Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-19
GLORIOUS SIGHT
DAZZLES THRONG
THOUSANDS SEE ILLUMINA'
TlON OF FLEET
SPECTACLE ONE NEVER TO BE
FORGOTTEN
Beaches Lined with Crowds of Eager
Spectators, Whose Cheers Tell of
Appreciation of Unusual
Display
CONTINUED from Page ONE,


forth the mighty chorus of cheers more
Justify than did the arrival and an
chorage of that beloved armada it was
the ineffable beauty of their nocturnal
illumination-the newildering grandeur
and startling significance of that spec
tacular electric display which the six
teen vessels gave to us in return for our
lavish welcome.
It was q display representing to the
fullest extent and in the highest form
the marvellous mentality and genius OF
all the great prodigies of the past and
presents-a display embodying in Its
incomprehensible splendor the grand
est dreams of Newton, Franklin, Edl-
son, Marconi and tn famous marvel
workers of the ages-givtng us their
hope fulfilled, their visions material
lied, their labors crowned by what
would seem an inimitable perfection.
1t was a long wait for the night TO
come, but the crowds instead of lessen
ing continued to increase, until it
seemed that every one within a radius
of hundred miles was present to see
the nocturnal pelagic pageant.
No One impatient
No one was impatient, for the multi
tudes of pedestrians and automobilists
which dotted the shore thousand deep
from the heights of Point Fermin to
the sand-sWept shores of Balboa, and
even farther southwark, as we'll as all
the countless and more fortunate occu-
pants of the various sea craft, seemed
utterly unconscious of the time and
contented themselves with gazing and
cheering at the five-mile line of battle
ships.
But at So'clock, when simultaneously
the sixteen beautiful vessels formed a
silhoutte of fire against the blackness of
the sky, and tie restless search lights
scanned the sea and armament, reveal
ing the crowded shore line, and seeming
to shed their effulgence almost upon the
snow capped peaks of Sierra Madre,
there arose from the enraptured multi
tudes such a laundering cheer of ad-
miration and patriotic eclat as Cali
fornia never in the past has heard, and
possibly may never again be privileged
to listen to.
Every lineament, every curve and
angle of turret, funnel, mast, cabin,
hull, prov and stern stood vividly out
lined against the darkness--the incan-
descent demarkation of the contour of
each ship giving them all the appear
Extend in Long Line
Five miles long. beginning with the
resplendent flagship Connecticut, off
Dead Mans island, in the San Pedro
breakwater and extending to the scin-
tillating battleship Kentucky, anchored
almost opposite the Long Beach pier,
but a mile distant, the great armada
loomed up against the ebon horizon
like a fleet of fire; and then, suddenly,
their powerful search lights burst forth
with penetrating splendor, searching
the heavens till the stars were dimmed,
darting back and forth, crossing each
ether till the sky was as a crazy quilt
OF light and shadow patches-an ever
shifting sellation of radiance stretch
ing from the farmost mountains of the
mainland to the cerulean peaks of Cat
alma island.
Through the white steam fogs and
smoke clouds of the myriad steamers
the unnumbered shafts of light were
pierced until even through the thick
est mists their light dazzled the spec
tators and defied the Instructions.
AS far as those electric Argus eyes
couldr reach they saw but a great
mass of people. Boys were improvising
rafts of railroad ties, fastened to-
gether with bailing wire, and with a
broom or pole were trying to work
their way among the thousands of
small boats to the battleships.
1t was is if those powerful lights
possessed magnetic fascination,
drawing even women and children to
risk death in the waves-just to be
nearer them.
Thousands We're sitting on the almost
perpendicular bluff of North San Pc
dro, their legs hanging over the edge,
even though danger signs were every
where posted, and thousands stood
back in fear that the high embank-
men would cave in under its weight
of humanity and hurl perhaps hun
dreds to their death on the beach be-,
low.
Seems Guarantee of Peace
But last night there was little
thought of land troubles. That mighty
array of scintillating battleships
seemed as a guarantee of peace on
earth, good will to man, insuring pro-
lection from every possible foe, seen
or invisible.
Only those whose view of the spec
tacle was amast shut off by the thou-l
sands along the precipice and waters
edge had any thought of the others.
or caveins were furthest
rom the minds of the multitude. The
navy, the sea. the pelagic panorama
-hese were the things on which the
great, throbbing soul of humanity was
and even after the
We're darkened and "only"
he gorgeous fiery contour of the
ships was visible. the majority of the
people remained, speechless for most
IF the time, gazing admiringly at the
ong line of illuminated vessels.
Not till at II o'clock the thousands
If electric lights were dimmed did
he last of the sightseers retire to their
lodgings in San Pedro to visit the
ships early this morning or return to