Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-10

TALLY smelted ores to the assortment. Driven
by expert minds and masters of executive work,
an army of men in different walks OF life had
given their ingenuity and effort toward some
thing of which they knew not, and then the
result of their labors had poured out upon
wharf, been swallowed up by the cavernous
holds of collier, and were now being carried
out into the broad reaches of the Atlantic,
with destination unknown.
A general order had been issued and made
public, that inasmuch as the poach1ng of Cuban
fishermen on American grounds round lower
Florida and the keys demanded attention, the
gunboat Penobscot had been detailed to patrol
those waters. In the United States this at
tracted no attention; but the swarthy fisher
men of the tropics took warning and no longer
steered their smacks to the forbidden waters,
Struggling their shoulders in impotent wrath
Rumor had it that the transport was car
rying mechanics and laborers to the Philip
pines, where a new drydock was to be con-
structed, and the collier generally sup
posed by men of the waterfront to be laden
with materials for this work. And so, despite
the momentous significance of the sailing OF
these three ships, the world remained in igno-
rance, paid little heed, or forgot.
Those voyagers who were in the secret
looked forward with eagerness to the task be-
fore them, realizing to the full that on them
depended much. And of these was Norma,
who leaned over the stern rail of the Penobscot
as it dropped down the harbor, watched the
the great, silent Statue of Liberty rear itself
against the sky, and felt the first free swell lift
and sway the deck beneath her feet. Her de-
parture had not been pleasant
There on the land behind was the man
whom she seemed doomed forever to hold at
arms length. She had parted from him with
the announcement that her father was COM
PEELED to go south for time, and had insisted
on her accompanying him. For how long!
All, that could be but conjecture; perhaps for
t,,,o he he IN
exactly; but he was going away and needed
her. Yes she would write occasionally from
Miami, Florida; but not often, because her
charge would demand her time. And so,
answering and evading, filled with .yearning,
and yet debarred from giving confidence, she
had hidden him good by and come to this:
sailing away in the night with all the furtive-
ness and mystery which enshrouded pirate
ships of old bent on plumber and rapine.
The days of the voyage were much alike:
filled with work. Down in the cabins the en-
gineers and machinists drew hasty plans Of
buildings then marked spots where machines
were to have floor space, drew diagrams TOR
transmission of power, and consulted charts
showing the depths of water round their
prospective shipyard They had not even
time to watch the devious course in and out
among the islands which marked their entry
to the scene of toll. When the pulsations of
the screw stopped and the ship ceased her
vibrations, they were still at their several
chains went rumbling through their hawSer
pipes
Like an army of ants, drilled and acclimated,
they swarmed out upon the land. the sappers
clearing the way the carpenters donning their
aprons, and grasping their tools while piles of
lumber, kegs of bolts and nails, and mountains
of iron sheathing accumulated upon the beach.
And then as the ringing of multitude of ham
mers and the steady biting song of the saws
filled the air with sounds of industry, great
cases of machinery swung up from the holds,
fioated dizzily to the bulwarks, and went
slowly down to the lighters. A city of tents
sprang up as by necromancy with cutters to
carry off the rains, and sewers to prevent dis
ease. Camp surgeons accustomed to santa
ton superintendent these outposts, paying as
much attention to the spreading of mosquito
net to keep away the dread stygomia, as to
tautening the canvas roofs and clearing the
grounds.
All available means of resourceful nation
had been gathered together as an expert driver
sezes the reins of a fourth Inland and guides his
horses along known road to given destina-
ton, and all with the regularity which would
distinguish the work had it been the most I'm
important action of every day industry.
Norma, having no part in this task of con-
struction, wandered idly up and down the
decks or round the clearing throughout the
day; and as she watched she saw the birth of
a miniature city, saw the heaps of material on
the beach dissipated, saw tall steel smoke
stacks r0ke their submits inward st1DDorted