The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1899-10-07

Admiral Dewey was going to his own
at the head of a squadron that would
have won, at need, three battles of Ma
Mia bay without stopping for break
fast.
The head of the column was a broad
arrow. Six torpedo boats spread out
as the barb, three on a side from the
Clympia's quarter. Outside of them a
flying wedge of police patrol boats
formed a great V, whose apex was the
Olympia. Thanking them, ahead and
astern were the harbor fire boats,
spouting great columns of water, that
turned observation-disclosures the excur-
sion boats on either side when they
attempted to crowd the line of march.
A SInuous Marine Monster.
But the pageant back of this power
full vanguard was not limited to a sim
gle nor a seXtuple line of ships. 1t
was a sinuous marine monster, half
a mile wide. whose vertebrae were the
ships of the White squadron II whose
ribs were rows upon rows. of every
sort of floating thing that had ever
run by steam in New York harbor
Thousands viewed the spectacle as
it moved up past Staten Island, thou
sands more watched it from the an
chored sailing craft that crowded the
Erie basin, and whose spars rose in a
forest about the foot of Liberty. But
they were forgotten in the mass OF
humanity that crowded the water
front of Manhattan Island and filled
every point of vantage along the Jer-
sey shore.
Immense ThrOngs of Spectators.
This feature of the scene first broke
on the view as Castle William roared
an admiral's salute to the Olympia OIL
the Battery. By the time the answer
ing smoke had died away from the
wake of the flagship the immensely OF
the watching crowd dawned on the
crews of the squadron. Every foot OF
the city water front was a mass OK
humanity. The wharves, the ferry
slips, the roofs of ferry and ware
house rose one above another in solid
blocks of people above the lower struc-
lures of the water front every roof
DOTe IT'S llNlIS liSlSht o'oiSS oN
fee buildings and modern sky scrapers
were crowded with stands, tiers upon
tiers of seats like an immense theater
whose roof was the sky, whose walls
were the surrounding hills and whose
back door was the horizon of the
lower bay. AS the pageant moved
maiestically into the Hudson it was
- IL IL. ono,-J xt,I 1ino1 tho Uo-
ter front and housetops, thicker, il
possible, than ever, and stretching up
the river along the whole line of pa.
rade.
On the Jersey Side.
The heights of the Jersey side were
also crowned with parti-colored masses
of people. They were not such an I'M
broken rank as along the wharves OF
the New York side, but wherever the
wooded slopes broke into Il clearing
the slope was blackened with people
from crest to water line. There was
no possible way of estimating the
crowd. The morning papers declared
there were 10000 0 visitors in the
city.
The impression conveyed by the
crowded shores was that it would have
taken fully that many in addition to
the local population to form h con-
course that watched the water pageant.
The spectators might have been COM
puted in army corps. certainly not by
individuals.
Pandemonium ReiEned Supreme.
I'D the Hudson pandemonium
reigned supreme. Areial bombs broke
at intervals overhead in puffs of white
smoke, and Il feathery canopy of steam
hung over the advancing fleet as hun
dreds of steam whistles screamed con.
tinually.
A Storm Threatened.
Here. too, a disaster of wind ana
rain impended. Storm clouds that had
gathered down the bay followed close
in the pageant's wake. A sharp wind
bred whitecaps even in the narrow
river, and a few raindrops battered Oh
the deck.
The glare of an angry sky turned
) the harbor behind the war ships to
mOlIen Iedu upon NHlSH INV SiSoh'iS
figure of Liberty seemed to stand for
a time and was soon swallowed up IN
. a bank of gray haze.
The Threatening Sky R~e1ented.
Then the threatening sky relented.
The sun broke out ahead and painted
across the sullen clouds a rainbow
arch that stretched from Manhattan
to the Jersey shore. 1t seemed a BIT
of natures art work spread by a kind
) " miracle at the opportune moment
5 beggaring mans more humble efforts
7 on shore, but forming a fitting arch
: of triumph beneath which the victori'
: GUS admiral sailed to his triumphal
anchorage.
l SaIuted Grant Tomb.
l The Old Portsmouth crew manned
l the rigging as the Olympia pas~d, and
, off Grants tomb the naval reserves or
> the ST. Marys did the same. i;cund
) the stakeboat the Olympia turned
smartly. her guns thrObbing a deep
throated salute to the resting place o!
= another national hero.
, The other vessels of the White squad
-or eur,,pn arnupI tho 81 N3ryS in