When I Paced It Later I Found The
Distance Was About Seventy-Five Yards.
I do not urge my stupidity or
my extreme terror as a proof that others would be as greatly
Confused, but, if only for the sake of the stupid ones, it seems a
pity that the landmarks of San Juan should not be rescued from the
jungle, and a few sign-posts placed upon the hills. It is true that
the great battles of the Civil War and those of the one in Manchuria,
where the men killed and wounded in a day outnumber all those who
fought on both sides at San Juan, make that battle read like a
skirmish. But the Spanish War had its results. At least it made
Cuba into a republic, and so enriched or burdened us with colonies
that our republic changed into something like an empire. But I do
not urge that. It will never be because San Juan changed our foreign
policy that people will visit the spot, and will send from it picture
postal cards. The human interest alone will keep San Juan alive.
The men who fought there came from every State in our country and
from every class of our social life. We sent there the best of our
regular army, and with them, cowboys, clerks, bricklayers, foot-ball
players, three future commanders of the greater army that followed
that war, the future Governor of Cuba, future commanders of the
Philippines, the commander of our forces in China, a future President
of the United States.
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