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Show Forty Years Ago He Bid for Fame By Carrying "A Message io Garcia" But Andrew Summers Rowan Might Still Be a "Forgotten Hero" if Elbert Hubbard Had Not Needed an Editorial to Put in His Magazine, The Philistine, Which Was Ready To Go to Press and Wrote One That Has Been Reprinted More Than 80,000,000 Times. Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ! FORTY years ago a young American army officer had returned from a perilous mission which had won him the praise of his superiors and resulted in his being summoned to appear before the President of the United States and members of the cabinet where he received re-ceived the personal congratulations congrat-ulations of the Chief Executive. Execu-tive. But in the excitement over our entrance into the War with Spain, his exploit caused little public comment and it seemed that the fame 'hich was justly his was about to pass him by. Nearly a year later the editor edi-tor of a magazine, which was about to go to press, needed an editorial for that issue. While having dinner with his son, the boy happened to mention the deed of the young army officer and declared de-clared that he was the real Kei"0 of the Spanish-American war. The father leaped up inspired here was an idea for the editorial! So he wrote it, but he thought so little of the result that he ran it in the magazine maga-zine without a heading. However, How-ever, that editorial has been reprinted more than 80,000,- 000 times; after 40 years copies of it still sell at the rate of 150,000 a year; it has been carried to all parts of the world and translated into .20 languages and it is probably prob-ably the best known piece of English prose ever written. The young army officer was Lieut. Andrew Summers Rowan, who is still living in California at the age of eighty-one. The editor was 'Elbert Hubbard, who died on the Lusitania when it was sunk by a German submarine in 1915. And the editorial which he wrote for the March, 1899, issue of his magazine, the Philistine, was "A Message to Garcia." In 1898 Lieutenant Rowan, a graduate from West Point in the class of 1881, was detailed to duty WM in Washington. War with Spain 1 ? . v ; ELBERT HUBBARD was imminent and President Mc-Kinley Mc-Kinley realized the necessity of having reliable information about the Spanish forces in Cuba and whether or not Lieut. -Gen. Calix-to Calix-to Garcia, commander of the Cuban Cu-ban insurgent army, would cooperate co-operate with the American forces if an army was sent there. The President summoned Col. Arthur Wagner, head of the bureau bu-reau of military intelligence, to the White House. "Where can I find a man who will carry a message mes-sage to Garcia?" he asked. "There is a young lieutenant named Rowan here in Washington Washing-ton who will take it," Wagner replied. The Man for the Job. , Probably one reason for his an-'swcr an-'swcr was the fact that Rowan had recently published a book, "The Island of Cuba," although he had not yet been to Cuba and his book was based only upon other volumes. But, having assured as-sured the President that Rowan was the man for the job, Wagner prepared to back up his words. He invited the young lieutenant to lunch at the Army and Navy club. They were scarcely seated when Wagner said, "When does the next boat leave for Jamaica?" Jamai-ca?" Since Wagner was a noted joker, Rowan thought that this was a prelude to another prank of some sort, but he looked up W&Zs I i 1 COL. ANDREW SUMMERS ROWAN, WHO CARRIED "A MESSAGE TO GARCIA." the sailing time and told Wagner. "Can you sail on that boat?" the colonel asked next and Rowan Row-an immediately replied "Yes," still believing it was a joke. But Wagner's next words showed him his mistake. "Then get ready to take it," said Wagner, "You have been selected se-lected by President McKinley to carry a message to Garcia. He is somewhere in the eastern part of Cuba. Your duty will be to find him and learn the military situation in Cuba in so far as he knows. Your success and in all probability the outcome of a possible war with Spain will depend de-pend upon you. Leave at midnight mid-night tonight. Good-by and good luck, but get that message to Garcia!" Rowan was on the boat which sailed that night. Upon reaching Jamaica he cabled word of his arrival to Wagner and on April 23, the day set by the United States as the last date for Spain to withdraw its forces from Cuba, Cu-ba, he received cabled orders to "join Garcia as soon as possible." possi-ble." Rowan had been in touch with exiled Cuban patriots in Jamaica from the time of