Although it was nine miles out to Mr. Morgan’s house, everybody came, and it was said to be the most representative gathering of the city’s leading families that had been seen in many a day. Of course there was music and dancing and refreshments and all the elements which go to make up an enjoyable entertainment, and even though there was a general celebration going on in the city, the crowds took their departure reluctantly.

The general celebration was in commemoration of the anniversary of the outbreak of the Ten Years’ War in 1858, and it was strange to see all parties uniting in a demonstration of what seemed to be real patriotism. Havana was decorated in regular old-fashioned Fourth of July style, and there were parades and speeches, bands, banners and fireworks, just as if Cuba were the solidest little Republic in the world. One really couldn’t take the situation very seriously after all⁠—except that it was costing the country a great deal of money and certainly would have cost many foolish lives had it not been taken in hand so promptly.

The next morning we inaugurated Governor Magoon and took our departure, leaving him to his uncomfortable fate. I remember later a cartoon depicting him as sitting in agony on a sizzling stove labelled “Cuba,” while Mr. Taft appeared in the distance in a fireman’s garb carrying a long and helpful-looking line of hose. But that illustrated subsequent history.

We sailed from Havana on the battleship Louisiana , escorted by the Virginia and the North Carolina , Mr. and Mrs. Bacon, General Funston, Mr. Taft and I, on the 13th of October, just twenty-nine days from the day on which Mr.