Show J BRING ON YOUR WAR The Chilian Scare Has Brushed II Up the Navy THE WORK AT THE YARDS Tho Ships Cleared Within a Few Days Pop n lar Interest in the Preparations for a Possible War I Last Sunday the dapper little corporal I who stands at the main entrance to the New York navy yard told about six aundrcd people that on any other day in the week they could get in without a pass The GOO people were much disappointed Sunday suited them as a sightseeing day and it was hard to be informed that a pass Was absolutely essential Ever since tho war scare began the New York navy yard has been besieged with visitors curious to inspect the warships war-ships and to watch the energetic preparations prepara-tions for the possible crisis of war All day long they have tiled through the narrow nar-row cutting in tho yellow stono wall When they have come too early they have been willing to wait When they have come too late they have hung around in hope of inventing some pretext for passing the vigilant guard 0s When the stream of general visitors has fallen off at dusk the hurrying figures of fd reporters have become visible to the jaded corporal At 1 am the newpaper emissaries emis-saries have not hesitated to appeal for admission ad-mission to the presence of commandant of the yard The commandant of the yard considers himself a long suffering creature He is in vigorous health but the reporters have worn his nerves down to a minimum of vitality U S SHIP ATLANTA My dear boys I he gasps I dont know anymore than you do 11 Sometimes this is not strictly true of course The commandant has generally known a good deal more than he had authority to telL And then again tho reporters re-porters have brought him news ho would not officially receive until many hours later His official hours for seeing reporters re-porters are between 10 and 4 But he does no live UD to them He hies him away in a cab at 330 and buries himself in the recesses no re-cesses of the vehicle that ho may not bo waylaid by an emissary at the gate Within the past few days the executive force has brought the answering of Inquir ies down to a science The man who knows the most about the orders from Washing ton is the dock laborer We are coaling the Atlanta he says so that she can sail on Tuesday She sails at S in the morning ti and Tracy has ordered her to Havana When the Atlanta does not sail at S on Tuesday the dock laborer is nothing daunted His tone of authority is quite as emphatic on the day following Tho sergeant of the marines does not know as much as the dock laborer but ho knows a good deal His gossip has the flavor of coming direct from the navy department de-partment and not by the vulgar channels of the public telegraph One of the clerks In the executive building also has informa tion not so definite indeed as that of the sergeant but still authentic as ho will claim with an air of self possessed knowledge 1 knowl-edge By the time you get to the commandants com-mandants secretary information begins to get scarce And the commandant himself is the most genially uninformed being d on the continent The higher your office the less you Know But by the aid of certain statements which the commandant agrees not to deny and certain diluted intelligence gleaned from officials less completely incrusted by official reserve the press and the public do get considerable information from the bustling NewYork yard And then tho yard does a good deal of talking for itself Since the launching of the Maine Work t has been going along at a pretty healthy pace The new cruiser is beginning to take form It will be ready for launching before many months These enterprises kept the yard in active shape But at the time of the news from Chill everything took on a different cast The force was increased and a picturesque bustlo began to characterize this arena of naval prog ress On the cruisers that were being prepared for immediate departure men worked night and day Workers in Iron and steel were followed by men with paint i 1 I 1l t t Lt d A t ZSa y t V L r rnxk l p i i U ll i l lII TJ S WAR SHIP THE CHICAGO ti pots who lost no time in coating the pleted surfaces Coaling squads scurried com here and there and the clatter of ton after ton of fuel as It glided down the iron chutes became a familiar sound Powder r and ammunition requiring a more delicate handling was packed into the recesses of eager warships The subsidence of the more threatening signs of war has not diminished the g ever getic preparations It seems to have been the theory that every available ship should be fully equipped and one by one the ves sels in tho New York waters have been n prepared have dropped down the bay for more specific Y sailing orders or being 8 supplied with such sailing orders have teamed away through Sandy Hook Within the past four or five days four cruisers r have been cleared At the head of the list Is the II elegant and popular Chicago a ship of the first class I examined her from stem to stern before i she left the dock and e trim very and like she looked Everything that war ed i carried paint was gleaming white The brass a shone with a fine lustre The rifled visible through the canon i white ports was jet black The deck rope was coiled in circles s in ovals and in artistio Ss The seamen were impatiently pacing the deck when they were not occupied in giving finishing touches to little details The hilts of the sabres in the port racks seemed to invite a i valorous hand The bulwark gatlings trasted with the black noses of the ca co n non The Chicago was ready a day or two be fore the Atlanta which is a cruiser of the t second class Tho Atlanta has a bristling and plucky appearance Some of the new fangled guns long and threatening but not much bigger around thsn the oldfashioned musket have a toylike effect When I visited the little snorter she was taking on powder Hor coal and other supplies were already on board and all hands were either on duty or within easy call Some of the officers who were not engaged in directing matters between decks were receiving a visit from a narty of ladies on the forward deck Naval officers are notorious for their habit of marrying pretty women and the bevy of visiting wives and presumable cousins and aunts on the forward deck of the Atlanta was quite In conformity with the interesting traditions The Concord and the Bennington have only just been cleared Exactly where they are going is of course as much a mystery or was at the time of my last Inquiries In-quiries as the destination of their sister ships The Concord and Bennington are sister ships in a special sense for they are of the one design being built from the same specifications In fact pictures of one ship pass current for pictures of the other excepting naturally among naval men who have certain little mannerisms of rig to help them in the identification The twin ships beautiful in their symmetrical symmet-rical perfection were made ready at about the same time the Bennington having some slight after delay in securing a complete com-plete crew b ie 1 THE SERGEAST SATS SO Getting crews has not been a serious dif ficulty but it has been a matter requiring some activity on the part of tho recruiting officers Over near the repair shops floats that bantam monitor the Miantonomoh upon whose surface hammers have been clatter ng at a lively rate The Miantonomoh represents the latest stage of our evolution n in battle ships Her turrets are plated with eleven and a half inches of compound armor In the after turret are mounted two 10inch high power rifles and two more are being placed in the forward turret The military mast is being prepared for the mounting of two guns aloft When all tights wei t-ights are on board as they will be within a week or two the monitor deck will not be more than twentyfour inches above the s waler line Sea and shell may playas they like over her deck She is probably an able defense ship but she is slow auld and wo a-uld be a long time getting to Valparaiso The Terror a sister monitor is in a less advanced state She could not be made ready for sea in less than two months The rebuilding of such a vessel of war implies an immense amount of expensive labor z I 5 Et n f = < = T7 S S cox corD The Puritan which will draw only eighteen feet of water will have in place of turrets two barrettes over which the shielded guns will fire The shells thrown by these guns will weigh 800 pounds In the superstructure between the two barrettes bar-rettes there will be two fourinch guns But the Terror and Puritan are not to be counted upon for any war that might be in now The available force on the Atlantic coast now consists of the Chicago Newark Atlanta Bennington Concord Kearsargo and Miantonomoh This is a pretty snug list And we have now at or near Valparaiso Val-paraiso the Baltimore Boston San FrancIsco Fran-Cisco end Yorktown VICTOK SIMS |