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.
IT'S church service he said. "I can
see them carrying out the chaplain's
reading desk on the Indiana" The
press boat pushed her way nearer into
the circle Of battleships until their
leaden-hued hulls lowered high above
her. On the deck Of each, the ships
company stood ranged in motionless
ranks. The calm Of a Spanish morning
hung about them, the sun fell upon
them like a benediction, 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 am
swering the roll call iu rising mono
tone, zone, two, three, four; one, two,
three four. The Whitehead sailors
might have been a chorus of surpliced
choir boys.
But up above them the battle flags
slumbering at the mastbeads 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. a great gray ship like a great.
81 uN at nANAh UlN INl ANnI anu NtNItil
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 leapug from behind his
prison walls, she raced forward for her
freedom, to give battle. 20 meet her
death.
shell from the Iowa shrieked it's
warning I'm a shrill cresCendO, a lutter
Of flags painted their message against
the sky. "The enemy's 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 dame 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, until The air between
was split and riven. The Spanish war
ships were already sCudding clouds Of
smoke, pierced with flashes Of red
flame, and hs they fed fighting their
batteries ratified with unceasing, fever
ish fury But the guns Of the Ameri-
can ships, straining in 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.
It 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 had
been buffeted and beaten by storm
Of all the great emOtOns pride of
race and country, pity for the dead,
agony for the dying, who clung to blis-
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 We're
In abiect flight Three battleships We're
numbering Lnem with tnlfleen-nCn
guns. The battle was won.
ITS 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, ps
though IL we're a thing bewitched. lie
was pale and painting, lie looked ot
Claiming piteously as though he
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 0n
empire, which had begun with Chris
topher Columbus and which had spread
over two continents, wiped off the MAJ
in twenty minutes.-FrOm "A Dere-
lict," by Richard Harding Davis.