The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1898-07-20
HOBSON'S RECEPTION.
Triumphal Entry Into the Amer
lean Camp at Siboney.
SILENT TRIBUTE PAID AT FIRST

Came Three Cheers-Redheaded, Red
Faced Soldier Leaped, Shouting. Into
the Road and Broke the spen-The
Jackies Rode In an Ambulance.
With the rife pits behind him filled
with thousands of the enemy, with the
rife pits before him filled with thou
sands of his friends, Assistant Naval
Constructor Hobson left Santiago on
Thursday, July z, with his seven COM
rades and was delivered into the well
coming arms of the American army at
Siboney, Cuba The trail up which they
came was a broad one between the high
banks, with the great trees above meet
ing in an arch overhead. For hours be-
fore they came officers and men who
were not ON duty in the rife pits had
been waiting on these banks, sprawling
in the sun and crowded together as
closely as men on the bleaching boards
of a baseball field. HObson's coming
was one dramatic picture of the war
The sun was setting behind the trail
and as he came up over the crest he was
outlined against it. Under triumphaI
arch Of palms the soldiers saw a young
man in tile uniform Of the navy, his
face white with the prison pallor as
his white duck, and strangely in con-
trast with the fierce tan Of their own,
and with serious eyes, who looked down
at them steadily. For a moment he
seemed to sit motionless and then the
waiting band struck up The Star Span
gled Banner. A strange thing it was
that no one cheered or shouted or gave
an order, but every one rose to his feet
slowly, took off his hat slowly, and
stood so, looking up at him in absolute
silence. 1t was one Of the most i'm
pressiye things / ever saw. Nonoise nor
blare nor shouted acclaim could have
touched the meaning or the depths of
feeling there was in that silence.
Then a redheaded, red faced trooper
leaped down into the road and shouted,
Three cheers for Hobson I" The men
roared and cheered, The rough riders
gave a cowboy yell, and officers with
sons Of their own in West Point leaped
up and down, and foreign attache
threw up his helmet into the air Hob
son rode down between the lines, rails
ing his cap and smiling d0ubtfully
Probably no one ever received reward
so swiftly or from such worthy hands
as those Of the men who first taught
him what he was to his c0untrymen.
They were no seekers after celebrities.
That will come later. They were men
instead, who knew a brave man, be-
cause they were brave. They had won
the very ground he was on from the
enemy. 1t had cost them the loss of
j, 800 comrades. They came running
from the trenches with rifles, from the
lake where they had been washing
CLOTHES. They charged up the hills of
San Juan a second time and surrounded
them in shouting, happy mob. Be
hind him rode two Spanish officers who
had been taken beyond the lines only to
find no one to exchange for them. They
sat on their horses blindfolded with
first aid to the wounded" bandages
and listened to the tribute the Ameri-
cans paid their young oountryman.
There is always something humor-
Gus about the jackies, and after the
serious, earnest face of Hobson it was a
comic relief to see six obstinate mules
dragging an ambulance loaded with
seven clean, smart bluejackets, grin
nj al
in glee. Every one who had started to
run after HDbson stopped to cheer them,
but they were turned aside from cheers
by the enlisted men shouting, "Say, but
you sea fellers did not do thing to
them the other night.
"Say, we Leard you; see?" yelled the
jacllies. "Your shells fell right into our
hospital yard. :" Say, but we wished
we was with you; see?'' ''They come
in dead in CARTS "You could not see
the street for them"
1t was no time for choosing SMILES.
Men were standing on the rising banks
and the hills, waving hats and shout
ing. Officers were shouting Hobson's
name. Photographers were leaping
about, perpetuating moment 1t was
the same story all the way to Siboney.
Every little group of soldiers they came
across stood at attention at the unusual
sight of navy uniform. When they
recognized the men, they waved their
hats and cheered.
/ Hobson was the first officer I have
seen saluted in six days. They have
been too busy to salute. Before he came
the Seventy first New York was mend
ing a road, but the men gave a yell
when they saw him and rushed waist
high through the river and stopped the
Cavaloade while they mobbed him, shook