Title: Colonel Cody's Rough Riders | How They Were Met by Roosevelt, Their Former Commander

Periodical: The Times

Date: April 16, 1899

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COLONEL CODY'S ROUGH RIDERS.

How They Were Met by Roosevelt, Their Former Commander.

The attention of the public is now fixed upon the advent of Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.

Just as Colonel Cody presented the picture of Custer's last fight to thousands of people, so he will present the fight on San Juan Hill by the men who were participants in that famous charge, and who will here reproduce it with a realism and thrilling effect which no descriptive writer could hope to achieve. So great is the interest on this reproduction of the most peculiar battle of modern times, that the exhibition will be given by and under the direction of the men who were participants in and made that celebrated sortie.

Tom Isbel, who has been chronicled by the heroic war correspondent, Edward Marshall, as the man who saw and shot the first Spaniard in that engagement, a duty which he is reported to have performed with much cheerfulness, will be one of the conspicuous participants in this mimic engagement. He fell soon afterward, punctured by seven Mauser bullets, and the same volley killed the gallant

[illustration]

German Riders With Buffalo Bill's Show.

Captain Capron. Others whose names were written in letters of blood upon the roll of honor of this engagement, Sergt. Gerald A. Webb, Walter M. Cook, and McGinty, are also among the heroes of the Santiago fight who will be seen in the arena; and the historic features of the Wild West are not subordinated to this recent historical event, but it is the fitting climax to an exhibition which presents by a consecutive series of pictures the history of the civilization of a continent and presents it with the aid of the actual participants in that history. Indians, scouts, mail and pony express riders, the whole dramatis personae of the actors in that great drama of civilization are gathered together here.

But the scope of this enterprise is not bounded by time or distance and the world's rough riders, Arabs, Cossacks, the cavalrymen of the great military rations of Europe, the plainsmen of south America, [image] [image caption] Cossack Rider With Buffalo Bill. as well as the Caucasus are all gathered together here in one aggregation, and to make complete this list of rough riders of the world there will be horsemen from Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. These will be of especial interest at this time.

An event which always attracts crowds of sightseers, the street parade, will take place in the morning.

The following extract from a New York paper tells how Governor Roosevelt met Colonel Cody's Rough Riders, after witnessing their performance.

"Gov. Theodore Roosevelt, accompanied by a party of friends, occupied a box at Madison Square Garden last night and witnessed Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

"The Governor was very much interested in the reproduction of the "Charge up San Juan Hill," in which a number of former members of the Rough Riders were engaged. The Governor organized and later commanded the Rough Riders in the recent war. He said the reproduction of the famous charge was excellent in every respect.

"At the close of the show Governor Roosevelt expressed a wish to meet the ex-members of his old regiment, and received each with a hearty handshake."