pines), and here and there were rusty tramps, battered and ill-featured but brave with bunting. A great cattle-steamer, her deck piled with bales of hay, had steam up, but was waiting, anchor down. All afloat were in gala dress; even a big Norwegian bark was flying her colors, and her yards had been squarely braced, "shipshape and Bristol fashion," and the American flag was at the fore. The Goddess of Liberty, on her little island, stood above a line of rippling flags, and her attitude. suggested that she was not only giving light unto the world, but bidding “salve to the home-coming with a welcoming toast. But we were nearing the fleet, and the elbowing and jostling at the rail increased. The marine was kept busy answering questions. "Who were the "Who were the admirals present, and whose were those flags he pointed out?" "Were those long black things torpedo-boats?" "Which is the Porter?" There was a fever of expectation. The people acted like small boys nearing a circus tent. It brought back forgotten sensations felt long ago. With the starboard paddle-wheel turning idly in the air, we made in closer until we were abreast of the Olympia's gangway. The crew on deck gazed back at us listlessly; it was an old story by this time; a few replied to the waving of handkerchiefs and flags. Right ahead of us lay a crowded tug, her decks half awash; she was squealing away like a pig under a gate, and the attempt of a cornetist in a near-by rowboat to play "Hail to the Chief went for almost naught. Nearer we went in, still nearer, until the end of the boat boom was but a few feet off our port quarter, and then some one shouted in ectasy: "Hi! See Dewey! There's Dewey!" There were two figures pacing the quarter deck; the shorter had broad gold stripes on his sleeves, shining epaulets, and a cocked hat. So close were we that as he turned about there could be no mistake. Every one knew that much-pictured face! "That's him," said the marine. Somebody proposed three cheers, and they were given with more vim than precision, the captain coming to the fore with three long pulls on the whistle-rope. "Wot's the matter with Dewey?" shouted a deck-hand from below. The Admiral had turned, leaving his companion-he lifted his hat, and with a smile he gladly and gracefully acknowledged the greeting. At that instant his picture was taken thirty times if once. Then, as if the photographers were too much for him, he dismissed his audience by joining the other officer and calling attention with a gesture to something up aloft. But a few camera-shutters snapped like belated pieces in a firing-squad. After drifting about for a few minutes, the nose of the Hazel Kirke was turned up stream to take up her chosen position at the end of the line where the patient. crowds were waiting near the great white tomb on the riverside. Nearing the city again, it was a sight to remember long, and tell about; the flags against the sky and the tall office buildings looming up like castle towers, their harsh outlines softened by the shadows slanting down their lofty fronts, and the Stars and Stripes flickering everywhere. Coming in from the Narrows was the great German steamer Graf Waldersee; a line of flags bedecked her also from stem to stern. The steerage passengers she carried leaned over her rail, gazing in wonderment at the strange sights they saw. Perhaps they thought that all this was the usual way these Americans carried on. They did not understand that we had been given special license to go mad, and no doubt they imagined that in the brilliant, rejoicing city gold lay in the streets, and there any man might find a fortune for the reaching. "I would like to know what those fellows think of all this," observed a man in a cloth yachting cap. "It looks like fairyland to me, and I'm only from Wilkesbarre.” We seemed to be the only vessel heading north. Yachts, excursion boats, committee boats, and State craft were all bound south to the rendezvous. We held in close to the pier-heads, and the biograph man kept grinding his long tape of pictures and getting a panorama of the peopled water-front. In order to make the scene more realistic, probably, the crowds were induced to cheer and wave to us as we passed them, and it was done by the use of the watchword of the day. "What's the matter with Dewey?" some one would call, and the crowds would fall to cheering and waving flags and handker- anchored out in the channel. chiefs. Out in midstream lay the training-ship Portsmouth, and we made close up to her, within hailing distance. She was crowded with guests of the officers, and the boys in the forecastle, who were soon to man the yards in the old fashion, were all in their clean blues." With the assistance of the Portsmouth's launch, we sent aboard some guests from our own craft and proceeded up the river. From the time we reached the wooded slopes of the Riverside Park we passed few vessels. Some yachts lay in towards shore dressed in their best, but in the shade of the trees and in the open, sunny spots that ran from the avenue to the water's edge were thousands upon thousands of holiday-makers. The population of a fair-sized city was gathered there. In some places the grass was covered with reclining figures, and the number increased as we neared the Claremont landing. But the camera people's attention had been attracted by two white objects that lay They were the two floats, "Peace" and "Victory," and as we neared them the interest ran high. "Peace," a tall figure made of staff, surmounted a lighter, and, as she was draped in flowing garments, they rippled in the wind and gave a lifelike appearance to the lady with the wreath and palm. But greater attention was attracted by the other that lay farther on. Alas, poor Victory! Owing to the wind or to the rough handling of the tugs that had towed her to her resting-place, she had come to sad disaster. She was in ruin from her waist upwards, and a yawning, ragged hole showed upon what flimsy constructions some of these beautiful figures are erected. Four colossal maidens, blowing upon long trumpets, stood at the corners of her pedestal. The breeze had increased until it was blowing almost half a gale, and the long trumpets wavered to and fro like wands. A figure of Neptune driving his four water-horses to his shelllike car occupied the bows, and on the stern was a huge white eagle gloating over a great white globe. Four or five workmen stood about smoking amid their classical surroundings. But it was not the ruined float that held the most attention. It was the mass of humanity and the sights to be seen on shore. Every now and then, if one listened, there came the sound of a great murmuring down upon the wind, the mingling voices of the multitude, a constant hum, punctuated here and there by the music of a horn, or mayhap a burst of laughter, or a cheer-for on such days as this was, people cheer at anything or nothing. We were first upon the ground, so to speak; except for a solitary police patrol and the training-ship St. Mary's, the stake-boat of the procession, the waters were deserted. A great float that usually carried freight-cars across the river had been turned for the nonce into a battleship, and her sides bristled with the guns of a battery of artillery that were to salute the Admiral as he passed. As we lay there, heaving to and fro in the current, there was one thing that impressed me. It was that all these people had given up their daily work, had left their homes, some of them many miles away, to turn out and give a welcome to a man who little above a year ago had been unknown to them. He had not saved the country from any overwhelming danger, but in a far-off land he had carried the flag to victory. It was not gratitude that animated them. It was a sentiment of pride and of affection; it was a spontaneous burst of applause for an action that had been well done. Few there were gathered there. who seriously realized the National issues that had been brought up and were yet unsettled, and perhaps not many thought or remembered that we are a nation still at war; but they knew all about Manila, and they longed to see the man and the ships that had fought there. Suddenly, from the south, that had grown misty with a shower that passed over the lower bay, there appeared a few trailing clouds of smoke and steam and then a moving mass of vessels; and as they neared, borne on the wind, came a great roaring, as if all the noonday whistles in the world had gathered and were giving tongue. Near and nearer it came, and the white smoke from a saluting battery on the eastern shore wafted into the air; then came the jarring reports of the guns. We steamed slowly south to meet the fleet. It seemed hardly an instant, and we were in the midst of them! First came the Olympia, moving slowly on; and following her were the other ships, between the long, well-kept line of "OUT IN MIDSTREAM LAY THE TRAINING-SHIP PORTSMOUTH |