Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/288

244

gallant work done by our army in Cuba was hailed with great satisfaction by the whole Nation, but it is safe to say that nobody was more pleased with results than was President McKinley. Having been on a peace footing for so many years, many had imagined, both at home and abroad, that our soldiers could do little or nothing when put in the field, and some had even gone so far as to call them "paper soldiers." But the battles of El Caney and San Juan let the world know that Americans could fight on land as well as on sea, and henceforth grumbling in all quarters became a thing of the past.

Now that Admiral Cervera was "bottled up," as it was termed, in Santiago Bay, those in authority were very much afraid