The Portland daily press., 1896-12-19

tween the horse shoe and Willoughby
Point, the entrance to the Bay for Hamp-
ton Roads. But with never an error the
Commodore directed the ship squarely
through the passage, where many and
many sailor has gone to the end OF
things, and we squared away for Thin
BILE Shoal light. Then on up toward the
light that guards Old Point Comfort.
AT two O'Clock in the morning we
dropped anchor just off the great hotels
that have made the Point famous, and
went below and to sleep.
In the morning the weather was
threatening, and we did not go ashore as
we intended, but made sail again and
went up the Elizabeth river to Norfolk,
that gateway of the nation, favored by
nature with q location which is sur
passed on the Atlantic seaboard. At
that point on the coast the Gulf Stream
comes to the shore, bringing with it the
warmth of the South and tempering the
climate till it ia perfection. Throughout
all the year the variation OF tempera-
ture is so little that it makes climate
of the most remarkable character, oli-
mate that is nearer ideal than anywhere.
Here the south wind and the sun are
friends, and they work together for the
good of Virginia and her people.
Sailing up the river we passed the his
toric places of the Civil War made MEM
orable because of the developments of
such bravery as has rarely been seen in
the history of the world. Here Admiral
franklin Buchanan and the Merrimac
fought the Monitor and lost. And in
losing he sounded the death knell OF the
old warsbips and male possible the de-
velopment of the modern ironclad ships
Of war. 1t was here within sight OF the
place where / am now writing that the
Msrrimac-the old Virginia-was remod-
elled and given an armor OF railroad
iron. Then she sailed down the bay,
and had not the Monitor at that partio-
ular time been steaming up Hampton
Roads on her trial trip, the course OF his
tory would have run otherwise. But
they met, and things fell out as they
were written in the beginning. After
the battle, after the little Monitor had
driven the ponderous Merrimacs up the
river again, the Confederates blew the
i'll fated ship to perdition-with dynamite,
and parts of her still may be found near
where Norma now lies quietly at anchor.
1t was feared that the ship might fall
into the hands of the Federal forces and
so be used as power against the men
who built her. They we're brave men-
those soldiers of the Con federacy and
they fought their fight against terrible
odds, but their spirit has not gone out of
the men Of Virginia who have lived
after them, and it continues in the gen.
tleness of great strength, which is as it
should be.
The city of Norfolk and her sister cit-
les, Portsmouth and Berkeley, deserve
more credit than those CITIES of the
North which have not had the hand of
adversely laid heavily against them. This
district has suffered greatly from many
causes. and has emerged from the siege
with distinction that will be proven
the more forcibly as the years 90 by and
it takes the place it should as one OF the
remarkable municipalities of Am erica.
About the year 1900 Norfolk was the
maritime r ival of New York. 1t had the
West Indian trade and foreign business
that was not far behind what it is today.
In the early part of the century 1t
promised to be the commercial emporium
of the new world. The Embargo PROF.
lamation of 1907, the war Of 1919. and
the Navigation Act OF 1920 were almost
crushing blows, but it rallied in the '40s
only to be scourged in 1855 with the
yellow fever. Then, as though this were
not enough, came the Rebellion. But
Norfolk is herself again, and in ali the
country there is rot city of equal size
nearly 100000 population-that prom
isea a more remarkable future. Norfolk
will be what the early navigat ors called
1t: "a Kings Chamber among the
worlds great harbors.'' and one Of the
foremost cities of the United States.
HARRY P. TABER.