The San Francisco call., 1908-05-07
BLUFFS
A VANTAGE POINT
Soldiers and Civilians Crowd
Big Reservation for View
of Pageant

There they are exclaimed a man as
the crowd surged along the Preside
highway back Of Fort Point. Away
out, peeping from the mist veiled
horizon. could be seen six great hulls
pointing toward the Golden gate It
was nearly II O'Clock For almost an
hour. hidden in the privacy of the gray
weather outside the heads the white
squsdrons lay concealed, and when a
few minutes before y o'clock the l50,-
600 people scattered along the Preside
hills saw the long single column slow
~ begin its approach few had not Sc
cured perfect viewpoints for the
league long pageant.
The later hours OF the morning were
spent patiently by the thousands seated
along the strawberry bedded hill
TANKS. The people clambered around
the great y and 10 inch guns Of the
shore batteries, peered curiously into
the eyehoies Of the sunken range find
ing outlooks and watched the opposite
Marin hills grow black along their
SUBMITS with the incoming crowds
from the north.
Around the batteries Immediately
back from and above old Fort Scott the
army officers with their families and
friends had congregated. The site
showed the instinct Of the engineer
from the best ground. From this point
the ocean lay open, framed between the
wide bluffs above Bonita and Lobos
points, while eastward the bay spread
before the eye so that the long column
could be followed till it wheeled to
move southwark TO the anchorage.
SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS
Here. too. were collected the mem
bers OF the governors military staf, the
colonels explaining that MIR. Gillett had
been carried off by party of Eureka
home friends on the Alert and that
they were glad to yield the hazardous
privilege Of being afloat Here, too.
were Judges Lawlor and Trout of the
superior bench with friends and Fran
els J. Heney with Assistant District
Attorney Cobb, looking on the bright
side OF another warfare than their
own.
At the saluting battery Captain Nu-
gents command. the Twenty-ninth
company Of the coast artillery was
busily bringing out, under the direction
OF First Sergeant Henderson, the 20
pound charges OF black powder to the
three y inch guns which were to fire
the national salute.
And still the automobiles and the
carriages and the thousands of pedes.
NiidnS Noi3ts 10 De swallowed up IN the
mile long stretches of the Presidio
like rivers flowing into the sea. The
reservation was sort Of capacious
playhouse box in the grandest of
natures amphitheaters-San Francis
cos hill trimmed bay-so vast that it
might have held a million spectators,
each one at his ease
The crowd was mainly silent as the
great white line came on. In sepa-
rate column to. the north the swift,
black torpedo boats and destroyers
kept even pace with the snowy mon
sters. 1t was IS minutes past 70
o'clock when the Connecticut at the
front, nosed across the line between
Forts Scott and Baker and entered the
Golden gate. At that moment the first
gun on the Presidio heights doomed
forth the army's salute to the navy
visibly embodied before 1t. At inter-
vzls Of almost a minute the guns
flashed and Numbered till, getting into
the swing Of the action. they brought
this time down to 20 and then to Is
seconds. or Whereabouts. In the midst
Of the p guns the heights opposite
above Fort Baker, emitted a fash, fol-
lowed eastward on the land breeze as.