The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1899-10-07
THE GREA! NAVAL PARADE
Most Wonderful Marine Display
Ever Witnessed on Western
Waters, If Anywhere.
New YORK HARBOR A JAN OF VESSELS.
4 D~issoIving View of Great Beauty
sinuous Marine Monster-MiIIions
of Spectators-A Threatened Storm
Passes By-SaIuted Grants Tomb
The Review, and Return.

New York, Sept. 30.-The naval pa
fade from the yantage points OF b
war ships was an immense marine pic
ture, a water pageant with so little of
incident compared with its great Size
tlat it appealed to the eye as a paint
, ing rather than a drama.
a DissoIving View. Picture.
The vast gathering of water craft
maintained a speed of eight knots,
but so magnificent was its area hat
the impression was one of exceedingly
slow and stately movement. The pic
ture was continually changing, but 1t
melted so steadily and in such meas
ured rythm from form toform that the
sense of motion was largely lost. 1t
started under a brilliant sky, passed
at the mouth of the Hudson through
the throat of an ugly storm and
emerged a rainbow arch that stretched
from shore to. shore into a clear and
brilliant sunset at the Grant tomb.
A Busy Night.
The night had been Il busy one in
the fleet of war ships off Torn kIns-
Vile. The last details of the days
ceremony were hardly settled before
the day itself broke on Il scene OF
greater activity than the classic an
chorage had ever witnessed before.
Compared With Phillips Armada.
The great vessels of the White squad
ron swung at their anchorage IS or
the past two days, but the crowd of
neighboring craft had seen swelled
past counting. AS lar rs could be seen
the water was a mass OF moGrlnS
steamers. From Stapleton across the
wide leach of the harbor 10 the Erie
basin and from the Battery to the
Narrows the water was alive. 1t was
a modern armada against which the
armada launched by Phillip of Spain
would nave seemed a child's toy. 1t
was a moving, shifting picture of tugs,
police boats, fire boats, torpedo boats,
yachts, launches, tramp steame and
ocean liners and sailing craft of every
rig, with big ferry and excursion boats
ploughing their way through the ruck
in mysterious paths that opened be-
fore them and closed again behind
them like the ice of an Arctic foe.
The Only Stable Points.
The only stable points in the scene
at that carly hour were the war ships
They lay like a great white grounded
berg about which the pack ice turned
and swirled, without moving then
from their moorings. 1t was n morn
ing of repressed excitement on board
the New York and the other ships be-
hind the Olympia. Everything had
been cleaned and FURNISHED from ram
to rudder.
A BabIe of Steam Whistles.
Noon was ushered in with n scream
of whistles that sounded like ten thou,
sand craft. The serenade lasted five
minutes, during which enough steam
was wasted to lave run an ocean linel
to the Azores.
The last PARKWAY echo had hardly
drifted back from the Staten Island
hills when a sudden impulse seemed IL
seize the far-reaching mass of tugs
and other craft. Instead of drifting
idly round and round the war ships
like chips in an eddy, they began t.
steam away to the south in parallel
lines as though the same currents
were bearing them out to sea. But as
they vanished in scores toward the
Narrows there were hundreds more
that swept down from up the harbor
Then there was a scurrying home o1
the white-hooded steam cutters of thu
war ships. The great boat cranes
amidships reached down their crap
Ming hooks and whisked the pinnaces
aboard.
The MegaphOne Commands.
Mecaphone commands flung across
the water brought the torpedo boats
to keel, like the greyhounds they
we're, at the Olympia's quarter. The
brilliant code flags blossomed like
flowers on the Olympia from bridge te
maintop. 1t was the order to form il
column. The Brooklyn's pennan'
snapped "Aye. aye" from the sigma
yard, and a duplicate set of flags
passed the order to the Indiana
whence it was flung from ship to shiI
down the squadron.
The Olympia Under Way.
The black speed cones of the Olym
climbed slowly to her yards as the big
cruiser got under way. The other YES
sells slowly turned like a troop of cav
airy, squadron front, toward the Mar
rows, and then fetching a graceful
sweep, headed back up the harbor to
ward the Battery, the Olympia, escort
ed by the mayors boat, the Sandy
Hook, in the lead.
Back of her, at a 4o0-yard interval
came the New York, the powerful In
diana and Massachusetts,, the fleet
footed Brooklyn, the sturdy old Texas
the rakish yacht-like Dolphin. the ole
Lancaster, a relic of another naval age
the powerful Chicago, and finally tn
little Marietta, the rear guard of tn
fighting craft.
Behind stretched the troops ant