The San Francisco call., 1898-06-23
MAIL FOR MANILA.
Letters for the Soldiers to Be Carried by the MOnad-
 mock

A mail for Manila and the Philippines closes at the Ferry Depot Postoffice at 10 a. m. to-day. The mail for Honolulu is general one, but that for Manila is con- fined to letters to enlisted men and of ficers of the army and navy. What Ves- sel will carry the mail the postal authori- ties refuse to say, but the general impress sion is that it will be the coast-defense steamer Monadnock, now in the stream waiting for her consort, the collier Nero
 The latter vessel was to have been ready vesterday but as all her coal was not aboard the sailing had to be postponed. Captain Miller, the pilot detailed to take her out, went down in the morning, but finding the longshoremen still at work on her he went to sea in another vessel.
 Captain Scott will pilot the Nero out of the harbor to-day.
 Unless something unforeseen happens, the Monadnock and Nero should get away
 this afternoon about 1:3O o'clock. That will land her in Honolulu about the same time as the City of Para, Morgan City, Ohio and Indiana. Work on these vessels is going on with rush, and they will be ready for the troops on Saturday night; If all goes well, the soldiers will go aboard on Sunday, and on Sunday night the steamers will drop out into the stream, will be made for Manila.
 All the furniture and paraphernalta
 which General Merritt will require is
 being put aboard the steamer Indiana, while provisions and camp equipments are being rushed aboard the Ohio, Morgan City and City of Para; All these vessels tomorrow will see all the carpentering
 work completed. full crew will be shipped on each transport Saturday morn ing so that everybody connected with the vessels will have settled into his place before the soldiers get aboard.
 The chances are that the steamers City form a fleet by themselves, and leaving three days after the Ohio, Indiana, Nor gan City and City of Para will eaten up with those vessels at Honolulu The City of Puebla finished discharging her Puget Sound cargo last night and the work Of coaling her will begin to-day, simultane-
 ously with the work of putting in the hunks for the soldiers. The Newport went on the drydock yesterday and will come off to-day while the work of coaling the Valencia has already begun. The latter's boilers have to be oVerhauled, but by next Wednesday they should be ready to follow the fleet scheduled to sail on Monday. The vessels composing the lat ter will go to Honolulu at the rate of ten knots an hour while the Puebla, Newport and Valencia can easily make thirteen knots, so that if they can get away next behind the Ohio, Indiana. Morgan City and City of Para at Honolulu.
 Four fine American steamers are due here almost in bunch and all of them can and probably will be pressed into ser vice Of course it will entail great hard ships on the owners, but then the troops have to be moved. The Peru will be due here from China tonight, the Alameda from Australia and the Acapulco from Central America on the 29th inst, while the City of Rio de Janeiro is due here from China on July > All these vessels can be got ready as quickly as the sol diers can be prepared, so that fortnight after the Newport, Valencia and City of Puebla sail they could be under way. That would mean that in about two months the United States Government had equipped and dispatched from San Fran cisco alone eighteen vessels with 1800U troops with all the necessary munitions of war to assistance of Admiral Dewey in Manila