The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-23
THE VETERANS.

For the first time since the close Of
the Civil war, the Army Veterans have
some excuse for regarding the navy
and its veterans with friendly jeal-
ousy. During that war the honOrs
were not equally divided between the
two branches of the service, owing to
the lack of any efficient navy by the
Confederates.
The Monitor and the Merrimac en-
gagged in several drawn battles, out of
which the idea Of the iron-clad took
form and shape. The Kearsarge fully
manned, and well equipped, quickly de-
stroyed the i'll manned and i'll provided
Alabama. Naval warfare in it's larger
sense did not take place.
But all things come 20 those who
wait. The year '98 brings to the navy
it's honOrs, and the army gladly ac-
cords them.
1t is true that there is some sugges-
ton to the veterans, in the dashing
climb of the infantry to the heights of
San Juan, of the stubborn ascent of
Grants lines up the slope of Mission
airy Ridge; there is a likeness in it
to the marvellous steadiness of Pick
ett's charge across the wheat fields at
Gettysburg But those were great bat
ties, with Anglo-SaXOns of equal grit
graphing with each other. While the
Veterans are proud enough of the
achievements of the younger genera
ton, because they are proofs of the
unlimited sand" of the enlisted men,
no class or body of men, in the coun-
try will stand in line more promptly
and salute the men of the navy, for
the veterans of the army are proud
of every act and deed that honors and
vindicates the Flag.
At the last campfire here these vet
Grams lit their fire upon alien soil,
looking wistfully towards the Main
land for the coming sign. The camp
fire last night was on soil American as
effectively and perpetually as that of
Yorktown. The boundaries of the eX-
panding State have come down to-
wards the equator, bringing new laws
and conditions, and above all vital re-
sponsibilities.
To the Veterans, however, last night
was merely an hour of "reminiscences.
Have they heard the legend of the
Norsemen? 1t says that the spirits Of
the dead fighters on sea and on land,
waken at the sound of the bugle and
drum, and enter into the ranks of the
men at war, and pass about the guns,
and among the men during the sea
fights The spears pass through their
ghosts and do no harm. The sword
points meet within the lines of their
spiritual bodies, and are not felt. And
as new spirits of the dead rise up from
field and deck, they guide them TO
their ghostly resting places.
What a year, indeed, has it been
for the visitations of the old navy
heroes! Drake aud Hawkins, and Mel
son, and St. Vincent, Van Tromp and
De Ruyter. Perry and Farragut. Their
SplfiIS, uuU6I lhe NOlSeludh . AS5Ohu'
lowered about the bridge of the Olym-
pia, when Dewey raised the curtain
and opened the drama of modern nav
al warfare. They grouped themselves
at Santiago in ghostly wonder about
the guns of the battle ships, any one
of which could have blown to pieces
in single assault the combined
navies that carried the flags of these
dead admirals.
AS the camp fire flashed up last
night its tongue of flame spoke these
words to the Veterans:
1T is the blood of the soldier that
makes the General great"
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