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Show Recalling the "Hero of Manila Bay" - By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T5TlT0v3USt-2() yarS ag0 that the word flashed Vfks 1 Si? ?n frm Washin8ton, D. C, that a ft ft! TT? GlTge Dewey had tore and $b immediately thousands of Americans recalled YY ??Ce more.hw at name had thrilled them one IdJu ay mornmg back in 1898. For this man was the Hero of Manila Bay" and his astounding . . - XJctocry he far-off Philippines at the very beginning be-ginning of the Spanish-American war had at once placed his name high in that galaxy of naval heroes which includes in-cludes the names of John Paul Jones, Stephen Decatur, Oliver Hazard Perry and David Farragut '.If -P Fnv-if tr-vA The house in Montpelier, Vt. Involved that by the fall of 1897 war with Spain seemed imminent. immi-nent. Commodore Dewey was in Washington at the time and his request to take command of the Pacific fleet had just been granted. grant-ed. Shortly before leaving the capital he happened one day to meet one of the justices of the Supreme court on the street, who said to him: "Commodore, It looks as though the Spanish war were coming." "It certainly does," was Dewey's Dew-ey's answer. "I suppose," said the justice, "that the first battle will be fought at Havana." "No," said the commodore, "it will be fought at Manila." "What do you mean?" said the justice, to which Dewey replied: leading back to Thomas Dewey, the first of that name, who came from England and landed at Boston Bos-ton in 1633. Among them was his great-grandfather, William Dewey, who was a Minute Man at the outbreak of the Revolution and later a corporal in the Continental Conti-nental army who served at Saratoga Sara-toga under General Gates. William's son, Simeon, was born at Hebron, Conn., and died iu Montpelier, Vt., at the age of ninety-three. Simeon Dewey had made his impression on the life of Montpelier as Justice of the peace and was one of the organizers organ-izers of Dartmouth college who gave 50 acres of land for its use and support. Their son, Julius Y. Dewey, became a doctor. John Barrett, biographer of Admiral Ad-miral Dewey, declares: "Dr. Julius Jul-ius Dewey explains the greatness of his son. He was great before him. He may not have won national na-tional fame, but his fellow citizens citi-zens appreciated his sterling worth. He was an exceptional man. He wa3 a rare development of the very best Vermont stock." Graduated from Norwich college col-lege at the age of seventeen, young Dewey, even though there was no heritage of the sea in his ancestry, decided he wanted to go to the United States Naval academy at Annapolis and Dr. Dewey secured the appointment from Vermont for his son. At first, young Dewey's grades were not high but after a warning from both his stern father and his teachers he improved his scholarship schol-arship and was graduated third in his class in 1853. A Baptism of Fire. In April, 1861, Midshipman Dewey was commissioned lieutenant lieu-tenant and soon had his baptism of fire. For he was assigned to the steam frigate Mississippi in the West Coast squadron in the Gulf of Mexico which brought him under the command of David G. Farragut. Dewey was on the Mississippi when it ran ashore at Fort Jackson, Jack-son, after losing its bearing in the smoke of battle. On swimming away from the ship, Lieut. Dewey, Dew-ey, after the order to abandon her came, saved the life of a sailor from drowning at the risk of his own life and Captain Smith in his report spoke of his bravery and coolness. When the Civil war ended Dewey was a lieutenant-commander, a high rank for a young man of twenty-eight. Next he was stationed at the navy yard in Portsmouth, N. H., and there he met and fell in love with Susie, the daughter of Gov. Ichabod Goodwin. They were married in 1867. In 1873 Dewey became the father fa-ther of a son but it cost the life of the little boy's mother. Inconsolable In-consolable over his loss, Dewey asked for a distant tour of duty so that he might forget his sor- ims- was the man for' whom they had poured out a flood of adulation such as few other Americans had ever before be-fore received and few have known since. They built a triumphal arch in his honor in New York city, they raised money to buy a house in Washington Washing-ton for him, and they presented pre-sented him with a loving cup made from 70,000 dimes. They made songs about him, such popular ballads as: "'Twas on a dewy morning in the dewy month of May When a man named Dewey sailed into Manila bay." ' They named their sons after him. (And if today you're introduced intro-duced to a man whose first name is "Dewey," you're safe in guessing guess-ing