Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1908-04-25
NOW AT Los ANGELES
GREAT FLEETsVIEWED EASTER
DAY BY CROWDS OF PEOPLE
Thousands of People Rush to Visit
Ships and Witness Maneuvering
Early in the Neutrality-suspicious. At
tend Easter Church Services in
the City.

Los Angeles, Cal, April 20.-Sunday
night, for the first time since leaving
Hampton Roads, the battleships are
separated. In home harbors, a few
miles apart, they lie at anchor in di-
visions of four, and these positions
they will maintain until next Saturday
morning, when the 16 fighting craft
again united under the flag of Rear
Admiral Thomas, will get under way
for Santa Barbara, the next port of
welcome.
For the ships, for the officers and
the men and for the people of Los
Angeles Sunday was a busy Easter.
The division of the fleet was accom-
plished at 6 O'Clock a. M, but even at
this early hour the shores of San
Pedro harbor and the hills overlooking
were well covered with spectators
eager to witness the maneuvers of
the warships While the crowds ashore
watched, suddenly the signals began
to fly, and within a few minutes the
second division led by its flagship, the
Georgia, steamed slowly out of line
and proceeded three miles across the
harbor to point opposite Long Beach.
The third and fourth divisions rounded
Point Firmin for a longer cruise, the
four ships led by the flagship Maine
proceeding to anchorage in the most
sheltered portion of Santa Monica
bay, and the fourth division, with the
Alabama leading, dropping out of the
column to anchor few hundred yards
of the pier at Redondo.
Not until afternoon were visitors
received on board, and after that time
the people surged aboard the boat
landings and the bays were dotted
with tiny craft, laden to the limit of
safety with men, women and children
who struggled to be first aboard the
big, white clean fighting ships.
Churches Welcome Sailors.
A striking feature of the service in
each of the big churches of Los An
geles was the presence of squads of
sailors in uniform, who were without
exception given places in the front
pews and to whom. in nearly every
instance, the clergymen addressed a
portion of the Easter sermons. The
church squads" composed of first
class liberty men, were brought ashore
early this morning, and after attend
ing devotions were given until tomor-
row to see the city.
Round of Entertainments.
Throughout the next five days while
officers and men of the fleet are par
ticipating in the round of banquets,
balls and other forms of entertainment
devised by various committees, the
people OF all southern California will
be welcomed aboard the battleships,
and each night there will be a great
display of splendid illumination.
The formal welcome TO the officers
will be rendered by the city of Los
Angeles tomorrow night in a banquet
at the Hotel Alexandria, to which $50
invitations have been issued. The af-
fair will be one of the most notable
in the history of the city, and the
decorations, which have been days in
preparation, are said to be unsurpassed
at any function that has taken place
in California in late years.
General Adna r. Chaffee. U. S. A.,
retired. will be chairman, and Joseph
Scott, president of the board of educa-
ton, will be postmaster, and speeches
Will be made by Mayor A. c. Harper,
the Rev. Robert J. Burnett, Bishop
Thomas G. Conaty, Catin Frye and IL.
w. O'Melveny.
Cruisers on Puget Sound.
The cruisers Tennessee and Wash
ington, the latter Admiral Sebree's
flagship, are at Puget Sound navy
yard.
After awaiting a week or two Ad-
miral Sebrees second division con-
sisting OF the Tennessee, Washington,
California and South Dakota, will be
at San Francisco on May to partici-
pate in the welcome to the Atlantic
fleet.