Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-05-11
THE GREAT VICTORY! !!
Oodles of Spaniards Bite
the Dust.
mot ONE AMERICAN KILLED.
When Breakfast Was Ready Dewey
Stopped Fighting, and After Eating
Hash Went at it Again.

Washington, May IA day of
excitement, such as to-day has
not been seen in Washington since
the days when reports came in of
great victories during the civil
war.
Official and unofficial Washing
ton was in a ferment, and few of
the employees in any of the de-
partments could maintain their
composure sufficiently to go on
with their routine work.
Tney were in an explosive state,
and at the great state, war and
navy department buildings the
least sign of dispatches or the gath
ering of a crowd of reporters was
sufficient to Cause them to drop
their work and swarm in the cor
ridors clamoring for news.
The excitement was contagious,
and senators and representatives
mixed llto crowds that gathered
around the navy headquarters and
gazed wistfully at the mahogany
doors of the navigation bureau, be-
hind which the cipher experts, un-
der lock and key, were slowly de-
ciphering the words that conveyed
Dewey's glorious message to the
American people.
Senator Hanna aroused the
crowd at one time by leading with
a hip, nip hurrah for Dewey, and
later a roar of stentorian cheers
from Theodore Roosevelt's room
gathered everybody in the vast
building to the east wing in time
to witness the departure of the
eastern contingent of the mounted
rihemen.
Mr.. Roosevelt had said goodbye
to the boys before they started at
2.40 o'clock this afternoon for San
Antonio, and the cheer was the
means by which they took their
leave.
Mr.. Roosevelt will himself fol-
low Monday or Tuesday.
The state department has the
honor Of receiving the first news
from the fleet.
1t came in the shape of a cable
gram of three words from United
States Consul Wlldman, at Hong
Kong, and was as follows:
"Hong-Kong. McCullooh. Wild
man."
is the5usual form in which
naval movements are reported by
cable. This dispatch was received
by Third Assistant Secretary Grid
Ter, who had been on duty all
night, at 4.40 o'clock this morning
The naval officials were promptly
notified, and awaited with intense
interest the dispatch which was
expected to surely follow from
Commodore Dewey.
About $50 o'clock Manager Ma
reen, of the Western Union Tele'
graph company, appeared at the
department., bringing with him
sheet comprising four lines of this
mysterious jargon which makes up
the naval cipher.
He handed this directly to Sec
retary Long, who gazed at 1t for a
moment and turned it over to
Whittue's secretary,
one of the cipher experts of the
navigation bureau, for translation
into English.
Then Secretary Long made a
pretense of sitting down at his
desk to transact other business,
but it was plain te be seen that, in
spirit, he had joined the anxious
throng of newspaper men aad Off
cials who thronged the reception
room and corridors waiting for the
news.
The naval cipher is one of the
most complex in the world. The
messages come in words of strange
formation, taken from all Ian
guages. These words are turned
by the t1anslating clerks into
groups of figures, and there, in
turn, are resolved into their equiv
alent words in English. All this
takes time.
In about half an hour Secretary
Long appeared with a copy of the
translated cipher in his hand.
There was a great rush toward
him, but the secretary good ma
turedly made allowance for the
excitement of the crowd, and smll-
ingly read from the corner of the
room into which he had been
forced the following cablegran:
Manila, May 1.-Squadron ar
rived at Manila at daybreak this
morning. Immediately engaged
the enemy and destroyed the fol-
lowing Spanish vessels: Reina
Christina, Castillo, Don Antonio
de Ulloa. Isla de Luzon, Isla de
Cuba, General Lezo, Marques de
Duero, Correo, Velasco, Isla de
Mindanao, a transport, and water
battery at Cavite. The squadron
is uninjured and only few men
are slightly wounded. Only means
of telegraphing is to American
consul at Hong-Kong. I shall
communicate with him.
(Signed) "DEwEY."
Before this brief summary of
j