St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-30
ONLY FOUR NOW REMAIN
AND THE PEOPLE AT THE REB-
Ell CAPITAL REGRET THEIR
DEPARTURE.
WORK FOR THE MONTERREY.
Suggestion That the Modern Mon
ster Be Given One Shot at
Each of Them.

generally known that Uncle Sam is a
collector of souvenirs. For thirty
years he has maintained a little
fleet of monitors at anchor in the
James river below Richmond. They
are souvenirs of the war. Originally
there were twelve, but from time to
time the fleet has been reduced until
only four remain. Two have just
been towed down the river to the
Norfolk navy-yard. The others will
follow soon. After they have all
been patched up SO that they will
hang together they will be taken
to the navy-yard at Philadelphia.
If the government had removed
the Houden statue, the Peace monu-
ment or the bones of Tyler and Mon
roe, the people of Richmond would
not have felt a greater loss. The
fleet was one of the sights of the
town. And yet during the war these
same monitors threw shot at the
Virginians and smashed their ships.
If one of the monitors had gone up
the James river in 1864 the people
of Richmond would have fled as
men flee from a pestilence. The
transfer of the souvenirs is made
solely for economy. Since they have
been in the James river a detail of
seventy-five men have been aboard
them. The pay of these men has
amounted to about $4,000 a year,
so that the cost of keeping the mont
tors in idleness has been $3.50, 900
the price. of a modern man-of-war.
At Philadelphia they will be under
the eye of the commandant, and
their keep will cost no more than the
keep of so many old ferry boats
tied to a post. 1t is strange some one
did not think of this before. After
the war was over the government
| found itself with these monitors on
hand, and as they would last longer
in fresh water than in salt they were
run UP to Richmond out of reach Of
the barnacles. If they had been left
| in salt water the government would
have been about $5OO,000 better off.
FINALLY GREW TO LIKE THEM.
After the people of Richmond got
used ito seeing the monitors they
liked them. 1t took the people a
| year or two, though, to get over
the idea that the government was
| trying to intimidate them. The hot
Southern. blood was inclined to SIM
mer, but time put out the fires and
the citizens were wont to refer to the
| old boats as "ouah monitohs." This
| ar-e,
that they actually believed the mon
itors were theirs. When a naval Of
ficer went down a few days ago to
| tow the Ajax and the Lehigh to Nor
folk, the people of Richmond sent a
delegation to Washington to protest
against the outrage. But the Ajax
and the Lehigh We're towed away
just the same, though it vas pretty
hard to find a place strong enough
to tie a hawser to. They are ready
to fall to pieces, and some of the
naval officers wonder why Secretary
Herbert does not send a war ship
down to Norfolk to fire a couple of
shots into them and put an end to
their misery.
The Monterey would be good YES
sci for this duty, for it is a modern
monitor. In it that splendid type of
warrior reaches perfection. The mon
itors of thirty years ago were COW
cred with five one-inch wrought iron
plates in layers. Behind them was
perhaps three feet of yellow pine.
The iron extended three feet below
the water and the deck of the YES
sci was but two feet above Mark
the difference. The Monterey has
thirteen inches of solid steel armor,
and steel is 40 per cent tougher than
iron. The old monitors had one tur-
ret. The Monterey has two. They car
rTied two fifteen-inch smooth bore
,muzZle loading guns. The Monterey
has two twelve-inch breech loading
rifles in her forward turret and tive
ten-inch rifles in the after turret, be,
sides a secondary battery of six rap
id-fring six-pounders, four rapid-fir.
ing one-pounders and two Calling