Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-06
AMERICAN SAILORS AMUSED
THEMSELVES AT VERA CRUZ
Tas Stare by Boxing FeatsAnxous to Get Results
of the Baseball Games-Huse, Secretary to Admiral
Fletcher Is the "Tumuty" of the Navy.

I derdrawers and plunge into the cool
surf with yells Of delight.
! A man in a gray felt hat sitting at
table before cafe, writing. Be-
hold Richard Harding Davis! At an
other table sat group of men drink
| ing beer. Look them over. There's
Jack London, consuming beer from a
moisture dimmed glass. There are
other correspondents, American and
English, in the crowd. Some of them
| are telling about their experiences In
! the Balkan war; the point of their
| talk is that war correspondents
weren't given g. chance to get news
| in that war and they hope that they'll
/ be given a fair shake this time. Most
/ of them are very discontinued be-
cause they arrived In Vera Cruz three
! DAYS after the battle, too late for any
war corresponding.
! Here you are at the Plaza. Every
/ Mexican city or town has in It's very
centre a square park, criss-crossed
/ by gravel walks and centred by a
! bandstand, which is called The
! Plaza" Here, in the late afternoon
i and early eevning the Mexicans
gather to listen to the town band. 1t
is the custom for the senoritas, &C
companied by their chaperons, to
walk in one direction about the park
and for the lads to walk in the other,
and to f'rt with their eyes as they
pass. They're doing 1t now. You find
the Plaza full of Mexicans. The
band is playing. It's a band from
the Florida. The tune Is one Of the
latest hits in New York. The Mexi-
can senoritas like It. They can flfrt
to the tune of TITS Apple Blossom
Time In Normandy" just as we'll as
to the music of Carmen"
Now you're in the very heart Of
Vera Cruz and 1t will keep your eyes
busy to catch all the sights. Sit
down at a cafe table under the por-
tails or porches that line the Plaza.
Under the cathedral spire across the
park there sits among the bells a
jackie in white his feet dangling in
space. Jackies have been on guard
up there ever since, in the battle three
days ago, they toppled six Mexican
sharpshooters out of the place. On
top of another building facing the
park stands q marine with a flag in
each hand wigwagging from the roofs
of the town to the ships in the harbor
Here goes a marine in blue, perched
/ on a tiny sprinkling cart drawn by a
/ tiny burro.
THE navy's on the water wagon"
some one yells. Three cheers for the
wine mess" The marine whacks the
| burro, gives a boot and his rattly
water wagon sprinkles a wobbly
stream along the Plaza asphalt.
On another side of the plaza. sixty
marines stand patiently at attention,
while a famous far artist sketches
them. A group of curious ciyilia 8
surround the artists easel and from
| time to time he calls get out of my
way Give me some elbow ROOM
There's a yell in another part of tie
| Plaza, and a company of khaki-clad
| .nfantrymen swing into the square.
| They're army boys, part of the thou
sands who have arrived only today to
relieve the navy of the duty of polio
| ing the city. Soldiers ride by singly
| and in pairs On rangy, NANCY, Next
| can ponies, which they have picked
| up goodness only knows where.
| There's a quarrel at a table near you.
| Two shoe-shinlng boys are demand ng
! fifty centaVos for shining the shoes
| and riding leggings of couple of in
fantrymen, and the latter think the
! price is too high.
The infantrymen can't talk Spanish
! and the only English word the dusFy
| little shoe-shiners know is "Meester."
! These American soldiers may have
conquerered Vera Cruz, but they can't
| conquer the bootblacks, so the infan-
! trymen pay their fifty cent pie es and
| depart, calling the barefooted boys
'greaser robbers"
An army aeroplane circles over the
town, but within two days Vera Cruz
has become accustomed TO the sight
| and only a few persons crane their
necks 10 see it.
Tronfc Sunshine DIsanDears
BY this time evening is falling. The
tropic sunshine has disappeared 9
cool breeze is blowing in from the
| Mexican gulf. Three thousand per.
sons or more fill the plaZa-soldiers
bluejackets, white marines, white-claC
men and women, brown Mexican
beauties in white and browner Mexi
can men in sombreros. The electric
lights blaze out upon the tropical tree,
of the plaza. On a balcony stands {
little Mexican girl, waving her arms
in imitation of the wigwag men. 1t;
a trick she has learned since tbs
gringoes came It's almost bedtime
for her, and for grown folks, too, be
cause the city is under martial Law
ard taps sound at 9 o'clock.
Soon the streets will be deserted
and the houses dark. The only foot
falls on the pavements will he thos'
of guards or of belated newspaper
correspondents, working their wa.
from sentry to sentry, down to til,
cable office. Out in the sand hills
in a circle that reaches miles beyon.
the town. American soldier boys ar
keeping their vigils, Uncle Same 4
really on the firing line.
!