New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-08-12
A GARDEN FULL OF SHIPS.
COMBINED WAR PLAY AND TANK DRAMA
AT THE MADISON sQUARE-CHEERs
FOR UOBSON


ANYBODY who was ever child, who was kept in
the house on rainy days and who sailed boats In
the bathtub will enjoy the naval show at the Madi
son Square Garden because Of its reminiscent
flavor 1t is just the old bathub game of com
n1erce and war a large scale Magnify the bath
tub 10 the size OF the Madison Square Garden. the
ships correspondInsly and the means Of handling
them in the same ratio. and you have II.
The Garden crowded last night with grown
up children who TO the first performance
OF the show. The whole arena of the Garden was
a tank II was filed with water. and on the sur
face thereof foated the ships OF the United States
and of Spain. A screen of gauze. running all
around the arena, separated It from the audience.
On the inner side of this mountain and val
leys and clouds were painted. The intention was
that. the lights being all inside the the
audience at each point OF the house should look
through the gauze TO it and see the painting
on the more distant parts. The device is not new.
In this case the gauze a little too heavy. and
consequently hard to through It had the effect
OF making the whole Garden look like Norwegian
ford seen through Scotch mist
The ships which glided about this artificial
sea were pretty faithful models of the warships
which they represented They moved for the most
part In a natural manner but they did some things
that real warships do not ordinarily attempt They
moved sideways with remarkable facility, and they
had the power. after lying perfectly still OF turn
Ing around as II on plvots. without waiting TO get
up any steerage way. The press boat which
was shown seemed to be of about three thousand
or four thousand tons while torped ,-boat was
nearly as long as a battle-shlp The ships fired
their guns and showed their lights in an effective
manner.
The performance began with some evolutionary
tactics and the interest was gradually worked up
to the battle Of Manila When the Spanish feet
had been sunk by that of Commodore Dewey there
was a pause and the scene changed to the
sbO off afta
cidents. Cervera's feet came and climbed into the
bottle and Commodore Schey's fleet came and
waited outside. The forts were bombarded. the
oregon arrived, the Merrmac sunk and then
Cervera came out and met his defeat This was
followed. after another pause by procession OF
the American ships decorated In rainbow fashion
and afterward Illuminated with strings OF lights
The trouble with the exhibition was that il was
hard to SEQ. The gauze made II particularly so to
begin with. and then the IN oke OF battle made IL
much worse. II is understood that a ship does
sometines disappear in its own smoke when it is
ocean should disappear. 1t was bad enough with
TO the Of action OF the moment Those at the
far end Of the Garden scarcely got glimpse of the
Merrimac till the explosion that finished her showed
for the first time clearly where she was II the
screen were pulled up aogether. it is likely that
Several representatives Of the real Navy were
present ,h among them being Captain Merrill Miller
g. ,atn w Woods Medical Inspector A. Hawke. Cap
Of the Texas, wardroom officers of the Harvard.
wardroom officers Of the Vermont ard Lieutenant
In a large box at the west end OF the building
when The performance was nearly over, Lieuten-
ant Robson TOOK seat in this box He made his
way TO II without being recognized, but he had
~ So there long before he VAS discovered. and
then hundreds OF people neglected the rest OF the
SHOW. preterrlng 10 crowd the passages in front
Of the box and cheer for Hobson. They stood there
ana cheered for many minutes and demanded "A
srcech. blt they did not get IT, Lieutenant Hobson
Is evidently not yet sufficiently experienced as
nero to bear his honors with all the grace OF "A
matinee actor. He does not care about making
speeches and II does not to be bv his own
wish that he was part Of the show. lmre Kiralfy
occupied page Of the programme with his own
portrait, and then put In the highest officers of
the United States Navy al the OF seven to the
page But HohSOn did not even desire To stand nm
in his place. In order that his grateful countrymen
who were stretching their necks might say that
they had seen him.