his arrival. They immediately set to work to aid him in getting to Cuba. He was taken on a mysterious journey jour-ney in a closed carriage which brought him eventually to the. shores of a small bay where a fishing boat stood off shore a short distance. After an exchange ex-change of signals, he was taken aboard this boat which was camouflaged cam-ouflaged with a false cargo of bundles and operated by a Cuban pilot named Sablo, who had been detailed to take him to Garcia. A Dangerous Journey. The little party then began the first leg of their dangerous journey. jour-ney. If they were caught within the three-mile limit they could be held and possibly imprisoned tor violation or tsntisn neutrality. If they were caught outside the three-mile limit by any of the Spanish boats which were patrol-ing patrol-ing the Caribbean sea, they would probably be treated as spies and that meant their backs to a wall with a firing squad in front. Early the next morning they saw a Spanish boat approaching. Rowan and the rest of those on board, except Sablo, dropped down and hid under the bundles. As he dropped the sail, the Spaniards Span-iards saw only what appeared to be a lone fisherman. After a casual inquiry as to how the fish were biting, they passed on without with-out closer investigation. At midnight on April 25, the day that the United States declared de-clared war on Spain, Rowan and his friends entered Oriente bay and were met by a group of Cubans, Cu-bans, who in some mysterious manner knew of their coming. The most dangerous part of the trip to find Garcia now began. It lasted for six days, during which time the young American made his way through the steaming, steam-ing, insect-infested jungle, drinking drink-ing germ-filled water and eating only such food as could he found in holes in the ground where the Cuban rebels had buried it. On May 1 Rowan was escorted to General Garcia's camp and here he learned of an amusing mistake that had been made. He bore letters from the Cuban patriots pa-triots in Jamaica, which characterized charac-terized him as "a man of confidence" confi-dence" but a blundering interpreter inter-preter had translated it "a confidence con-fidence man" thereby arousing suspicion of him and delaying his meeting with the Cuban commander. com-mander. Rowan delivered his message from McKinley to Garcia who immediately decided, although he had given the lieutenant all the necessary information, that he would send three officers back to the United States with him to explain fully the needs of the Cuban insurgents. After a two-hour two-hour rest Rowan started on his return journey which was all the more perilous because war had already been declared and capture cap-ture meant certain death as a spy. The five-day trip to the northern north-ern coast (he had landed on the southern coast) was almost as bad as the previous journey. Spanish patrols were everywhere but by traveling at night Rowan and his companions managed to elude them and reach the coast. There they found a dilapidated fishing boat with gunnysacks for sails and in this the American and several Cubans headed for Nassau 150 miles away. A tropical storm almost swamped their crazy craft but after 48 hours they managed to reach New Providence island and were promptly detained at the Hog Island quarantine. However, Howev-er, Rowan managed to get word to the American consul and on May 11 the party went aboard the Fearless, which took them to Key West, where they arrived two days later. Then they took a train to Washington, Wash-ington, where Rowan reported the success of his mission to Russell Rus-sell A. Alger, secretary of war, who sent him to Lieut. Gen. Nelson Nel-son A. Miles, commander of the army. Later Miles recommended recommend-ed that Rowan be promoted to lieutenant colonel for his gallant exploit. Then followed his summons sum-mons to the White House, where President McKinley greeted him. "Colonel," he said simply, "you have performed a very brave deed." Twice Decorated. Rowan served on Miles' staff as a lieutenant colonel of volunteers volun-teers in the brief Porto Rico campaign. cam-paign. He was in the Philippines from 1899 to 1902, winning there the silver star citation "for gallantry gal-lantry in action while placing and operating a field gun during the attack on Sudlon mountain, Cebu, January 8, 1900." Rowan was retired with the rank of major in 1909 and went to live in California. In 1920 Senator Sen-ator Shortridge of that state tried to get a Distinguished Service cross for the man who had carried car-ried the "message to Garcia." There was no record of