Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-25


spread into a hurricane Of sound sprang
up from threats of millions of people,
massed in solid acres from the tip of
Staten Island to the top of Manhattan
and the Hudson Fulton celebration was
on.
that the waters of this hemisphere ever
held was assembling: up the river the
greatest war fleet with one exception that
ever gathered had been waiting since
yesterday. In New York and in New
Jersey. opposite, uncounted multitudes
We're standing under the myriad floating
flags and the miles upon miles of fiutter-
Ing bunting.
A Record-Making Attendance.
Never were SO many human units coll
lected upon the lower banks of the Hud-
son, and never was there so much in
pageantry and pomp and power in the
Hudson for the human units to gaze
upon. 1t was time for superlatives and
adjectives, and yet there was no super
lattve-biggest, grandest, mightiest any
of them-that was all-embracing enough
to comprehend the scope of 1t: no adjec-
tive sonorouS and full enough to such the
thing up in word.
Humanity speaking, the city today was
shell. with probably twO-thirds Of ITS
population massed on its water front
From the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil the
slopins western edge of Manhattan Is
land afforded a vantage ground from
which two million spectators viewed the
naval parade that moved up and down
the river. Two millions more lined the
Jersey shore. and on the western water
front of Brooklyn facing the bay at least
half that number watched the gathering
or this pageant in the waters between
the mainland and Staten Island.
IS. hat
the unclouded September sun. and what
they will have IA chance to look at to-
night under the glare, scarcely less
bright, of millions of electric lights:
Thousand Vessels in Line.
thousand vessels, varying in type
from the one-man catboat to the
mighty British cruiser attleship In
flexible
Fffty-seven warships representing
the navies of the United States, Great
Britain, Germany. France, Italy. Hol-
land, Mexico and Argentine-450,0 900
tons of steel. bearing $4,000 officers and
men. and armed with 1,197 guns
Copies of the Half Moon and .Cler-
mont, so faithful to the original mod
els in every detail that Hudson and
Fulton themselves would have been
puzzled to tell the, difference.
One hundred and twenty steamboats,
and ferryboatS.
Seventy-five steam yachts
Seventy-five motor boats.
Three hundred tugs and steam light
erS.
Four hundred sailing craft and small
launches.
All but the greatest and the least of
these craft gathered in the upper bay
for the parade that escorted the Half
Moon and the Clermont up the Hudson
The warships remained at their anchor
a ooS hot 4lfh and CCcd u,l,i
the sailbOats and launches took positions
along the route. where they could afford
those aboard the best view of the spec
tacle
Half Moon and Clermont Collide.
The days first spectacle was the as
sembling of the naval pageant in the up
per bay. Between 10 and II o'clock the
squadron of four American cruisers and
five submarines assigned to escort the
Half Moon and the Ciermont met in the
Kill Won Kull, between Staten Island and
the Jersey shore. The Clermont was
towed from its night anchorage at Staple
ton, S. l., to join the Half Moon off st.
George. Then. with the escort trailing to
the rear. the two little craft which epit-
omize the celebration cruised along the
Brooklyn shore in sight Of the spectators
that blackened every street and housetop
in view.
As TIE SlcTIuOul WdS TOunQ1nR ST,
George she stopped, and the Half Moon,
which was coming close behind, under
her own sails. bumped broadside into the
steamer paddlewheel. The damage was
slight.
Meanwhile the rest OF the parade was
assembling, and when the Half Moon and
the Clermont finished their round of the
upper bay and sailed into the mouth of
the Hudson they fell into line The as
sembling of the 500 or more boats that
followed HlIdS0nS and .ElIlfnn'S
the river occupied the whole morning
and 1t was not until after I O'Clock when
the mass Strengthened out into something
! like procession formation. First came
police and scout and patrol boats and
torpedo boats; then the Half Moon and
Clermont with their immediate escort;
then. in order. the five squadrons of
steam merchant craft and ferryboats.
steam yachts, motor boats. tugs and
steam lighters and sailing craft.
Fifteen Miles of oBats.
The boats moved up the Hudson in