land, is not constantly engaged in military operations, only a few of the men who acted as correspondents during the war with Spain went to the front with any previous experience of the kind of work before them. But they had been trained in a school of journalism which teaches self-reliance and, above all other things, readiness of resource. In conse quence they met the new conditions with out anxiety. and by using the same methods they had formerly employed in reporting a horse show or a fire, they succeeded in satisfactorily describing the operations of our army.

Before the Santiago campaign had opened, and while our troops were still at Tampa, many of the newspapers promised their readers that when the war really came the "pencil - pushers of Park Row," with no experience of battles or of things military, would develop into great war correspondents, while, on the other hand, the men who had been employed to serve as descriptive writers merely, and who possessed some former experience in campaigning and in roughing it, would show that

VOL. XCVIII-No. 588.-114

they were better suited to write fiction in a library than to recognize news when they saw it, or to collect facts.

The war, so far as it concerned itself with the correspondents, proved nothing of the sort. It did not show that the descriptive writer or novelist was capable of gathering news, nor did it prove to the contrary; nor did it prove that the man who had previously reported criminal news and real-estate deals was equally at home when he found himself in a Cuban jungle two thousand miles from the office telephone, and with no friendly policeman to direct his steps. The success of the different men was entirely a question of intelligence and of individual character. Their past experience seemed to count for very little. Some of those who had seen much service with the army and navy in times of peace, who could harness a team to a gun-carriage, or drill a cavalry regiment, or name every part of a battle-ship, were, when the real thing" came, lost absolutely from the sight of their fellow men. All their experience on the plains and in the wardrooms of the White Squadron

either failed to get them to the front at all, or did not enable them to take care of themselves when they got there. On the other hand, mere boys, who had been jerked out of the city room of a metro

H. JAMES WHIGHAM.

politan daily and rushed to the front without even a rubber blanket, followed the soldiers from the first to the last, and never left them, except to tramp back to Siboney to file their despatches on the press - boats. Two of the very best correspondents had served their respective papers, previous to the war, as dramatic critics, and their only knowledge of war had been gathered from performances of Secret Service and Shenandoah. These were H. James Whigham, of the Chicago Tribune, and Acton Davies, of the New York Evening Sun. Each of these gentlemen proved most conclusively that previous experience is not necessary to enable either an Englishman or an American to report a war correctly. I have seen the war correspondent whom Kipling describes as the War Eagle" in his Light that Failed. I saw him in Greece, with three horses, three servants, a tent, the British flag flying over his head, cooking stoves, medicine-chests, writing-desks, and type

writers. He carried letters from prime ministers, and he lunched with the young princes daily. And I have seen a boy, named Sammy, who acted as a courier for the New York Herald, eighteen years

of age, who had a keener scent for news than the War Eagle ever possessed, who better knew what was going to happen before it happened, and who was in every way more alert, intelligent, and suited to the work in hand.

Whigham, with his two years' residence in America, made, in my opinion at least, a much better correspondent than the War Eagle with his record of twelve campaigns. And his outfit was limited to a canteen and a bottle of Scotch whiskey. The War Eagle's despatches are intelligible, and probably of great interest to a drill - sergeant; Whigham's letters were equally interesting to the military expert and to the civilian... Whigham came from Oxford to America to lecture in the university extension series, but he is better known in this country as the exgolf champion of the United States, and as a dramatic critic. He arrived at Key West during the earliest days of the war, and that same night was dropped on the coast of Cuba, where he was promptly made prisoner by the Spaniards, but was later set at liberty at Havana. Immediately on his release he went to Guantanamo, where the marines had landed, and while trying to find their firing-line, walked into a Spanish picket and received a Mauser bullet across the forehead. Later he joined the army at Daiquiri, and was one of the half-dozen correspondents who scaled the San Juan hills immediately after they were charged by the regulars. Later he was invalided home with fever, which attacked him in a most serious form. His must certainly be considered a full and creditable record, and his only experience of war was gathered on the golf-links of Chicago. It is impossible to designate one correspond

ent as being better than another, because what is important to one does not seem to be of value to his rival, and their ideas as to their duty differ. One may prefer to stand on the firing-line in order to see what is going forward close at hand, but while he is in greater personal danger, another who watches the battle from an elevation in the rear can obtain a much better view, and a much more correct idea of what is being done in all parts of the field. So the presence of a correspondent on the firing-line, or his absence from it, does not prove that he is not doing his full duty to his paper. The best correspond

