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Hours later Carrier Rowan saw the misty black triangle of Turquino Peak on the face of the dawn. He was in Cuba. Through junglous plantation-land, infested with Spanish troops, he made his way, trusting his fate to shifty-eyed, silent natives. By this time war had been declared. Word of his presence had reached the Spaniards. One night a handful of Spaniards, proclaiming themselves deserters, drifted into the Rowan camp. As Rowan lay sleeping a "deserter" thrust a dagger at his heart. A Rowan guard split the would-be murderer's skull.
After nine days he found General Garcia, delivered his message, got his information, started immediately back for Washington. President McKinley personally congratulated him. He was made a Lieut.-Colonel, given a D. S. C.
Writer Elbert Hubbard wrote in his magazine, The Philistine, an editorial about Carrier Garcia which has been reprinted at least 40 million times. Today bankers, headmasters, read it to their underlings to teach them to "yes" their superiors.
Excerpts from the Hubbard editorial:
"In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. . . .
"Someone said to the president, 'There is a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.'
"The point that I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, 'Where is he at?" By the Eternal, there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land.
"It is not booklearning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing—'Carry a message to Garcia.' "