The San Francisco call., 1898-06-12


 O time in Alcatraz Prison.
 They were placed under guard
 in an open express wagon and driven from the Presidio guard house to the Clay-street wharf.
 AS the wagon passed through the Reservation gates one of them flung himself into the bottom of 1t and covered his head in his arms.
 think no one noticed these men or noticing took much account of them in the hurry and hustle of that day.
 It was the day on which the First and Second Battalions of California Volun- teers broke camp at the Presidio, marched across the city and took ship for hostile ports.
 In the chill, still dawn which crept into the field .-om the sea the reveille woke eighteen hundred men to the ac- tive service of their country. They rose to 1t eagerly and stirred the Post with the business of their going.
 Who, seeing 1t, will forget while the heart beats In the breast, that first call to the young West and how her sons went out to answer 1t?
 There have been wars of ours in which men fought and bled and died for the cause and the flag floating over us, and left their legacy of national courage to it's his- tory. We read of them, thrilling to their memory, and honor such as live to tell the tale. But th--t was the courage of long ago touching the heart across the years of peace. This is the courage of the vivid now, going from our arms in answer to the trump of war. Those were our heroes of yes terday. These are our soldiers of to- day. Those were the wars of our fathers. This is the war of our sons.
 In the little hours of the dawn the crowd gathered at the Presidio to look on the orderly confusion of breaking camp. the figures of men and horses coming out against the Tightening sky, orders sharply given, quickly taken. the eager stumb- ling of the raw recruit, the excited cool ness of drilled militiamen, the frenzied zeal of company to surpass company in the speed of packing tents, the magnifi- cent triumph of the victorious first, the splendid disappointment of the defeated rest, the traps lettering on the drive, the equipment wagons numbering on the field, the close embrace, the sound of laughter and of sobs, the words that courage speaks and pain, the assem- bly,, the start, the march, the band, the flag, the boys!
 Who I say, will ever forget it? Who wants ever to forget it?
 Cheers, tears, good-bys, godspeeds all along the line of march, All the early wakened world gay and sad at the sight of so much young courage and tender patriotism and innocent hope going to the war! The city with her national colors at her breast pulsing and throbbing with the spirit of war after a thirty years sleep of peace! California wreathing her roses and lilies into crowns for untried heroes, sending them forth to win her laurels. Young boys chafing, old men mourning the glory that passed them by. Mothers, fathers, sisters, sweethearts, wives. giving bravely their dearest and best The music of fife and drum getting into mems legs and making them marchi The sight of the old flag getting into mems brains and making them mad to go out under it, to fight for 1t, to die for itl Scarce one among them, good or evil, but would sell his rights of birth. his hopes of heaven for the chance.
 And away from the line of march, away from the flowers and the flags, the cheering and the glory, away from the transport ships, away from the wars, away from the Army, going to the Clay street wharf. going to the Government tug, going to Alcatraz Island, going to the military prison,
 men who had this chance and put 1t behind them
 N And one. face downward, in the IN bottom of the wagon. M NM went to Alcatraz Island on M Wednesday,.
 M Captain Hobbs. commandant \M of the post stood on the NWW< wharf. Lieutenant England, NMM officer in charge of the pris- \NW on, stood beside him. IMN\t It was rough day by NNA\\AA land or sea, with a spit WNANV ting fog abroad. The sea W\\W\ girt short of the grim \ M\M nest of our posts N W\M was washed with M WAVNlN soapy water, it's INN M\tWN \ rocky steeps were INN MWll N swept by a bold, N lWl N brisk gale. Men M \ lMW " held to their hats //W X lM/I 0 and women to W/I/3 MIByIT their draperies. //V M/3yWM The c To S d " WJlVWy sides of the / Wf/MVh little omnibus
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