Show SP INS VIEW OF AMERICA I Scientific American It Is a matter of frequent remark that the average i European is as densely ignorant on all questions relating to the United States as the average citizen of this j country is well informed on European affairs It is probable that outsIdeof a comparativey narrow circle in England Eng-land France and Germany the people of the old world have only the vaguest i idea of the resources wealth and social and industrial development of i the United States They see the non I descipt crowds that migrate yearly across the western oc an and they I grow accustomed to the thought that America is a huge conglomeration of unassimilated nationalities They littli understand that such is the size and virility of the American race that thesi myriads are absorbed without disturbing disturb-ing the national equilibrium or changing chang-ing a line or shadow of the national countenance I Perhaps it is safe to say that in no I European country is there so much I misapprehension regarding the United States as in the very one which has I good reason just now to be best informed I in-formed regarding us The information I which the Spanish press is giving out to the people is such palpable misinformation misin-formation that one can scarcely attribute attri-bute it to mere ignorance and we are 1 led to believe that the misrepresentation misrepresenta-tion must be willful One of the most striking instances of this is an article ion i i-on the United States navy which appears ap-pears in a recent issue of the Spanish weekly La Ilustracion The United States has usually been credited in Europe with possessing a navy which I though small in numbers is of the I very latest pattern and includes some of the most original and effective j i types of ships in the world The Spanish Span-ish journal in question however lends I itsel to the task of persuading the Spanish public thatour navy is made upVof < poor imitations of European ships that it is manned by hirelings who calculate while they are fighting I what their valor in cents should be i worth to them that Its a navy i without traditions pf any kind ye j shades of Farragut Perry and Paul Jones and that therefore it will i be nothing remarkable If in a short I I time we see all these illdesigned and worse constructed vessels go to the j rubbish heap The article opens by stating that ten j years ago our naval offorts were confined con-fined to repairing the Miantonomah and her class which are built partly of wood sic We are informed that a navy yard has recently been started at Port Orchard In Brambridge sic and that among other places where the navy keeps stores of ammunition and coal is New Oskaut New Orleans on the Atlantic coast The map of Washington fails to show the name Brambridge the nearest approach ap-proach to it being the name of Bainbridge Bain-bridge island which lies about five I miles from Port Orchard After our contemporary has displayed display-ed such an intimate knowledge of our geography we are not surprised to learn that important works for the i manufacture of armor Oi > have been established in Massachusetts under un-der the direction of Mn Bethlehem I j We are Enforced thatth se works can I compete wjthKritpiAnGermany but lesfc our coYiGdjincwtntlvSpanish dismay at UirsmrqfinaUdnislibuld be too pro rouhced r i xve > are informed in the next paragraph that in creatIhg our navy the tests of armor and other work were unsatisfactory This period of feverish activity was succeeded by three years of calm after af-ter which there came the war with Cuba and the fear of a rupture rup-ture with Spain impelled by which we proceeded secretly sic to construct con-struct armored vessels until at length we had 11t our disposal hat seemed to be a respectable squadron Fortunately For-tunately for us our contemporary i V tua me great funnels and quantity quan-tity of smoke of the Yankees need not frighten us and in proOf of this a list of the shortcomings of the ships Is j added froTh which we select the following fol-lowing I The Indiana Oregon and Massachusetts Massa-chusetts submerge the armor plate presumably the belt entirely and can only carry a full complement of coal in time of peace The turrets of the Kearsarge siqjandKentucky present I c Q some advantages but their axes are so badly arranged that the guns which they carry would be out of combat as soon asi they began to operate op-erate The Texas has very deficient armor it can not carry tEe torpedoes intended for it and the critic crit-ic does not spare even the illfated Maine but informs us that its best speed was 16 miles It was 17 knots and that at this speed it shipped water I at the bow i The Ifatahdin can not go into bat I tie on the high seas and its crew cannot I can-not sleep on board for lack of space The Miantonomah sic Mqnadnock and Terror are provided with a central cen-tral compartment t easily separated from the body of the monitor a an eccentrjc and senseless idea We are further informed that the stability of the Baltimore and Philadelphia is endangered by thelr heavy guns and that the armored deck of the Cincinnati Cincin-nati and her class is i a source of danger dan-ger rather than defense Even the famous run of the Columbia across the Atlantic at a speed 9t 18 knots is discredited dis-credited on the ground that the last days run could no longer be made under forced draught As a matter of fact the whole run was made under natural draught This remarkably d and accurate account of our warships concludes by assuring the Spanish public that the rest of the vessels are not worth mentioning men-tioning |