Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1901-08-23
sASriAoo.s NAVAL BAIrLE.

1bWuS tuHty mluutco puIL niue.
.It's church service he said. Il 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 unit.
their leaden.bued hulls lowered high
above her. On the deck Of each the
ships company stood i'll m%otionless
ranks. The white clad sailors might
have been a chorus OF supplied choir
boys.
But up above them the battle flags
slumbered at the mast heads. stirred
~restlessly. and whimpered in their
sleep.
Out through the crack in the wall
Of mountains where the sea runs III
to meet the waters of Santiago har-
Dor, and from behind the shield OF
Moro castle, n great, gray ship. like a
great gray rat, stuck out her nose
and peered about her. and then
struck boldly for the sea. High
above her she bore the gold and
blood.red flag Of Spain. and, like a
fugitive leapinG from behind his
PRISON walls, she raced forward for
freedom-to give battle-to meet her
death.
A shell from the Iowa shrieked ITS
warning in a shrill ~crencesGo, a tlut-
ter OF flags painted their message
against the sky. The enemy's ships
are coming ont they siugnaled. aud
the ranks Of the white clad figures
which the moment before stood
motioDless on the decks broke into
thousands OF separate beings, who
flung themselves painting down the
hatchways, or sprang cheering to the
fighting tops.
Heavily, but swiftly, ms islands clip
into the water when a volcano shakes
the ocean bed, the great b]attleships
buried their prows in the sea, their
sides ripped apart with flame aud
smoke. the thunder OF their guns
roared and beat against the noun
tains, and from the shore the Spanish
forts roared back at them. until the
air between was split and riven.
The Spanish warships we're already
scuddlng clouds OF smoke. pierced
with flashes OF red flame, and, az they
fled firing, their batteries ratified
with %unceasing, feverish fury. Bat
the guns OF the American ships,
straining in pursuit, answered steadi.
ly, carefully, with relentless accuracy
with cruel persistence. At regular
intervals they doomed above the hur-
ricane OF sound like great bells toll
ing for the dead.
1t seemed to Claiming that he had
lived through many years; that the
strain OF the spectacle would leave
it's mark upon his nerves forever.
He had been buffeted and beaten 10y
a storm OF all the great emotions
pride OF race and country; pity for
the dead; agony for the dying, who
chung to blistering armOr plates or
sunk to suffocation i'll the sea; the
lust OF the hunter, when the hunted
thing Ii a fellowman; the joys OF dan.
ger n excitement, when the shells
dashed the waves about him; and the
triumph OF victory. final, overwhelm.
ing, complete.
Four OF the enemy's squadron had
struck their colors, two we're on the
beach broken and burning, two had
sunk to the bottom Of the sea, two
were in abiect flight. The battleslnps
we're hammering them with thirteen.
inch guns. Tho battle was won.
aIts all over Charming said. His
tone questioned his own words.
Tho captain OF the tugboat was
stirring at the face OF his silver watch
as though it we're u thing bewitched.
Ho was pale and painting. Iie looked
Mt Charming %piteously, rs though he
doubted his own senses. ind 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 seer an
empire, which had begun with Chris
topher Columbus and which had
spread over two continents, wiped off
the map in twenty minutes.-From
"a Derelict," by Richard Harding
Davis, in the August Scrbner's