the campaign, and a list of the correspondents, with the events each had witnessed credited to his name. Judged from this basis, Mr. Crane easily led all the rest. Of his power to make the public see what he sees it would be impertinent to speak. His story of Nolan, the regular, bleeding to death on the San Juan hills, is, so far as I have read, the most valuable contribution to literature that the war has produced. It is only necessary to imagine how other writers would have handled it, to appre ciate that it could not have been better done. His story of the ma

rine at Guantanamo, who stood on the crest of the hill

to wigwag" to the war-ships, and so exposed himself to the fire of the entire Spanish force, is also particularly interesting, as it illus trates that in his devotion to duty, and also in his readiness at the exciting moments of life, Crane is quite as much of a soldier as the man whose courage he described. He tells how the marine stood erect, staring through the dusk with halfclosed eyes, and with his lips moving as he counted the answers from the war - ships, while innumerable bullets splash

writing for a daily paper.

Near the close of the war, a group of correspondents in Puerto Rico made out a list of the events which, in their opinion, were of the greatest news value during

curs to Crane that to sit at the man's feet, as he did, close enough to watch his lips move and to be able to make mental notes for a later tribute to the marine's scorn of fear, was equally deserving of praise.

Crane was the coolest man, whether army officer or civilian, that I saw under fire at any time during the war. He was most annoyingly cool, with the assurance of a fatalist. When the San Juan hills were taken, he came up them with James Hare, of Collier's. He was walking leisurely, and though the bullets passed continuously, he never once ducked his head. He wore a long rain-coat, and as he stood peering over the edge of the hill, with his hands in his pockets and smoking his pipe, he was as unconcerned as though he were gazing at a cinematograph.

The fire from the enemy was so heavy that only one troop along the entire line of the hills was returning it, and all the

JOHN FOX, JR.

rest of our men were lying down. General Wood, who was then colonel of the Rough Riders, and I were lying on our elbows at Crane's feet, and Wood ordered him also to lie down. Crane pretended not to hear, and moved farther away, still peering over the hill with the same interested expression. Wood told him for the second time that if he did not lie down he would be killed, but Crane paid no attention. So, in order to make him take shelter, I told him he was trying to impress us with his courage, and that if he thought he was making me feel badly by walking about, he might as well sit down. As soon as I told him he was trying to impress us with his courage, he

dropped on his knees, as I had hoped he would, and we breathed again.

After that, in Puerto Rico, we agreed to go out together and take a town by surprise and demand its surrender. At that time every town in Puerto Rico surrendered to the first American who entered it, and we thought that to accept the unconditional surrender of a large number of foreigners would be a pleasing and interesting experience. But Crane's business manager, who guarded him with much the same jealousy as that with which an advance-agent guards the prima donna, did not want any one else to share the glory of the surrender, and sent Crane off by himself. He rode into Juana Diaz, and the town, as a matter of course, surrendered, and made him welcome. He spent the day in establishing an aristocracy among the townspeople, and in distributing largesse to the hungry. He also spent the night there, sleeping peacefully far beyond our lines, aud with no particular interest as to where the Spaniards might happen to be. The next morning, when he was taking his coffee on the sidewalk in front of the only café, he was amused to see a "point" of five soldiers advance cautiously along

the Ponce road, dodging behind bushes, and reconnoitring with both the daring and skill of the American invader. While still continuing to sip his coffee he observed a skirmish line following this "point, "and finally the regiment itself, marching bravely upon Juana Diaz. It had come to effect its capture. When the commanding officer arrived, his sense of humor deserted him, and he could not see how necessary and proper it was that any town should surrender to the author of the Red Badge of Courage.

the

A week later, Millard of New York Herald, "El" Root of the New York Sun, Howard Thompson, and myself, with some slight assistance from four thousand soldiers, captured a

much larger city than the one Crane attacked; but as we stumbled into the town first, under the impression that it was filled with American cavalry, the town of Coamo surrendered to us. The question is, whether it is more creditable

Leslie's. When the troops arrived at Daiquiri, a general order was issued forbidding any of the correspondents to accompany the soldiers when they made their first landing. The men on

to take a town of five thousand people with three other correspondents, supported by four thousand soldiers, or to take a town of two thousand inhabitants single-handed. I fear that in the eyes of history Crane's victory will be ranked higher than that of Millard, Root, Thompson, and myself.

One of the most amusing and daring acts of any of the correspondents was that of Burr W. MacIntosh, of Frank

The correspondents might be divided into three classes-the men who gathered the news, the descriptive writers, and those who collected names. Some of them did all of these three things. There was also a fourth class of correspondent, who accompanied a volunteer regiment and told only of what was done by the particular regiment he accompanied, without touching on the war at all, except