The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-04
WHOSE "oFEICIAL DETAILS"

In the absence of authentic reports since
the supposed cutting of the cables at Ma
Mia it was, of course, necessary for the
yellow papers to nave columns of special
information from the seat of war, but it is
a little rough on the British consul that
they should have selected him as the au-
thor of the remarkable dispatches" That
gentleman is represented as having sent a
full report to the Foreign Office at London,
and certainly any one reading it would at
once suspect that if it was not full the writ
er of it was. Comparatively few persons are
familiar with the prescribed form of an Off
cial report of a battle sent by cable around
the world while the thunder of the guns is
still echoing and the use of the cable is re-
luctantly given by the authorities. but even
the inexperienced will wonder when they
search that long report through and fail to
find so much as an estimate of the loss of
life on either side, and when they discover
no account of injuries, If any, received by
the American ships, no statement as to the
condition of affairs in the town and no opin-
ion of the probable outcome. They must ex-
perience even greater surprise at the liter
airy style of such report when, after hunt
ing in vain for what ought to be there and
is not, they pause to read the fine writing
about the weather and the scenery that the
consul is alleged to lave transmitted. In
this country official reports are commonly
dry documents, even when the gentlemen
preparing them have abundant time for
writing and the United States mails to car
ry them, and it is only the space-writers
for the yellow papers who venture upon
such decorative passages as the following
from that cable dispatch to the British
Foreign Office:
1t was still dark at this time, but pres
emily the dawn began to break. and the
sun arose in all it's Oriental splendor. The
weather was calm and sultry and over the
waters of Manila bay a thick haze, so COM
mon to early morning in these parts, hung
like a curtain, through which the rays of
the coming day penetrated with dull, but
beautiful hues. Gradually. however, this
lifted, and the dim outlines of the hills in
the neighborhood of Cavite were discerni-
BILE. Nothing whatever could be seen of the
Spanish fleet, but the Americans knew they
were but a few minutes away from the
greatest naval battle of modern times.
In the confusion Immediately following
this battle the consul did not forget to
mention how the seamen felt at it's begin
ming. 1.-The word he says, had gone
around, not by word of mouth, but by some
subtle psychology: Remember the Maine!
Remember the Maine.' and into drawn faces
there came that look which one sees only
when man, stirred by strong and primitive
emotions, determines to meet and fight his
enemy to the DEATH" Then he drops into
noatrv like Mr. Weeg:
..Remember the Maine" throbbed the en-
gines in the holds. Remember the Maine"
said the gunners patting the grim steel
monsters which were soon TO repeat the
war-cry of the American navy like the voice
OF some Nemesis to the Spaniards. 1t
seemed almost as though the waves muir
INJURED the same shibboleth as they parted
to the prows of the battle ships, and the
same words came down from the maStS,
where the ~pennants cracked sharply in the
morning breeze.
This remarkable consul allowed nothing to
e-scape-except the actual facts and statis-
tics, ~perhaps-and therefore does not for
get to mention Commodore Dewey's remark
as the Olympia entered the harbor: 1T is
a case of Mobile bay. now" that officer
is reported to lave said. There are people
so lost to the sacred and unimpeachable
character of official reports as to be will
ing to wager tolerably large sums that Com
modore Dewey never said anything Of the
kind. and that, moreover, he was not think
ing Of Farragut and Mobile. but wholly of