Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1905-04-08
MIR. ROCKINGHAM
IN THE EAST.
By s. E. KIsER.

New York. have discovered that
not all the Japs are busy fighting
| Russians. A short time ago gathered
up several clean shirts and my nine
year-old boy, and came east for the
| purpose of showing the child the great
ness of his native land. | wanted to
have impressed upon his young mind
certain facts concerning the history OF
| the United States and his Importance
as future citizen. | have always
chung to the theory that seeing is be-
| lieving, and | have wanted the boy to
see some of our great warships so that
he might become possessed OF a prop
er idea concerning our power at sea.
| So when we reached Washington | at
| once began on my educational system
| Little Waldo expressed a strong desire
to tarry for the purpose OF watching
baseball game which. was in progress
on vacant lot near the capitol, but
| said to him:
Come, my boy, there is an impor-
tant lesson | want you to learn. In
a kingdom the king owns everything
In republic the people own things
that is, the things that are OF a public
nature. We will now visit the navy
yard You and | are part owners of
all the great warships, and the men
who run them work for us. That big,
| white capitol is part ours, and we
have an interest in everything that is
run by the government. We will first
look through the shops where they
make the great guns and otner imple-
ments of war thai are used on our
fighting ships"
He thought the big guns might be
seen after the ball game was over,
but | dragged him away, and we went
to the navy yard in a green car. |
should say that the navy yard was not
in the green car. but inside of high
wall. We entered at gate where an
armed warrior paced leisurely to and
fro, coming ever and anon to the limit
of his beat and splitting out into the
wide world. He kindly permitted us
to enter, and we found ourselves look
ing down across a grassy park several
acres in extent. Beyond and at the
sides of it were shops, and far away,
through one of the avenues, we could
see a cruiser lying in the river. AS
we stood looking at some children who
were tumbling about on the grass an
officer in full uniform approached. He
was about as tall as Joe Wheeler and
very dignified. Also he had gray
mustache. AS he was passing us,
asked him If he could tell us how we
might see the place to the best adj
vantage.
You can hire a guide" he said, in
tone which indicated that he re-
garded me as seven-dollar-a-w week
citizen, and wholly unworthy of con-
sideration by him.
Just then a Jap, who wasn't much
bigger than my nine-year-old boy
came along.
The pompous officer saluted him,
and they stopped to talk, finally walk
ing away together the American hold
ing the Jap Familiarity by an arm.
We went down to the shops and
found on each of them notice to the
effect that visitors were not admitted.
We stopped at the door of one and
looked in. A Waterman told us we
must not linger there.
why not?" l asked. I'm an Amer
lean citizen, and have a direct inter
est in these works."
"Yes, | know" the Waterman an
swered. "Got to enforce the rules
Pass along"
Looking over his shoulder, | saw a
Jap, in uniform, standing inside the
shop, calmly watching the work that
was being done.
At the wharf we went aboard the
cruiser and started to look around
We had not gone far when we were
stopped by a guard, who informed us
that there were only certain parts of
the ship which we might inspect Be-
yond us, where we were not allowed to
go, we could see two Japanese officers
watching several Americans who were
experimenting with a wireless tele-
graph apparatus.
At Brooklyn l took my boy down to
see some of the big battleships.
They permitted us to enter the yard,
but we could not get into any of the
buildings, although | saw uniformed
Japs come out of two of them as we
passed along. Finally we got down
to the water front and there many
workmen were busy on the Connect
cut, which is to be the biggest battle
ship in our navy. We were not al
lowed to so aboard, although a Japan
csc man looked down at us for mo-
meat from the bow of the vessel, and
then turned back to watch the laborers
who were riveting on the ships armor.
Half a mile away the Indiana was
being repaired. There a Waterman
ordered us back when we started to
go aboard, and, being good Americans,
we of course retreated. AS we did
so a Jap in uniform arrived, saluted
the Waterman and went upon the YES
sci to see how things were being done.
On our way out my boy asked:
why are all these Japanese allowed
IN on Uhara we cant p02n