his mission mis-sion in the war department files and1 Rowan had to write one himself him-self to supply the lack. Congress then took favorable action and on August 21, 1922, with a fuU battalion bat-talion of coast artillery standing at attention, Brig. Gen. Chase W. Kennedy pinned on his breast the highest badge of courage, next to the Congressional Medal of Honor, Hon-or, that an American can wear. Besides the ironical fact that Rowan's heroic exploit was almost al-most unknown to his fellow-Americans fellow-Americans until a hard-pressed editor wrote an editorial which appealed to business executives because it was an attack on inefficient, inef-ficient, inadequate office workers, there is also the irony in the fact that Rowan's dangerous mission accomplished little, so far as its effect on the outcome of the war was concerned, After the naval battle of Santiago Santi-ago bay, his men began firing on the Spanish sailors who were clinging to bits of wreckage and trying to get ashore. Gen. W. R. Shatter, the American commander, com-mander, had to threaten to shell ; Garcia's camp to force him to discipline his men. After that I the Cuban leader sulked in his tent and made no effort to prevent pre-vent 2,000 Spaniards from marching march-ing through his lines to join the Spanish defenders of Santiago against the American attack by land. Then he led his troops back into the interior of the island is-land and took no further part in the fighting. When the war was over, a commission com-mission of Cuban leaders was invited in-vited to confer with President McKinley on the reconstruction of their country. Since Sarcia was an important figure in Cuba, it would have been rather undiplomatic undip-lomatic to leave him off this commission. com-mission. So he was included in its membership but the President Presi-dent was spared any troublesome meeting with the recalcitrant insurgent in-surgent leader. He died shortly after reaching Washington and was buried with full military honors hon-ors among the great American generals who sleep in the national nation-al cemetery at Arlington. Some day there may be buried there a man much more deserving deserv-ing of rest in this hallowed ground. His name is Andrew Summers Rowan, the man who carried the "Message to Garcia." Hubbard's Errors. . There's also irony in the fact that Elbert Hubbard's editorial which spread the fame of Rowan got most of the facts about his exploit wrong. It said: In all this Cuban business there Is one man stands out on the horizon ot my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the insurgents. Garcia was somewhere some-where in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba no one knew where. No mail or telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his co-operation, and quickly. What to do I Someone said to the President: "There is a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can." Rowan was sent for and given a letter let-ter to be delivered to Garcia. How the "fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared disap-peared into the jungle, and In three weeks, came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The errors in this version are too obvious to need comment. But apparently they were of little importance im-portance in the minds of those who read the editorial. Soon after the March issue of The Philistine r ' v. v '1 I ; '3 A i ' ' Xi v t, - u ' i " " ' r , ' ' , n ' - ; - , '" y i GEN. CALIXTO GARCIA was distributed requests for extra copies began coming in. At first there were a dozen such requests, then 50, then 100. When the American Amer-ican News company ordered 1,000 extra copies Hubbard asked one of his helpers the reason. "It's that stuff about Garcia," he replied. The next day George H. Daniels of the New York Central railroad telegraphed to Hubbard, "Give price on 100,000 Rowan article in pamphlet form." He wanted to use it in advertising the dependability depend-ability of the New York Central's crack train, the Empire State Express. Ex-press. Before Daniels was through with it he had ordered 1,500,000 copies of the pamphlet containing the editorial. At the beginning of the century Prince Hilakoff, director of the Russian railways, was sent to this country to study American railway methods. He was so impressed im-pressed by Daniels' enthusiasm for the pamphlet that he had the message translated and a copy was given to every railway employee em-ployee in Russia. It is doubtful if one out of a thousand of them could read it, but all of them carried car-ried their copies with them wherever wher-ever they went. |