i8o The Rough Riders 



of the troopers named Knoblauch, he who had 

 dived after the rifles that had sunk off the pier at 

 Daiquiri. The supplies of food we got in this way 

 had a very beneficial effect, not only upon the men's 

 health, but upon their spirits. To the Red Cross 

 and similar charitable organizations we owe a great 

 deal. We also owed much to Colonel Weston of 

 the Commissary Department, who always helped 

 us and never let himself be hindered by red tape; 

 thus he always let me violate the absurd regulation 

 which forbade me, even in war time, to purchase 

 food for my men from the stores, although letting 

 me purchase for the officers. I, of course, paid 

 no heed to the regulation when by violating it I 

 could get beans, canned tomatoes, or tobacco. 

 Sometimes I used my own money, sometimes what 

 was given me by Woody Kane, or what was sent me 

 by my brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, or by the 

 other Red Cross people in New York. My regiment 

 did not fare very well; but I think it fared better 

 than any other. Of course no one would have 

 minded in the least such hardships as we endured 

 had there been any need of enduring them ; but there 

 was none. System and sufficiency of transporta- 

 tion were all that were needed. 



On one occasion a foreign military attache vis- 

 ited my headquarters together with a foreign cor- 

 respondent who had been through the Turco-Greek 



