The age-herald., 1898-05-22
BELOW DECKS ON THE IOWA.
How Men Love the lhrobbing Mass of Mysteri-
 ous Iron-The Eternal Watch.

Frederick Remington In Harper's Weekly.
 For seven long days and nights l have
 been steaming up and down on the battle
 ship Iowa, ten miles off the harbor of
 Havana Nothing happened. The appall-
 ing sameness of this pacing up and down
 before Havana works the nerves of every one, from captain to cooks police. We are neglected; no one comes to see us. All the Key Wesct trolley boats run to the ad- mirals flag, and we know nothing of the outside. We speculate on the flying sduad- ron, the Oregon, the army and the Spanish. have an impression that was not caught
 young enough to develop a love of the sea,
 which the slow passage of each day rein-
 forces I was taken down into the ma-
 chinery of the ship. I thought to find in 1t
 some human interest. Through mile after
 mile of underground passages I crawled
 and scrambled and climbed, amid wheels going this way and rods plunging that, with little electric lights to make holes in the darkness. Men stood about in the over towering blasts of heat, sweating and greasy and streaked with black-grave, serious persons of superhuman intelligence men who have succumbed to modern sci ence, which is modern life. Daisies and trees and the play of sunlight mean noth- ing to these-they know when all three are
 useful, which is enough. They pulled the levers, opened and shut cocks, showered
 coal into the roaring white hells under the
 boilers, hither and yon they wandered, be-
 slowing motherlike attentions on rod and
 pipe. I talked at them. but they developed
 nothing except preoccupied professionalism. II believe they fairly worship this throb-
 ping mass of mysterious iron; I believe they love this bewildering power which they control It's problems entrance them; but 1t simply stuns me. At last when I stood on deck had no other impression but that of my own feebleness, and, as have said, felt rather stunned than stimulated Inn agine a square acre of delicate machinery plunging and whirling and splitting, with
 men crawling about in it's demon folds!
 It is not for me to tell you more.
 Don't waste your sympathy on these men
 below decks-they will not thank you; they
 will not even understand you. They are
 "modern'-are better off than Jackie and
 his poor wandering soul-they love their
 iron baby, so leave them alone with their
 joy Modern science does not concern its- self about death.
 The Iowa will never be lost to the nation
 for want of care. By night there are dozens of trained eyes straining into the darkness, the searches are ready to flash, and the watch on deck lies close about it's shotted guns Not a light shows from the loom of the great battle ship. Captain Evans sits most of the time on perch upon the bridge forty feet above the water line. I have seen him come down to his breakfast at bells with his suspenders hanging down behind, indicating that he had been jump ed out during the night.
 The executive officer, MT. Rogers, like the machinery down below, never sleps. Wan der where would about the ship, I could
 not sit few moments before MT. Rogers would fit by, rapid and ghostlike-a, word here, an order there, and eyes for every
 body and everything. Behind, in hot pur- suit, came stringing along dozens of men hunting for MT. Rogers; and this never seemed to let up-midnight and midday all the same. The thought of what 1t must he iS SimnlV hOrrib1a bac rnr thy-nervous prostration will be his reward yet I greatly fear the poor man is so perverted, so dehumanized, as positively to | like his life and work.
 Naval officers are very span in their
 graceful uniforms, so one is struck when at quarters" the officers commanding the tur- rets appear in their "dungaree," spotted
 and soiled. The Iowa has six turrets, each in charge of an officer responsible for its guns and hoistng gear, delicate and com plicated. In each turret is painted. in sort of Sam Weller writing: Remember the Maine." The gun captains and turret- men acquire a strange interest and pride in
 their charges, hanging about them con- stantly.
 Two gun captains in the forward turret used to sit on the great brown barrels of the 12-inch rifles just outside the poscts guarding them with jealous care; for it is Jackie trick to look sharply after his little spot on shipboard, and to promptly fly into any stranger who defiles it in any way. At times these two men popped back into theirs holes like prairie dogs. It was their hope and their home, that dismal old box of tricks, and 1t may be their grave was going to die with them there, though resolutely refused to live with them. However, the Iowa is unsuitable and un- lickable, and the hardware on the forward turret is fifteen inches thick, which is why put my brand on it. So good luck to Lieutenant Van Duzer and his merry menl Jackie" the prevailing thing on man.