that he was born late in 1898 or early in 1899!) And then these Americans who constitute The Public, which is consistent only in its inconsistency, inconsisten-cy, proved once more its fickleness fickle-ness by turning against the man whose name they had flung against the stars. They didn't approve of his marrying again nor of his deeding his gift house to his young second wife. And when in response to what he understood un-derstood was a popular demand, he announced his candidacy for the Presidency it was characterized character-ized as the "climax to a series of unfortunate mistakes" and the public that had once praised him now ridiculed him. But this latter episode was forgotten for-gotten when at sunset on January Janu-ary 16, 1917, he died. All the honors that man can give to a hero were his. There was a state funeral in the Capitol and burial in Arlington. The newspapers printed column upon column about his career and once more the name of the "Hero of Manila Bay" was on every American's lips. It was thus for only a day or two. At that time Americans were facing the grim reality of their country's being drawn inevitably into the war then raging in Europe. Eu-rope. Within three months after his burial in Arlington, America had gone in with the Allies, and under the shadow of this great conflict the war in which Dewey had won his fame grew more and more insignificant. A Forgotten Hero. Out of the World war came new heroes to be acclaimed and to the younger generation of Americans Admiral George Dewey became little more than a name in their school histories. And thus it has been for the last two decades. But this year it will be heard again for America is preparing to celebrate the centennial of his birth. Vermont, and particularly its capital, Montoelier, where still d'' , In which Dewey was born. gut and Porter having been admirals ad-mirals only. From March 29, 1900, to the time of his death Dewey was president of the general gen-eral board of the navy and a familiar fa-miliar figure on the streets of Washington as one of its most beloved be-loved citizens despite the temporary tem-porary eclipse of his popularity following his marriage and the announcement of his candidacy for President. A Beautiful Young Widow. Dewey's second wife was the daughter of Washington McLean, Cincinnati publisher, who had been not only a friend of Lincoln Lin-coln and Grant but of Jefferson Davis as well. She had married Gen. John B. Hazen, who had served in the Union army, while still very young and she was a still - youthful and altogether charming widow when Dewey, who had met her in Washington years before, returned to his triumph tri-umph in the capital. Before long the gossips were linking the names of the elderly naval hero and the young widow and predicting pre-dicting their marriage. Partly because of a prejudice against Mrs. Hazen's religious affiliations, af-filiations, partly because of her social ambitions and partly because be-cause of a feeling that it was somehow undignified for the "Hero of Manila Bay" to marry a woman much younger than he was, the public disapproved of the match. Heedless of this disapproval dis-approval Dewey went ahead and married Mrs. Hazen. The public might have forgiven him for thus deciding that his marriage was his, and not the public's, affair but when he deeded to his wife the house in Washington which had been bought by popular subscription, sub-scription, popular resentment flamed high. Then on the morning of April 4, 1900, the New York World printed an interview with Dewey in which he said in part: "If the American people want me for this high office (of President) I shall be only too willing to serve them . . . Since studying this subject I am convinced that the office of President is not such a very difficult one to fill, his duties du-ties being mainly to execute the laws of Congress." Dewey had been approached on the subject of being a candidate for President but had disclaimed any such ambition. However, a "Stop Bryan J" element in the Democratic party had persisted in promoting his candidacy. At last he had yielded to the temptation tempta-tion and made his ill-advised announcement an-nouncement which resulted in much ridicule being heaped upon his head. However, the fickle public soon forgot, as it always does, that George Dewey had ever been anything less than the great hero it had once hailed back in 1898-99. Hi3 last years with his wife were idyllically happy until that day in January, 1917, when he contracted contract-ed a cold. Put to bed by his doctor, he grew gradually worse, mostly with the ills which her humorously hu-morously described as "anno domini." It is said that as he lay half-conscious