Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-17
COUNTRY MOURNS
DEATH OF ADMIRAL
Continued From First PageI

CONTINUED From First Page1
by wireless of the admiral's death with
orders to display flags at halfmast.
Admiral Inn Dewey suffered a collapse
last Thursday, although the day pre-
vtous he was at his desk apparently
in his usual good health. His condi-
ton grew rapidly worse and he had
not been conscious since Monday.
The end came at 5.56 last evening.
Death was due to a general breakdown
accompanied by arterio sclerosis.
Won Big Naval Fight
Admiral George Dewey, Hero of
Manila Bay" fought and won the first
great American naval battle against a
foreign foe since the War of 1912.
His whole life was full of honora BILE
achievement from the days of the Civil
War down to the time when. as the
head of the General Board. he began
the last chapter of his work by laying
plans for the defense of his country in
time of war. His life was a striking
eXemplification of the possibilities of a
| career based upon the exact and intel
ligent performance of every routine
duty which molds man on infleXible
lines of duty and honor
One of the curious freaks of fortune
In Deweys case was that for perhaps
the first and only time in his naval
career he was disposed to protest
against the edict of the Navy Depart
ment which carried him into the Far
East, where he was destined to per-
form the greatest feat of his life and
to win imperiShable renown. That
was back in 1898, when the war clouds
were gathering, and Dewey felt that
he was being 'Shelved"; that the war
with Spain was to be fought out in the
Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean
q pf hX-I I,n1f ha
circumference of the globe, would
stand no chance of winning glory, for
at that moment no thought whatever
had been given to the Philippines. But
he took his orders and like a true
sailor obeyed them. The result is a
page of history under date of May 1,
1898.
Annihilatcd Squadron
Contrary to Spanish expectations,
Dewey sailed into Manila Bay on the
night of April 80 and in the morning
of the next day he annihilated Admiral
Montojo's squadron, destroying eleven
warships and capturing all other ves-
sells and all the land batteries without
the loss of a man on the American
side.
Upon his triumphal return to the
United States he was feted by the ma
thon. His admirers presented him
with a beautiful home in the national
capital. Congress gave him an en-
graved sword and raised him from the
rank of commodore to rear-admiral
and then to the full rank of admiral of
the navy.
Admiral Dewey was the third Ameri-
can to reach that pinnacle of naval
rank. Farragut was the first and
Porter the second. 1t was under Far.
ragut that Dewey received his first
baptism in war.
George Dewey was born in the
shadow of Vermonts state capitol at
Montpelier on the day following
Christmas in 1897. At the age of
seventeen he reached the crossroads of
his career-one road led to West Point
the other to Annapolis. Young Dewey
favored the former, but
There was no vacancy for West
Point from Vermont" explained the
Admiral in reviewing his life. Other
wise l might have gone into Manila
Bay on an army transport instead of
on the Olympia. But it happened that