The San Francisco call., 1896-10-25

Thirty-fve years ago last Tuesday was
fought the bloody battle of Leesburg,
sometimes called Balls Bluff. The Cali
fornia regiment, commanded 5y Colonel
Edward Dickinson Baker, for many years
a resident Of San Francisco. but then a
United States Senator from the new State
OF Oregon, got into the very hottest of the
fight, and Baker was killed at the head of
his regiment, fighting with the valor of an
Ajax. He was a "dlvinely gifted man,
as Tennyson said of Garfield. The son of
a poor English weaver, he rose by sheer
force of genius to be the peer of the very
first men in the land. No other face OF
that day ever blazed with such rare manly
beauty, and noother voice ever rang out
peans of freedom to all the world as the
clarion voice of the "Gray Eagle" who
now sleeps in neglected grave at Lone
Mountain.
Thirty-eight years ago on the 18th day
Of last Septem Der, in the City of San
francisco, about 10000 people assem- mbled
to celebrate the completion of the first
Atlantic cable, known to electricians as
. De Santy's cable, between England and
America. 1t had been known for month
that the British frigate Agamemnen and
the American war steamer Niagara were at
anchor off the Isle of Wight and waiting
favorable conditions of weather TO begin
the work so deeply fraught with the hopes
of all civilized nations. But that was a
year before the pony express and three
years before the completion OF the over
land telegraph. So our only communica-
tim nv Of ste xy;o
Panama. About o'clock on the morning
:of the oath the steamship Sonora, Captain
Richard L. Whiting, came dashing into
the bay with white flag at her foremost,
bearing the inscription, "Atlantic cable
Said" 1t was ten miles to her wharf, and
before she could reach her pier salute of
100 guns was being fired from Telegraph
Hill. Much of the detail work of ceIe-
bration had been discounted before the
steamers arrival, and so the work of col
lecting money for the show was a very
trifing task.
The procession was a magnificent one,
all the trades, civic societies and other
organizations being in the parade. An
ox-team with a covered wagon was fea-
ture of the display. bearing the inscrip-
tion, "Give Us the Pacific railroad. Don't
wait for the wagon" 1t was a more
unique procession than had ever before
been given in the State. The fire depart
ment, consisting of fifteen. hand-engines,
three hook and-ladder trucks and one in
dependent hosecart, paraded at P. NJ
about 900 men, all in red shirts and black
trousers, most of whom were engaged in
mercantile or mechanical pursuits, in con-
sequence of which they could not parade
in the daytime. The literary exercises of
the occasion were celebrated in the little
triangle made by the intersection Of Bush,
Battery and Market streets, and there it
was that Colonel Edward D. Baker, after
ward United States Senator from Oregon,
delivered the Grafton of the day-one of
the most exquisite bits of English compo-
sition that grsces the pages Of our Ma
tional literature. In speaking of the part
ing in midocean OF the two great warships
Ne said:
The spectacle which marked the moment
hen the cable was first dropped into the deep
sesa was one of absorbing interest. Two stately
ships OF different and once hostile nations bore
the precious freight. Meeting in mid-ocean
they exchanged the courtesies OF their gallant
profession. Each bore the flag of St George,
each carried the flowing stripes and blazing
ters; on each deck that martial band bowed