Remarks in Clayton, New Mexico

It is a great pleasure to me to be back in New Mexico and to pass through Clayton. Right from this neighborhood, some fifteen of your citizens came into my regiment. Several of them were wounded. I have the feeling for them that one naturally has for the men with whom he has been thrown into the intimate relations of life. I am particularly pleased to see you all here. I am glad to see a first-class exhibit of New Mexico's children. You do not know what a pleasure it is to me to get out into this Western country, that I have known so well, where I have ranched in the other days, and from which I drew the men with whom I went to Santiago when the war with Spain broke out. I follow your career with the greatest possible interest. When I get out here and see the big plains, it makes me feel as if I were at home again.