The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1900-05-07
SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF
BATTLE OF MANILA BAY

BAL LIE Uf. MANILA BAL
| II was two years Tuesday since Ad-
miral Dewey rose from the comparative
ly obscure position of a commodore In
| the United States navy to be the most
| famous man I'm the world.
| He has found the pedestal of his fame
| thickly sprinkled with broken glass. and
he has shown his pain and his anger on
| the occasions when he has unwittingly
showed himself against the sharp points
of public opinion and public sentiment.
Admiral Dewey was in Chicago Tues
day facing dangers at the hands OF an
entertainment committee numbering
among its members such shining lights
as "Hinky Dink" McKennn. lighthouse
John" and Alderman Johnny" Powers.
The dangers he confronted on that his
! toric anniversary while not so grave
were as unknown those he faced two
years ago in Manila bay.
Then he had gallant Tom Brumby
| by his side to aid and advise him.
/ now he has only AIRS. Dewey, and Of
| what avail is a woman. however capable
she may be, against n Chicago entertain
| ment committee
|, The details of the historic fight at Ma
| Mia two years ago have been told and
/ retold until they are thoroughly familiar
to every person I'm the country. The part
| that Dewey and Brumby took I'm that
magnificent sea fight is known down to
the last and most minute particular.
IL is I'm the careers of the two principal
participants I'm the action. since their
names became household words that In
| terest centers at this time.
Every one remembers what n fever of
excitement the country was thrown into,
when n garbled dispatch from Madrid
was printed I'm the newspapers on Mon
day. May .. 1888. stating that the Ameri-
can and Spanish fleets had been I'm action
and that Americans had suffered con-
siderable loss. Then tense week of
waiting followed before any word came
from Manila, for the time being the one
great news center of the civilized world.
Governments might change hands, prime
ministers die. and those who sit in high
places might squeak defiance shrilly at
their neighbors. these were but trivial
things to be impatiently brushed aside
until the fate of our sailors was known.
In the newspaper offices during that
week OF anxious waiting, night editors
wore their patience down 10 the bone.
ON the other side of the world news. live,
sizzling. hot news was being made and
yet morning after morning their papers
went To press with nothing but the most
| improbable rumors of the situation in the
far east.
In New York in the offices of the great
dalies managing editors sat I'm their Of
fees all night porting over huge maps
covered with spidery blue lines. showing
the cable systems OF the world. They
cursed blaclSly am impartially the sup
posed failure of the cable. correspondents
I'm Hong Kong. and their own impa-
thence.
To cable stations I'm queer far away
places of the world they sent curt I'M
perious demands for news, and lonely
little brown skinned operators in their
matched stations listened I'm wonder as
their instruments licked out the message,
and plaintively replied they knew moth
Ing.
All up and down through the queer
shipping of the Chinese seas travelled the
word that much gold awaited the man
who first brought a straight tale Of what
the gray warships had done at Manila.
Ii was not until a week had passed
that the Mccullough steamed into Hong
Kong. and on Sunday May Sth. the
newspapers printed Dewey's account of
the fight, and the stories of the cores
pondents who had been privileged 20
witness II.
1t is an absolute fact, however, that
the story was known along the wharves
I'm Hong Kong by that flotsam and jet
sam OF humanity who earn their liveli-
hood by divers means In queer corners
Of the earth, and who are forced to keep
abreast OF what happens IN their part
OF the world, three days before the Nc
Cullough came into port.
IL was at this tIme that tho flood tide
OF Dewey's fame and fortune began, n
tide that IS SO perceptibly ebblng now.
AS the days passed and the reports OF
Dewey's daily conduct I'm the many try
ing situations that confronted him told
how modestly and bravely and with
what tact he was playing a diplomatic
game. how for the time the bluff naval
officer had changed into the smooth and
unruffied diplomat, the pride of the peo-
pie OF this country grew into unbounded
love and admiration.
II was not until the Olympia reached
New York with the admiral and his chief
executive officer on board that the part
Flag Lieutenant Brumby had played In
the stirring scenes enacted at Manila be-
gan TO dawn on the public mind. News
paper men who lowered about the Olyn-
pia in tugs all night. and who spent their
days on the decks OF the warships noted
how absolutely the admiral relied on the
gallant Georgian. His comings, his GO
ings and his spoken ana written words
were vised by Lieutenant Brumby. Dew
ely with Brumby 10 advise and aid him
TO conceal his petty outbursts of i'll
temper and censor his unguarded re-
marks was the nations hero.
Now that the gallant Georgian has
gone to his rest mourned and loved by
all of his countrymen. n man who never
cheapened his high position. or let cir
cumstances control him; u man who died
as no had lived. brave and gallant
sailor and u fine gentleman, the admiral
whom he practically nude, is founderlne
perilously near the quicksands of public
ridicule.
Since Brumby's death the adrn,ral's
career has been marked by a steady Sc
ries of plumbers. Tic attitude of tho
public mind has become one of auizzfcaI
amusement not unmixed with a tinge or
contempt. with a kind of humorous
gravity the people regard the little man
they have so highly honored and sought
to make great.
His marriage came as a mild shock
1t was, of course, nobody's business, but
the news wa received without enthusi-
asm.
Whether he declined 10 come to ATTAIN
Ia after accepting an invitation, for fenr
OF being overshadowed by his flag lieu
tenant has never been aScertained
He has never seen fit to explain his
discourtesy and remarkable behavior on
that occasion.
1t was not, however, until he had pre-
scented to his wife the handsome resi-
dence I'm Washington presented to him
by the people that he felt for the first
time the full force of the public wrath
That he did not anything wrong In
II. &c the least parparl.alla