Part 15 (2/2)

I got a grand lot of letters to-day which Otto,conducted Re very cheerfully now, but I don't wonder you worried at first but now that I am a commercial traveller with an order fro when I find it necessary, you really must not worry any more but just let me continue on one so long andfrolad to see s than coast around in trains As aproblerowing to be the opposite of the alarh you would think the picturesque and dra would be the one I would rather believe because I want to believe it, but I find that that is not so, I see a great deal on both sides and I do not believe half I aainst history,” and it is against history forhere-- They show ether around the fortified towns, living in palm huts but I know that they have always lived in palm huts, the yellow kid reporters don't know that or consider it, but send off word that the condition of the people is terrible, that they have only leaves to cover them, and it sounds very badly That is an instance of what Ion here is one of exterar shi+pped from the port of Matanzas to the U S was valued at 11 ar to the amount of 800,000 was sent out In '94, 154 vessels touched at Matanzas on their way to America In '95 there were 80 and in '96 there are 16 I always iot in the way of cannon balls or they were burned because they ht offer shelter to the ene the war horrible and hurrying up the end The insurgents began first by destroying the sugar mills, some of which orth millions of dollars inthe ho theents and to leave theo for food or to hide the wounded So all day long where ever you look you see great heavy colunificent palms the most noble of all palms, almost of all trees-- It is the most beautiful country I have ever visited I had no recollection of how beautiful it was or else I had not the knowledge of other places hich to coination can approach it in its great waterfalls and rand plains and forests of white pillars with plu above them Only man is vile here and it is cruel to see the walls of the houses with blind eyes, with roofs gone and gardens burned, every church but one that I have seen was a fortress with ha from the altars and rude barricades thrown up around the doorways-- If this is war I am of the opinion that it is a senseless wicked institution made for soldiers, lovers and correspondents for different reasons, and for no one else in the world and it is too expensive for the others to keep it going to entertain these few gentlemen-- I have seen very little of it yet and I probably won't see ton had his mind satisfied even sooner--but then he is an alare of courage, I don't feel sorry for, they have their reward in their bloody bandages and the little cross on their tunic but those youwith fever are the ones thatcontemptible--poor little farmers, poor little children with no interest in Cuba or Spain's right to hold it, who have been sent out to die like ants before they have learned to hold a ain with the beards that have grown in the field hospitals on their cheeks and their eyes hollow, and too weak to move or speak Six of the as Marion and that had been the average for twoin Marion every day through July and August-- I didn't stay in that town any longer than the train did-- Well I have been writing editorials here instead of cheering you up but I guess I'ht and when I see a little ain to The Journal-- It is not as exciting reading as deeds of daring by our special correspondent and I haven't changedthe othernear the truth They have shut off provisions going or co from the towns, they have huddled hundreds of people who do not knohat a bathto happen-- As soon as the rains begin the yellow fever and s Cuban ports will be quarantined and the island will be one great plague spot The insurgents who are in the open fields will live and the soldiers will die for their officers know nothing of sanitation or care nothing The little Consul has just been here to see ot back at him

He told me he had seen the Franco-German war as a correspondent of The Tribune and I asked him if he had ever met another correspondent of The Tribune at that time a German student named Hans who cabled the story of the battle of Gravellote and who Archibald Forbes says was the first correspondent to use the cable The Consul who looks like Williauess you mean me but I was not a German student, I was born and raised in Philadelphia and Forbes got ot up and shook hands with him in my turn and told him I had alanted to meet that correspondent and did not expect to do so in Cardenas, on the coast of Cuba

Thank you all for your letters I aht you kneas a F R G S It was George Curzon proposed etting in

Lots of love

dick

Richard returned to New York fro -promised visit

On his way he stopped for a few days in London and Paris

ABassADE DES ETATS-UNIS 59 Rue Galilee, Paris, April 1st, 1897

DEAR FAMILY:

I got over here to-day after the heaviest weather I ever tackled on this channel Stephen Crane caave him a lunch on Wednesday Anthony Hope, McCarthy, Harold Frederic and Barrie ca was detained at the war office and sent instead a lance Sergeant on horseback with a huge envelope marked ”On Her Majesty's Service,” which was to be delivered into enerally supposed that war had been declared and that I was being ordered to the front-- The whole hotel hung over us until I had receipted for the package and the soldier had saluted and clanked away I gave Crane the letter as a souvenir I also saw Seys in it

The London Times offered me the position of correspondent on the Greek frontier Every one in London thought it an enormous compliment and Harold Frederic, Ralph, Ballard Smith and the rest were very envious

I told thelad to have had the compliment paid me Barrie has made out a scenario of the ”Soldiers” for draeood--

So, I also guess I had better finish it-- I leave for Florence to night I alad you are all well

Lots of love,

dick

Of the ether, I do not believe there were any much more happy than the three weeks Richard re visit to Italy and from the day of his arrival he loved the old town and its people who gave him a most friendly welcome

He had come at a time when Florence was at its best, its narrow quaint streets filled with sunshi+ne and thronged with idling natives and the scurrying tourists that always ca The Cascine and the pink-walled roads of the environs were ablaze ild roses and here, after his rather strenuous experience in Cuba, Richard gave hiether we took voyages of discovery to otten tohere the tourists seldom set foot Once we even wandered so far as Monte Carlo, where my brother tried very hard to break the bank and did not succeed But the Richard Harding Davis luck did not fail hie pile of gold and notes that represented his winnings and which we did our very best to spend before we left the land of the Prince of Monaco However, having had his first taste of war, Richard felt that he must leave the peace and content of Florence to see how the Greeks, ho with their enemies the Turks As it happened, this expedition proved but a short interruption, and in less than a month he was once more back with his new-found friends in Florence

April 28, 1897

On the Way to Patras on a Steamer

DEAR FAMILY:

It has been a week since I wrote you last, when I sent you the Inauguration article Since then I have been having the best time I ever had any place ALONE I have had more fun with a crowd, but never have been so happy by myself What I would have been had I taken soine But the people of this part of Greece have been so kind that I cannot say I have been alone I never ers anywhere ere so hospitable, so confiding and polite After that slaughter-yard and pest place of Cuba, which is much more terrible to me now than it hen I was there, or before I had seen that war can be conducted like any other evil of civilization, this opera bouffe warfare is like a duel between two gentle a slave's head in with a whip I aination; I a I have seen was by cannon at long range (I was at long range, not the cannon) I an in a personally conducted sense with no regard to the Powers or to the London Ti Times of War” If they do not use it I shall illustrate it with the photos I have taken and sell it, for five tiive, to the Harpers who are ever with us As I once said in a noted work, ”Greece, Mrs Morris, restores all your lost illusions” For the last week I have been back in the days of Conrad, the Corsair, and ”Oh, Maid of Athens, ere We Part” I have been riding over wind-swept hills and oats and wild flowers of every color spreading for acres, and in a land where every and, and not only for photographic purposes I have been on thein the rear of arize for disappointingto the scene of a battle that never co to a bombardment that turns out to be an attack on an empty fort