half-conscious he began to fight over once more the battles of his life and, as though he were giving commands from the bridge of the Mississippi at New Orleans or the Olympia at Manila, his voice rang out with some of its old-time resonance until Death stilled it at last. His body was first entombed temporarily in the mausoleum of Gen. Nelson A. Miles at Arlington, Ar-lington, then moved, with military mili-tary and naval honors, to another an-other Arlington tomb which his widow had built. Later it was removed to the Bethlehem chapel at Mount St. Alban, Washington, and finally given its last resting place in the Washington cathedralthe cathe-dralthe American equivalent of a combined Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's. In these four entombments en-tombments there is a strange analogy an-alogy between the careers of Dewey and another American naval na-val hero. For John Paul Jones was given three temporary burials buri-als before his body was finally laid to rest in the chapel crypt at Annapolis. C Western Ne wsDaorr Union. ft A I : J I vj 1 fcV : V ei ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY "If I have anything to do with, I shall sail over in the night and capture Manila before breakfast." break-fast." That there was another man who had the same idea is shown by the cablegram which Dewey received at Hongkong, China, on February 25, 1898 from the vigorous vig-orous young assistant secretary of the navy named Theodore Roosevelt. It read: "In the event of war with Spain, you will capture or destroy the Spanish ships in those waters and operate in the Philippines." Dewey was ready and waiting for just some such message as that. Although war had not yet been formally declared, this gave him a free hand to fight the Spaniard when and where he found him. So with bands playing "The Star Spangled Banner," Dewey's squadron put out to sea from Hong Kong and headed for Manila, Ma-nila, where, on May 1, 1898, in one of the shortest naval engagements engage-ments in history, he destroyed the Spanish fleet without having a single man killed or suffering serious se-rious injury to any of the American Ameri-can ships. Next the Spanish navy yard at Cavite fell and the power of Spain in the East was ended for all time. . The Nation Is Thrilled. The news of the victory at Manila Ma-nila thrilled the nation as had no other event for many a year. Immediately Im-mediately there was a demand for prompt and official recognition recogni-tion of Dewey's feat. President McKinley appointed him an acting act-ing rear admiral and in a message mes-sage to congress on May 9, 1898, recommended that the thanks of congress be given to the victor of Manila. Not only was this done but, in addition, congress voted that a handsome jeweled sword be presented to Dewey by the government. When the new rear admiral came back to the United States in 1899 the sword was presented to him by the President at an impressive im-pressive ceremony in front of the Capitol in the presence of a cheering throng of thousands of people. It bore the arms of Vermont Ver-mont and the United States, and had the initials "G. D." outlined in diamonds. In March, 1399, Dewey was made Admiral of the Navy, the highest rank ever held by any American naval officer. Farra- President McKinley presenting a sword to Admiral Dewey. row. Leaving his son at home with his parents, Dewey went to the Pacific to take charge of some important surveys in that ocean and very quickly he began rising rapidly in the service. He was commissioned a captain in 1884, commanded the Pensacola on the European station from 1885 to 1888, served as chief of the bureau of equipment from 1888 to 1893 and as a member of the lighthouse board from 1893 to 1898. In the latter year he was advanced to commodore and also served as president of the board of inspection and survey. War With Spam. During these years condi- J tions unaer Spanish rule m Cuba had gone from bad to worse and American sympathies became so stands the little house where he was born on December 26, 1837, will take the lead in the celebration. celebra-tion. The national capital, where he spent the sunset of his life, and where he is buried in Washington Wash-ington cathedral, will also participate par-ticipate and from these two centers cen-ters will come the inspiration for a nation-wide observance of the career of one of the great figures in America's naval history the "Hero of Manila Bay." . ' It has been said that Dewey was directly descended from Charlemagne and other European monarchs but he probably took greater pride in the sturdy line of New England patriots who were his more immediate ancestors- nine fenerations of them |