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Show " MILITARY MASS AT SEA. Most Fmpressive of air Shipboard Ceremonials. By long odds the most impressive of the ceremonies that occur on shipboard ship-board is the military mass on Sunday. Nothing less than a full cathedral service ser-vice lor Catholics, yet the attendance is of all sorts, sailors, officers and ! .'tasuals. The afterhatch on the gun ; fl'ick is cleared and an altar erected chere with various of the fitments j pertaining to the service. A large I .American flag partitions off the spaw I . ... behind it and also conceals the band that is the organ in this function, accompanying the priest in the intonations into-nations and playing during the offertory. offer-tory. The priest is in full canonicals, ! and is a wonderful spot of color as I he kneels under the opening where ! the light falls. Before the hatch forming three sides of a square, are I the marines, standing silently, like I trees bending together in the wind. They are in full uniform with fixed 'layonets and are at attention. A sailor in white is altar boy, and the choir, on the front seats in the audience, consists in this instance of newspaper men, the least terrible in a collection of voices that would not . be accepted by Mr. Grau. At the elevation of the host the drums give a rufflle and the marines present arms, the flag advanced, while all in front bow. And at the end, after a short and practical sermon by the I chaplain, the band plays "America" i and all join in the singing of it, says Brooklyn Eagle. It is to be noted that in this service the hymns are not those of the Roman church, but j are such things as "Abide With Me," 1 ' "Rock of Ages," "Nearer, My God, ' to Thee," and "Coronation," since these are better known to the majority major-ity who sing them than are the masses. y |