Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916)

I sought out this collection after reading a discussion thread not long ago about the most memorable/traumatizing short stories assigned by high school English teachers. Only 21 stories are included here, and they are limited to those of only American origin, but I thought it was a reasonably well-rounded collection. They range from the humorous and the delightfully disturbing to the incomprehensible ("The Call of Cthulhu") and the weirdly twisted, and I limited my reading to no more than a single story each day to allow more time to ruminate.… (more)

This is really odd for a short story, but I was actually impressed with this story. It's on the long side--close to 7,500 words--so I was daunted to delve into what I usually think of classical short stories: commentary on the times and poor character and plot development--not that I blame short stories for that, it's just an indication that while I have a personal goal to read more short stories and learn to appreciate them, they're generally not my favorite type of publication.

The Consul has a sad side to it. The main character, Marshall, was once Abraham Lincoln's right hand man, but since the President's death, Marshall has fallen out of political favor. After many years in the navy rising to admiral and many more years as an ambassador to a myriad of countries, he has been "marooned" in Columbia. Forgotten. His hometown grew up, he has few friends, and he simply has no connection to his old life until the plot of the story: Senator Hanley pays him a visit, and on that ship is also an admiral that's a friend of Marshall's.

What will happen? Will party boy Hanley destroy Marshall's career? Will Admiral Hardy find a way to intervene?

It looks good. Marshall stands up for righteousness. But Hanley makes threats.

You must read to the last three, short paragraphs to find out. The plot twists left and right until the end. In fact, I still wasn't 100 percent sure what happened. I knew the result, but how did it come about? Who was the true conniving man? Was someone not a bad guy? What this planned in advance, if so how far? Was it decided at the first conflict? Why can't I find Spark Notes on this?

I think all the potential methods for the conclusion make the story as fun as the transparent plot twists.… (more)

[The Notes of a War Correspondent] by Richard Harding Davis

Richard Harding Davis was a journeyman writer in the late 19th century and into the 20th; he produced journalism, short stories, novels, and plays. He worked as an editorial executive for several newspapers and magazines. Before he died of a heart attack in 1916, several of his stories were adapted to the silver (but silent) screen. Despite his versatility and productivity, he isn't remembered for any particular outstanding piece. But he is the iconic turn-of-the-century war correspondent, covering the Cuban-Spanish War in 1896, the Greek-Turkish War in 1897, the Spanish-American War (1898), second Boer War of 1899–1902, and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905. The Notes of a War Correspondent includes a miscellany of reports from each of those five wars.

Of the battle of Velestinos during the Greek-Turkish war, Davis reported:

The Turks had made three attacks on Velestinos on three different days, and each time had been repulsed. A week later, on the 4th of May, they came back again, to the number of ten thousand, and brought four batteries with them, and the fighting continued for two more days. This was called the second battle of Velestinos…

He reported on the sounds of battle, of the unpredictability and treacherousness of war in the trenches, and the bravery and stoicism of the combatants:

Then there began a concert which came from just overhead—a concert of jarring sounds and little whispers. The “shrieking shrapnel,” of which one reads in the description of every battle, did not seem so much like a shriek as it did like the jarring sound of telegraph wires when some one strikes the pole from which they hang…After a few hours we learned by observation that when a shell sang overhead it had already struck somewhere else, which was comforting…The bullets were much more disturbing; they seemed to be less open in their warfare, and to steal up and sneak by, leaving no sign, and only to whisper as they passed. They moved under a cloak of invisibility, and made one feel as though he were the blind man in a game of blind-man’s-buff…
   If a man happened to be standing in the line of a bullet he was killed and passed into eternity, leaving a wife and children, perhaps, to mourn him. “Father died,” these children will say, “doing his duty.” As a matter of fact, father died because he happened to stand up at the wrong moment, or because he turned to ask the man on his right for a match, instead of leaning toward the left, and he projected his bulk of two hundred pounds where a bullet, fired by a man who did not know him and who had not aimed at him, happened to want the right of way. One of the two had to give it, and as the bullet would not, the soldier had his heart torn out…
   Toward mid-day you would see a man leave the trench with a comrade’s arm around him, and start on the long walk to the town where the hospital corps were waiting for him. These men did not wear their wounds with either pride or braggadocio, but regarded the wet sleeves and shapeless arms in a sort of wondering surprise. There was much more of surprise than of pain in their faces, and they seemed to be puzzling as to what they had done in the past to deserve such a punishment.

Davis covered two wars in Cuba, only two years apart. The Cubans fought to free themselves from Spanish rule in 1896. And American forces fought the Spaniards in Cuban (and elsewhere) in 1898. The latter was made famous by Teddy Roosevelt and the troops he commanded, known as the Rough Riders. According to Davis' report, the Battle for San Juan Hill began with a series of military blunders that had "brought seven thousand American soldiers into a chute of death from which there was no escape except by taking the enemy who held it by the throat and driving him out and beating him down…"

Colonel Roosevelt, on horseback, broke from the woods behind the line of the Ninth, and finding its men lying in his way, shouted: “If you don’t wish to go forward, let my men pass.” The junior officers of the Ninth, with their negroes, instantly sprang into line with the Rough Riders, and charged at the blue block-house on the right.
   I speak of Roosevelt first because…he was, without doubt, the most conspicuous figure in the charge…Roosevelt, mounted high on horseback, and charging the rifle-pits at a gallop and quite alone, made you feel that you would like to cheer…Someone asked one of the officers if he had any difficulty in making his men follow him. “No,” he answered, “I had some difficulty in keeping up with them.”

The entire book is like this. Is it an important read? Nah. But I was entertained by it, and I wouldn't hesitate to say, "Go ahead and read it.… (more)