Sunday morning globe., 1901-08-25
QUICK WORK At SANTIAGO.
Accounts of How an Empire Was
Wiped Out in Twenty Minutes.

Il was thirty minutes past nine.
ITS church service" he said. 81 can
see them carrying out the chaplain's
reading desk on the Indiana" The
press boat pushed her way nearer into
the circle Of battleshps until their
leaden-hued hulls lowered high above
her. On the deck of each, the ships
company stood ranged i'm motiOnless
ranks. The calm of a Spanish morning
hung about them. the sun fell upon
them like a benedlctlon, and so still
was the air that those on the press
boat could hear from the stripped and
naked decks, the voice of the men an
swering the roll call In rising mono
tone, "one, two, three, four; one, two,
three, four The white-Clad sailors
might have been a chorus of surpliced
choir boys.
But up above them the battle flags
slumbering at the mastheads stirred
restlessly, and whimpered in their
sleep.
Out through the crack in the wall
Of mountains, where the sea runs I'm TO
meet the waters Of Santiago harbor,
and from behind the shield of MORO
Castle q great gray ship like a great,
gray rat, stuck out her nose and peered
about her. and then struck boldly for
the sea. High before her she bore the
gold and blOod-red flag of Spain. and.
like a fugitive leapiug from behind his
prison walls, she raced forward for her
freedom, to give battle. TO meet her
death
shell from the Iowa shrieked its
warning I'm a shrill CrescendO, a dutter
of flags painted their message against
the sky. "The enemys ships are COM
ing out" they signalled and the ranks
of white-clad figures which the moment
before stood motionless on the decks
broke into thousands Of separate be-
ings, who flung themselves painting
down the hatchways, or sprang cheer
ing to the fighting tops.
Heavily, but swiftly, as islands, slip
into the water when a volcano shakes
the oceanbed, the great battleships
buried their bows iu the sea, their
sides ripped apart with Hame and
smoke the thunder of their guns roar
ed and beat against the mountains and
from the shore the Spanish forts roar
ed back at them, unit. The air between
was split and rjyen. The Spanish war
ships we're already scudding clouds of
smoke, pierced with flashes Of red
flame and AS they fed fighting, their
batteries ratified with unceasing. fever
ish fury. But the guns Of the Amer
can ships, straining I'm pursuit, answer
ed steadily, carefully with relentless
accuracy. with cruel persistence AT
regular intervals they doomed above
the hurricane Of sounds like great bells
tolling for the dead.
II seemed to Claiming that he hal
lived through many years. That the
strain Of the spectacle would leave its
mark upon his nerves forever, He hal
been buffeted and beaten by a storm
of all the great emotions; pride of
race and country, pity for the dead
agony for the dying, who clung to Bills
tering armor-plates, or sank to suffo
cation In the sea; the lust Of the hunt
er, when the hunted thing is a fellow
man; the joys Of danger and Of excite.
ment when the shells lashed the waves
about him, and the triumph Of victory,
nnal, overwhelming and complete.
Four of the enemy's squadron had
struck their colors, two were on the
beach, broken and burning, two had
sunk to the bottom Of the sea, two were
In ablect flight. Three battleships We're
hammering them with thirteen-inch
guns. The battle was won.
It's all over" Claiming said. His
tone questioned his own words.
The captain Of the tugboat was star
ing at the face of his silver watch, Ds
though it were a thing bewitched, lie
was pale and painting He looked ut
Claiming piteously as though Ee
doubted his own senses, and turned the
face Of his watch toward him.
Twenty minutes" Claiming said.
Good God Twenty minutes.'
He had been to hell and back again
in twenty minutes. He had seen uu
empire, which had begun with Chris
topher Columbus and which had spread
over two continents, wiped off the mao
In twenty minutes.-From "A Dere.
lict," by Richard Harding Davis.