthplace---in New Hampshire.
The boy gunned among the sand
dunes rode bareback over the beaches,
sailed his boat over the sapphire sea.
and barring his whole hide 10 the ele-
nents. breasted the tides and Dattled
with the breakers. All Of this was
good for Scotch-Irish- English blood.
which had come down from Mayflower
and Revolutionary stock Indeed. he
was n direct descendant Of Peregrine
White, the first Colonia! Puritan born
on American soil, and of General
Nixon. who fought q. Lexington.
Bunker Hill and Saratoga. Leonard
Wood was then a sowheaded. grav-
eyed. slender boy. who could enjoy
these diversions only between chores.
But throughout his school days at the
country school and en- academy in
town he kept UP his Interest in ath-
letics. even TO the extert of gaining
fame as a cross-county runner. All
the while he hoped and prayed to be
Il soldier. but his fethir. who had
had his taste OF war. Was obdurate.
SO the young man won eIpugh scholar
ships to keep him in the Harvard
Medical School for a couple of years.
lie also made extra money by tutoring
the younger boys, and in his third
year won a competitive examination
for service In a Boston hospital. All of
TINS while. however. he had been
porting over military text books. and
TINS study he continued even after be-
coming private practitioner in Bos-
ton.
SO when, at the age of twenty-five,
he had chance to take the MAMMA
tion for assistant army surgeons he
went down to New York eagerly enough.
He passed second III large number
of competitors, and pending vacancy
in the regular establishment, gladly
accepted temporary assignment as
contract surgeon at 800 per month.
The prevalent notion that Leonard
Moods jump from the Medical Corps
to the lighting line Of the army was
the result of afterthousht or accident
is erroneous. 1t was the result Of
deep-laid design. Arriving al his first
post. away down In Arizona. at Fort
Huachuca. he met Captain afterwards
GeneraD Lawton, and Ut once conflded
to him his ambitions 10 fight his way
TO the line at once. He had taken the
At, , -I,o
only one in that year, 1856. which Of
fered any chance of fight. Geronimo
and his Apaches had long been on the
rampage-had killed $50 victims. Cen