Richard Harding Davis: The journalist of the Rough Riders in Cuba

Young Cuban facing a Spanish shooting squad in 1897. Drawing from the book of Richard Harding Davis published in the same year.
Cuban facing a Spanish shooting squad in 1897. Drawing from the book of Richard Harding Davis published in the same year.  

Before Hemingway, there was Richard Harding Davis. He was another journalist fond of risks and adventures and, being a friend of Teddy Roosevelt, he couldn't miss going with the Rough Riders to cover the war in Cuba. 
I read his book Notes of a War Correspondent - the link is affiliate. It covers his journalistic work in the Cuban-Spanish War, the Greek-Turkish War, the Spanish-American War, the South African War, and the Japanese-Russian War - war, war, and more war. 

This book has a touchy tale about a young Cuban insurgent called Adolfo Rodríguez facing the Spanish shooting squad in January 1897. Richard saw in him the bravery of a well-known American patriot.
 
He made a picture of such pathetic helplessness, but of such courage and dignity, that he reminded me on the instant of that statue of Nathan Hale which stands in the City Hall Park, above the roar of Broadway.  The Cuban’s arms were bound, as are those of the statue, and he stood firmly, with his weight resting on his heels like a soldier on parade, and with his face held up fearlessly, as is that of the statue.

Tales from old times.

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