The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-08-14
THE NAVAL DEMONSTRATION.
Guns From the Fleet I'm the Hudson
Opposite Riverside Park.

Opposite Riverside Park.
When the first beams of the morning
touched the bold shores of the North river,
the men-ofwa lying still and dark in the
shadows of the bluff of Riverside Park be-
came suddenly stirred into life The shrill
sound of the boatswain's call echoed from
ship to ship and the hills returned echoes of
the reveille which came from the bugles of
the scarlet coated marine buglers. Pennants
and ensigns futtered up into the sun.
tSa light stopping at tba half a%sras mast as b.d #
not the heart to hoist them further. The
yards of the ships were square and straight
and even with the flags half -masted the fleet
had trim, ship-shape air. But suddenly all
down the line of vessels the yards were
cock billed" Then indeed the fleet looked
mournful. With the yards all pointing in
different directions the flags and pennants
hanging idly half way up the masts, all
jauntiness was gone and grief was expressed
by the vessels as no other inanimate object
can express 1t.
At the fore of Admiral Jouett's temporary
flagship. the Dispatch, the Presidents flag
was displayed at half mast, the Admiral's
own flag being half-masted at the main. As
soon as the sun rose a gun was fired from the
Dispatch, and at intervals of half an hour all
day long that gun kept up its steady and
monotonous boom. Tugs from the navy
yard were alongside the vessels early in the
morning, and the blue jackets and marines
who were to march in the funeral procession
were transported down the river and landed
in the lower part of the city. As soon as the
head of the funeral procession left the City
Hall the Dispatch fired salute of
twenty-one guns. When the salute
from the Dispatch was finished
the Powhattan took it up, and so on down
the line until all ships had saluted. The ma
val brigade had drawn so many men from
the fleet that the ships were comparatively
deserted A few sailors sitting about,
marine orderly or two marching up and
down the deck with steady tread, aloft the
weary flags and the tangled network of dis
placed yards-such was the picture on board.
There was no sound but the booming of the
guns, and in the intervals of stiffness might
be heard the quiet flap of sail as some mer-
chant vessel went up or down the river. The
hills above Honkers, the stately Palisades
and the green slopes of Riverside Park basked
in the sunlight as the placid river came flow
ing out of the purple obscurity to the north
ward and ran like a stream of silver between
the emerald borders. A peaceful sadness
brooded over everything. Even the sound of
the cannon was a sound of peace and not of
war The thunder of the national salute
which rolled along the line when the funeral
procession started from the City Hail had
nothing of the sound of exultation in it, but
seemed rather the salvo ct vale of some grand
chorous.
By noon the aspect of the slopes of River
side park had changed and they were black
with people. But somehow the presence of
the vast crowds on the shore only made the
peace and sorrow of the fleet seem more
complete. Then tho head of the funeral col
umn reached the park and helmets and uni
forms and bright bayonets CLEANED along
its crest. But still the sOrrowful look
ing feet lay motionless ON the CLASSY
tide and from the Dispatch
every half hour tongue of flame leaped
forth, wreath of smoke was blown away
and the sound Of a cannon rolled from shore
to shore and died away in sobs far up among
the hills. When the services were over at the
tomb, down the hill to the shore came the
sailors and marines from the feet and were
conveyed on board. At sunset the colors
were hauled down, the yards were squared
and the navy had paid its last tribute Of re-
| spect to the illustrious dead.