Evening star., 1939-07-20
BY JOHN j. DAILY.

Cuban government. It Is the Or
der of Carlos de Manuel de Cespe-
des, which will soon be conferred
on Maj. Andrew s. Rowan, U. s. A.,
retired.
Now In his s3d year-he was born
In Gap Mills, Va, April 23. 1851
the hero of an incident in the
Spanish American War lives . quiet
life. avoiding public contact, in his
modest home outside Berkeley,
Calf.
Friends who know the major
claim he will not get unduly excited
by the latest and perhaps last honor
that may be conferred on him. Just
as he foreswore all adulation when
Ebert Hubbard, the squire of East
Aurora and the founder of the Roy
crofters, sat down one day and
dashed of a piece of ballyhoo that
rated in public sales with the Bible.
That was the now immortal essay
headed The Carrying Of the Mes
sage to Garcia" which. at one time.
reached a total sales of 10000 900
copies and had almost every school,
boy in the land hoping and pray
ing for another war with somebody
so there'd be repetition Of this
heroism.
Honors Leng Deferred.
At the time of his explicit, a
lieutenant of infantry and q West
Point graduate, Rowan was then
in his 41st year. He had TO wait
until he was 81 years of age before
his own Government, mostly be-
cause Of the red tape of the War
Department and Congress combined,
conferred upon him two honors-the
Distinguished Service Cross and a
Silver Star citation.
In the meantime. the Hubbard
blurb, since discounted as being
loaded with more fancy than fact.
had made its way around the
world-in translation.
| When Rowan arrived here after
his celebrated journey. some one
handed him a copy of a newspaper
account Of the affair and the modest
hVdtVlldllt VA dluOSG ulCu
of fright. He went into his shell.
as those who knew him say. and
from that time to this he has de-
tested the publicity attendant upon
what he terms a simple matter of
duty.
Just to keep the record straight.
however. Rowan. when he got back
to Washington, wrote a very hum
BILE version Of the story that has
now gone round the world. In his
narrative method. without any high
doodle-doo. the story SINNERS down
to these facts:
Rowan. typographical expert in
the United States Army. was Sc
lected by the late Gen. Nelson A.
Miles to carry a message from Presi-
dent William Mckinley to Gen.
Calixte Garcia. a Cuban rebel leader
who was then hiding out in the in
terror of Cuba-away from the
high-handed Spanish government
officials.
1t was just before the contem-
plated declaration of war with
Spain.
Almost UndOne.
And how he got his man. and how
the translation of simple English
phrase into Spanish came near
costing his life is one of the precious
/ Jokes that Maj. Rowan. in contem-
plation, occasionally tells on him
self.
To give Rowan the proper send
of or introduction to Garcia, the
War Department provided the Of
f1cer with credentials. In these 1t
was stated he is a man of conf
dence." In the translation, it came
out that Rowan was confidence
man"
The Cuba general and his little
band of rebel officers had heard
about American confidence men,
and Rowan instead of being re-
ceived with open arms came very
near being shot. AS the American
officer afterwards wrote in his
memento to the War Department:
Il reached Bayomo, the insurgent
headquarters. where I was identi-
fed through my escort as Delegado
Americana, commissioned by the
American War Department as
man of confidence-a term which
suffers in translation :"
Only to friends did the American
hero tell of his embarrassment. He
Strengthened the matter out and was
then privileged to tell Gen. Garcia
that the United States had declared
war on Spain.
AS nearly as the perilous journey
can be assembled, without any fire.
works, it outlines itself about like
this:
In preparation for the deal with
Garcia-who had long urged the
Cubans to rise against the Spanish
authorities-the then 1t. Rowan
took the first ship for Jamaica.
British West Indies-and got to
Cuba as best he could.
Taught Dispatch Lesson.
On the steamer Adirondack.
Rowan reached Kingston on April
%. 1898. He got the code message
that started him on his way to
fame. That happened to be his
birthday, but there was no time for
celebration. All he thought about
was the message to Garcia, and
the little lessons in patriotic his
tory his immediate chief, Mai.
Arthur L. Wagner, in the military
intelligence, had told him about
Nathan Hale and 1t. Richey in tho
Mexican War. Both were caught
with dispatches on them.
The code message that sent
Rowan out Of Kingston was merely
this: Join Garcia as soon as posi-
ble"
AS Rowans official account has
1t: AT 10 am, dressed as an Eng
lish hunter, I left Kingston. crossed
the island and reached st. AIMS
Bay about l o'clock. Here boarded
small sailboat and by daylight
had passed beyond the neutral Wa