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Show 'AMERICA'S MOST-KISSED MAN' DIES Richmond Pearson Hobson, the "Man Who Sank the Merri-mac," Merri-mac," Was Strange Paradox of Hero and Public Heckler. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY REAR ADMIRAL RICHMOND PEARSON HOESON probably was kissed by more women than any other man who ever lived, and now he is dead. Admiral Hobson, from the time of his youth, was a paradoxical par-adoxical combination of Frank Merriwell and Sissy Ely. He was to one generation the perpetrator of what may be the most romantic, adventurous and heroic deed ever performed per-formed in the service of the American flag. Yet he was to be remembered by the last American generation that knew him as a blue-nosed reformer, a trite flag-waver who nursed a penchant for frightening little children with staggering accounts of foul oriental evils lurking in wait for them at every school corner. When, in 1889, Hobson was graduated grad-uated first in his class from the United States Naval academy at Annapolis he was cheered enthusiastically. enthusi-astically. He was leaving. Most of his classmates hadn't spoken to him for two years. It was one of his duties as a cadet to report the misdemeanors mis-demeanors of other cadets; this he had done so expertly and consistently consistent-ly that he was easily the most unpopular un-popular cadet in the academy. He was a crusader from the start. In his post-academy days he attempted at-tempted to convince the country, through scientific journals, that there was inevitably to be a World war, but he failed to arouse America enough to begin arming for it. The outbreak of the Spanish-American Spanish-American war found him a naval constructor with the rank of lieutenant, lieu-tenant, aboard Rear Admiral William Wil-liam Thomas Sampson's flagship, the New York. Hobson Volunteers. Aboard the New York, young Hobson Hob-son was crusading for the construction construc-tion of five unsinkable vessels, and told Admiral Sampson they could be used to sweep the mines from the entrance to Havana harbor. When Sampson told him that he was far more interested in sinking one American ship than building five unsinkable ones, the lieutenant was astounded but offered to do the job anyway. It was in the line of duty. Sampson had ordered Admiral Schley, who was off Santiago de Cuba, to sink a collier in the narrow channel at the harbor entrance and thus bottle up the Spanish fleet in side. Schley, not believing in the wisdom of the act, ignored the order. Sampson still favored the idea and, on their way to Santiago, he and Hobson discussed plans for sinking sink-ing the collier Merrimac on a night in early June when there would be sufficient moonlight for the navigator navi-gator to place the ship in position, yet there would be an hour or so of darkness between moonset and daybreak. Torpedoes abreast the bulkheads and cargo hatches were to be fired by an electric primer to sink the craft. The entire American fleet received the call for volunteers to accompany accom-pany Hobson. This was no child's play. With the exception of Admiral Sampson, there was hardly a soul aboard the New York who believed that any of the Merrimac's emergency crew would return alive. Yet hundreds offered to go. Seven were taken: George Char-ette, Char-ette, Daniel Montague, Francis Kelly, Kel-ly, Randolph Clausen, Osborn W. Deignan, J. E. Murphy and George F. Phillips. Hobson also took along an American flag, to be unfurled at the proper moment, 'ist as the Merrimac was starting her dive toward to-ward Davy Jone's locker. A Motley Crew. The flag was never unfurled, for just about come time for the unfurling, un-furling, there were shot and shell popping all around our hero's ears and there was little room for tradition. tradi-tion. Even at the outset, the odds were perhaps against the Merrimac's Mer-rimac's ever getting to the narrow part of the channel. She had to steam right under the nose of the Morro Castle fortification and the great battery behind it. The Spanish gunners' aim was notoriously rotten, rot-ten, but at such close range . . . A weird looking crew they were as the collier got under way at 1:30 a. m., June 4, 1898. Their apparel consisted of long underwear, two pairs of socks each, life preservers, cartridge belts and revolvers. Just as if a Hollywood scenarist had written writ-ten it, there popped from nowhere the inevitable stowaway. It was Clausen, who had not been chosen, but came of his own accord. It was a brave gesture and Hobson, after reprimanding him, permitted him to continue. Hobson's plan was to cruise to within 2,000 yards of Uie channel, then order full speed ahead (for here they were almost certain to be discovered and fired upon) until there were only 200 yards left to go. Here the engines would be shut off and the Merrimac allowed to coast into the channel, where it would be sunk. Any of the crew who survived the sinking were to swim to a life boat astern or to a catamaran catama-ran (raft) brought along as a last resort. At the outset Hobson, speaking in the dime novel hero fashion which was to characterize his countless public orations in later life, exclaimed ex-claimed :"Charette, lad, we're going go-ing to make it tonight! There is no power under heaven that can keep us out the channel!" He was talking through his hat. t The Merrimac proceeded, apparently apparent-ly without the Spaniards' notice, to 300 yards from the channel, when a Spanish picket boat began firing at its rudder without success. Then the first of the land batteries opened and as the collier neared its objective ob-jective more batteries joined the firing. Aid from the Enemy. One projectile tore the pilothouse completely off. the Merrimac. By some miracle, no one was injured, although Hobson and Deignan were inside it at the time. But the steering steer-ing gear was gone and they could no longer control the ship. Exploding Explod-ing shells destroyed the connections with the torpedoes and they were unable to sink it where they wanted to. They began to realize that the Spanish gunners might accomplish their purpose for them, and sure enough, after a few direct hits and after striking a few mines, the Mer-Imac Mer-Imac began to settle to the bottom. But it was not sinking fast enough to go down before it had drifted past the narrow