Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-28

power.
q L ONE of the wharves along the Della
- ware side was the new destroyer TAFT
ndH. just taking on her equipment coils of
yellow, creaky rope; tenders, cases Of electric
bulbs galvanized buckets. cases of heavy sea
boots 1t was tale of adventure just to
study her lean, crisp, tlaring bow with its
cOncavc curves. her four slender tunnels, her
tall glass screened bridge, the sternward
slant of her hull. Even in the mild swell
and swing of Delaware water she rode dain-
tly as yacht, lifted and caressed by the
flow and wash of the water How she must
leap and sway in the full tumble of open seas.
She seemed an adorable toy. Who would
not go to war. with such delicious playthings
to covet and care for. And beside her, on
the pier, lay clumscr and grimmer- seem
ing engine. Three great gun mounts for
Admiral Plunkett's naval railroad battery.
that carried the fourteen inch guns that
dropped shells into Metz from twenty eight
miles away. On one Of these huge steel cais-
sons saw that some member of the A. Z. f.
had scratched his doleful message: George
W. Moller, a soldier of st. Ndsaire, France,
,cho oishes to 90 home toot suect.
THE lively little tug Betty curtsed up to
the pier and took us on board Harry
Jones, her friendly skipper. steamed us down \
past the green mounds of old Fort Miffiin,
past the long tangle of Hog Islands ship
ways and the wet basins where the Scdntic.
the Pipestone County and other of Hog
Island S prides were lying, one of them kick
ing up white smother with her propeller in
some engine test. Then we turned upstream
1t had been raining on and off all afternoon
From the Jersey shore came the delicious
haunting smell of warm, wet pinewoods, of
moist tree trunks and the clean Whit of
sandy soil and drenched clover fields.
OUR Humorist visitors admitted that they
" had never realized that Philadelphia is
a seaport The brave array of shipping as
we came up the river was an interesting sight.
Among several large Dutch steamers lying in
the stream below Kaighn's Point | noticed
the Remscheid, which bore on her side in
large white letters the inscription
wAFFENSTILLSTAND
Waffenstillstand is the German for armistice.
This struck me as particularly significant
Probably the cautious Dutch owner of the
Remscheid sending his ship to sea soon after
November H. feared there might still be u
boats at large that had not learned of the
truce and would not respect a neutral flag.
Among other ships we noticed the Edoe-
moor and Westfeld, of Seattle, the' four
masted schooner Charles ID. Stanford of
| Bangor, the Names of London, the Meiniu-
| gem of Brest the Perseverance, of Trieste.
| and Iskra of Elbrovnik. The port of Elbrov-
| mix is new to me, and do not find it in the
| gazetteer. Can it be the Polish name for
| the West Prussian port of Elbing, which is
U believe) to return to its original Polish
| status by the terms of the peace treaty?
Thus in the names on the sterns along Phila-
| delphia piers one reads echoes of the war.
And most appealing of all the ships we passed
! was the little white Danish bark VaLdipi1.
lust such craft as used to be commanded
| by the best known sea captain of modern
years, Joseph Conrad.
TT MUST be a brave life to be a tugboat
i captain. To con the Betty up the shining