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the realistic and commensurate re-enactment of such a fearless charge and desperate struggle and the introduction of military incidents preceding it, upon the broadest and most accurate lines of army movements, discipline and life, and by the very heroes and horses who were a part of what they portrayed was calculated to arouse public curiosity and enthusiasm to the white heat of patriotic fervor. Furthermore, that such
A STUPENDOUS LIVING BATTLE LESSON
Would form a fitting and triumphant climax to the Wild West's magnificent and unprecedented martial spectacles. Notwithstanding the fact that both Colonel Cody and Mr. Nate Salsbury are war veterans, as such, entirely familiar with war in its sternest practical features, and fully competent to command and manage the hundreds of men and horses required and utilized, the task confronting them was a huge and herculean one, involving not only an enormous expense, but infinite labor in investigation, procuring of genuine material, arrangement of detail, circumstance and scenery, and effective utilization of the space at command and indispensable to the maneuvers of so many troops, horses and guns. The results attained fully and faithfully harmonize with the heroic subject and the facts of history, presenting the events associated with the battle of San Juan in two scenes.

The first scene shows the bivouac of the troops on the road to San Juan the night before the battle. The invading American forces, composed of the artillery representing Grimes Battery, the mule pack train carrying ammunition, the Colored Regulars, Roosevelt's Rough Riders, the Seventy-first Infantry, the Cuban scouts and guides, are seen at sunset, at the conclusion of a desperately hard day's march over rough and jungle-choked rails, under the blistering rays of a tropical sun, moving into an encampment selected for a resting place on the night preceding the morrow's grim work, The various commands take up the positions assigned them, and to the spectator, the bivouac presents a most warlike and novel scene of disciplined bustle and preparation. The sentries are posted, the tired animals unloaded, unharnessed and picketed, the weary soldier boys gladly obey the order to stack arms, and, relieved of their haversacks and cumbersome accouterments, loll and lie around in groups, while the campfires are lighted and preparations for the evening meal quickly made. The hardtack and coffee disposed of and the stern hand of discipline temporarily relaxed, they indulge in an alfresco smoker" and forget their toils and dangers in story, song, and jest; the familiar songs and patriotic anthems of home, as chorused in melodies and stentorian tones from hundreds of throats, wafted toward doomed Santiago on the balm,