She left about six-thirty P. M. in the glory of the
setting sun of a tropical evening. About five-thirty P. M. Mr. Edward
Marshall, that prince of good fellows, who represented the New York
Journal, came into my office to write a message for his paper, to be
left with me and sent when the story was released. Marshall was a
typical newspaper man and a thorough American, and had just returned
from New York where he had been in attendance upon the sick-bed of his
wife. He was very anxious to get his story written before he sailed. I
knew the "Olivette" was about to pull out, and if he expected to go on
her it was high time he was moving. As Port Tampa was nine miles away, I
told him to fly and cut his story short or send it from Port Tampa. He
thanked me and reached Port Tampa just in time to save being left. It
was this same Edward Marshall who so daringly pushed to the front during
the Guasimas fight of the Rough Riders, and was seriously wounded by a
Mauser bullet near his spine. He was supposed to be dying, but true to
his newspaper training and full of loyalty to his paper, he dictated a
message to his journal between the puffs of a cigarette, when it was
supposed each breath would be his last.
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