channel where it would have trapped the Spanish fleet. Unable to pursue his plans for the flag, young Hobson decided to amuse himself by feeling his pulse, and despite the shot and shell he found it normal. "If anything, more phlegmatic than usual," he later wrote. In another few minutes the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes and the destroyer Plyton let fly with I - - ""v " "I ft 5 f -J I p 1 f t ! W I - 4 ' I " ! ) A ' Admiral Hobson Shortly Before His Death. two torpedoes at such close range that even Spaniards couldn't miss, and down went the Merrimac to a hero's watery grave. The eight men, two of them wounded, went down, too and came right back up again. Received As Heroes. Their lifeboat had been shattered, so they swam to the catamaran, hanging on with only their heads above water so they were less likely to be spotted. But they were, after an hour and a half in the cold water, found by a launch containing no less a person than Admiral Cervera of the Spanish fleet. They were treated gently. Cervera himself helped Hobson aboard. The latter and his men were given hot coffee and dry clothes. Hobson was even then melodramatic in speech. "Oh, God," he exclaimed, perhaps twirling his mustachios which curled romantically two inches inch-es from either side of his lip, "has life ever gone through such a fire and never a man lost!" The Spaniards, hearing that not a man was lost, and having rescued only eight, were dumfounded and were doubly dumbfounded when Hobson told them that he had been trying harder than they had to sink the Merrimac. Hobson and his men became heroes, even to the Spaniards, and were treated with every courtesy, although they were imprisoned in Morro Castle. When Cervera visited him in his cell, decked out in an admiral's full dress splendor, Hobson struck an altitude and declared, "All chivalry is not yet dead!" After a few weeks Hobson and all of his men were traded back to the American navy for the release of an equal number of Spanish prisoners. Their welcome was one which befitted be-fitted them as heroes, and from that moment until his death, Richmond Rich-mond Pearson Hobson was to bask in the reflected glory of his adventure adven-ture with the Merrimac. His seven aides were soon given the congressional congres-sional medal of honor, but Hobson, being an officer, could not receive j f- v V - trn m-. ,'J..; 4 r - ' V v v" A". ) 4 Hobson as a Young Officer. it. He was finally presented with it by President Franklin D. Roosevelt Roose-velt in 1933. Arriving back in New York, Hobson Hob-son was mobbed by hero-worshipers. Wherever he went, they sang after him: "Mr. Hobson, Mr. Hobson, You're a dandy, you're a peach, And the brightest blooming pebble That is shining on the beach." One woman threw her arms about him and kissed him. This started a craze which greeted him wherever wher-ever he went, for he was a handsome hand-some devil and a hero. One newspaper news-paper reported that in Kansas City alone 417 women kissed him at the railroad station. At Topeka it was reported that at least 200 women kissed him, indicating that perhaps the prairies are not so dry, after all. He didn't object much. Hobson Becomes Reformer. But women soon began forgetting to kiss him, and the newspapers began to forget he existed. After rising rapidly in the ranks of the navy, his eyes went bad while he was serving in China. He applied for retirement on a pension, but did not get it, so resigned from the service. Here began the second phase of his life. He became a crusader in earnest, first to make America mistress mis-tress of the seas by getting congress to appropriate funds for a navy equal to the combined total of all the other navies in the world. He used as his principal excuse the charge that Japan was preparing to attack us, and was one of the first to bring up the Japanese war scare, trying to get both political parties to acknowledge it in their platforms in 1912. He was exquisitely vague in the evidence he presented, and prone to exaggeration as he was in later campaigns against the demon rum and the drug evil. He made over 1,000 speeches in behalf of his naval building program. He was continually worrying congress con-gress for legislation prohibiting the sale of alcohol, and as a representative representa-tive from Alabama, he was the first to introduce a prohibition amendment amend-ment into congress. He soon became the most prominent figure in the prohibition drive. He told congress, "I cannot look upon the saloon otherwise oth-erwise than as an assassin" and "the result of all averages and estimates esti-mates known showed it (alcohol) to be the greatest single cause of death." Congress Turns Him Down. Once the prohibition amendment was passed, Admiral Hobson took up "dope" that is, he took up the fight against the drug evil. He asserted as-serted that there were a million addicts, many of them children. He tried to have congress print and distribute dis-tribute 50,000,000 copies of a pamphlet pam-phlet warning children of the unutterable unut-terable torture that might await them if ever they took the invitation invita-tion of a stranger to "eat, drink or sniff" anything. A federal expert, called in, testified that there were at the very most, 150,000 addicts in the country. Practically none of them children. He testified: "I think the direct effect of the article would be to create a certain number of cases of severe neurosis and insanity and a certain number of cases of addiction by reason of the psychopath will want this new sensation . . . Some of the statements state-ments about the number of addicts are simply absurd; the opium does not. exist to supply them." Congress refused to print the pamphlet. pam-phlet. But Admiral Hobson continued his crusading, and at the time of his death from a heart attack on March 16, 1937, at the age of sixty-six, he was still starting associations to prohibit something or other, or to secure some sort of legislation. Among them were the International Narcotic Education association, the World Conference on Narcotic education, edu-cation, the World Narcotic Defense association, the Public Welfare association as-sociation (and Americanism Clearing Clear-ing House), and if that ce doesn't stop you, the Constitutional Democracy Democ-racy association. 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