Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-04-19
CHAPTER VI.

The great thoroughfare of that Won
derful city, seated on more than her
seven hills, and ruling the western
world, was thronged from curb to curb.
GAY with bunting and streamers, the
tall buildings of the rival newspapers
and the long facades of hotels and busl-
ness blocks were gayer still with the
life and color and enthusiasm that
crowded every window. Street trafhc
was blocked. Cable cars Changed vain
ty and the police strove valiantIy. IL
was day given up to but one duty and
one purpose, that of giving Godspeed
TO the solGiery ordered for service IN
the distant Philippines, and, though
they hailed from almost every section
of the union, except the Pacific slope,
as though they were her own children,
with all the hope and faith and PRIDE
and patriotism, with all the blessings
and comforts with which she had load
ed the foremost ships that sailed, yet
happily without the tears that flowed
when her own gallant regiment was
first to lead the way, San Francisco
turned out en- masse to cheer the men
from far beyond the Sierras and the
Rockies, and to see them proudly
through the Golden Gate. Early in the
day the guns of famous light battery
had been trundled, decked like some
rose-covered chariot at the summer fes-
lival of flowers, through the winding
lanes of eager forms and faces, the can
noneers almost dragged from the ranks
Toy the clasping hands of men and
women who seemed powerless to let
$50. With their little brown carbines
tossed jauntily over the broad blue
shoulders, half a regiment of regular
cavalry dismounted, had gone trudg-
ing down to the docks, cheered to the
gateway of the pier by thousands of
citizens who seemed to envy the very
recruits who, only half-uniformed and
drilled, brought up the rear of the col
umn. Once within the massive wooden
portals, the guards and sentries holding
back the importunate crowd, the sol
diers flung aside their heavy packs, and
were marshalled before an array of
tempting tables and there feasted, COM
forted and reioiced under the ministra-
tions of that marvellous successor Of the
sanitary commission of the great civil
war of the siXties-the order of the REQ
Cross. There at those tables in the dust
and din of the bustling piers, in the
SCOT and heat of the railway station, in
the jam and turmoil at the ferry
houses, in the fog and chill of the sea-
ward camps, in the fever-haunted wards
of crowded field hospitals, from dawn
till dark, from dark till dawn, toiled
week after week devoted women in
every grade of life, the wife of the
millionaire, the daughter of the day
Iaborer, the gentle born, the delicately
reared, the social pets and Garlings, the
humble seamstress, no one too high to
stoop to aid the departing sc-.:er, none
too poor or low to deny hiu. cheer and
sympathy. The war was still young
then. Spain had not lowered her riddled
standard and sued for peace. Two
great fleets had been swept from the
seas, the guns of Santiago were 81
fenced, and the stronghold of the ori-
ent was sulking in the shadow of the
flag, but there was still soldier work to
be done, and so long as the nation sent
its fighting men through her broad
and beautiful gates San Francisco and
the Red Cross stood by with eager,
lavish hands to heap upon the warrior
sons of a score of other states, even as
upon their own, every cheer and com
fort that wealth could purchase, or hui
man sympathy devise. Ii was the one
feature OF the war days of '0S that will
never be forgotten.
At one of the flower-decked tables
near the great "stage" that led to the
main deck of the transport, q group
of blithe young matrons and pretty
girls had been busily serving fruit, cot
fee and bouiIlon and substantials tr
the troopers, man after man, for over
two hours. There was lively chat and
merry war of words going on at the
moment between half dozen young
officers who had had their eyes on that
particularta table ever since the coming of
the command, and were now making
abe most of their opportunities be-
fore the trumpets should sound the
assembly and the word be passed to
move aboard. All the heavy baggage
and ammunition had, at last, been swung
into the hold; the guns of the battery
mad been lowered and securely
checked; the forecastle head was
thronged with the red trimmed uni
forms of the artillerymen, who had al
ready been embarked and were now
ie-lously clamoring that the troopers
should be "shuS off, from the further