February. Dewey was especially anxious for the command, but Howell succeeded in securing the billet, and the orders to both officers were made out in December.

Commodore Dewey left the United States at once, and he raised his flag on the "Olympia" on January 3. Commodore Howell raised his flag on the "San Francisco" on February 7 following. Commodore Dewey had more trouble in finding a staff willing to accompany him to the station than usually falls to the lot of flag officers; not that officers were not willing to serve with the Commodore, but that they saw greater prospects of naval glory on the home station.

Honor Found
Where Least
Expected.

Captain Lamberton, who was sent out to command the "Boston" and who failed to get his ship before the fight, was another officer unwilling to join the fleet. He sailed after the "Maine" was blown up, and saw then that the chance of trouble with Spain was promising. He wanted to remain on the home station, but there was no command vacant for him and he took the "Boston." At least a dozen officers on the squadron appealed to their friends to try and get them home so that they could be on hand when war was declared. Through refusal of their wishes every one of them was in the hottest engagement of the war and received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal for their valor.

Manila and
Its Bay.

Manila is a very bustling port with a very beautiful bay. The town, which is the capital of the Philippines, is a city of 250,000 inhabitants, according to the census of 1880. The large bay, on the shores of which it lies, is oval in form and at least 120 miles in periphery. Into it the River Pasig empties. The city proper, that is, the fortified portion of it, is on the left bank of the Pasig, a spot selected in 1571 by Lopez de Legaspi as the future centre of Spanish power in the islands. The Spanish and Creole portion of the population constitute about one-tenth of the whole, the others being natives and Chinese. Most of the Chinese are engaged in commerce.

The city proper is a group of forts, convents and administrative buildings. It is surrounded by lofty walls and connected with the commercial part of the community, on the right bank of the Pasig, by two fine bridges. As a centre of trade it is admirably situated at the mouth of a navigable river and of an interior sea, which insures it the products of a whole province. Upon the waters of the bay rides in times of peace a commercial fleet representing the nations of the whole world.

A canal connects Manila with the seaport towns on the other side of the island-the eastern side. In the narrows at the entrance of the bay is

the volcanic island of Corregidor. During the southwest monsoon, when the tides are highest, ships of 500 tons can anchor in the mouth of the Pasig, under cover of a long jetty, while small warships can enter the cove of Cavite nine miles further down. This cove is protected from the high tides by a long sandy promontory called the Hook.

Manila is very favorably situated for general commerce. It commands all the routes of navigation between the Strait of Londe and the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang. Laperause said of the city that its commercial location was the best in the world. Up to 1811 it was the connecting point of Spain's trade with her American colonies.

Straight Into the Torpedoed Bay After the Enemy.

It was in the bay of Manila, defending the capital of the Philippines, that Spain had gathered eleven vessels of her war fleet, their services being required in an effort to repress the Filipino insurrection, that had cost Spain a large expenditure of blood and treasure. The Spaniards believed themselves to be secure against the attack of a hostile fleet, and ridiculed the suggestion of such a possibility, regarding their position, as well as the number of their war ships, as being unassailable, for the bay was well laid with torpedoes, while the fortifications that commanded the entrance to the bay and those defending Cavite mounted many pieces of modern heavy guns. Notwithstanding these fancied securities, Admiral Dewey did not hesitate to seek the enemy in his fastnesses, and to engage him on his favorite grounds. The American Asiatic squadron, Admiral George Dewey commanding, was made up of six steel ships, the storeship "Narstan" and the collier "Zaffiro." The warships were the protected cruisers 'Olympia," Captain Charles V. Gridley; "Boston," Captain Frank Wildes; "Raleigh," Captain Joseph B. Coghlan, and "Baltimore," Captain Nehemiah M. Dyer; and the gunboats. "Concord," Commander Asa Walker, and "Petrel," Commander Edward P. Wood. The "Concord " joined the squadron in January, and the fleet "Baltimore," which had been Rear-Admiral Joseph N. Miller's flagship at the Pacific station, joined the squadron a few days later. The "Concord " and "Baltimore " took the places of the gunboats "Helena" and "Monocacy." The former was with the blockading squadron off Havana harbor, while the old iron gunboat "Monocacy" was left behind at Woosung to look after American missionaries. The squadron assembled to take the Philippines was the most formidable American fleet ever seen in Asiatic waters.

The Philippine
Fleets.

The "Olympia," the flagship, is one of the finest ships in the navy. She ranks next to the "Columbia" and "Minneapolis" in speed, and besides these, the armored cruisers "Brooklyn" and "New York" were the

only other cruising ships having a greater length. Most of the service of the "Olympia" had been at the Asiatic station. On one occasion, when she was going to Yokohama, she was caught in a tremendous storm. In spite of the high head seas, she made remarkable speed, going straight about her business, undisturbed, at the rate of nearly twenty knots an hour. She was designed at a time when the unlucky "Reina Regente," the beautiful Spanish cruiser which visited New York at the time of the naval celebration in the spring of 1893, was the fastest cruiser afloat. The "Reina Regente" had been built for Spain in England, and had steamed nineteen knots under natural draught and twenty-one knots under forced draught. The Navy Department's idea was to build a cruiser which should resemble the fleet Spaniard, but should yet excel her.

How the Nation

Rewarded Him.

A complete and picturesque description of how Admiral Dewey met and annihilated Montojo's squadron of eleven ships in the Bay of Manila (May 1), and of how, by his assistance, the city of Manila was captured (August 13), is described elsewhere in this volume. It remains only to be told that for his superb courage and skill the nation gave him the most generous recognition, Congress reviving the long obsolete rank of Admiral to which President McKinley immediately appointed him, so that Admiral Dewey's distinguished services have been fittingly rewarded, his rank now being the highest, with the largest pay ($13,500 per annum), in the military service of the country.

T

THE GRANDEUR OF OUR COUNTRY.

HE magnificent extent of the United States, not considering our new possessions, is scarcely comprehended by our own people, so that the ignorance of foreigners in this respect is hardly to be condemned as many of us are disposed to do. Our war in the Philippines has tended to increase the perplexities of people across the sea, as the dispatches to foreign journals of our doings in those far-away islands are much more numerous and definite than are those they receive from the United States. Indeed, it is a surprising thing to know that notwithstanding our extensive commerce with European countries, and the copious information supplied by our newspapers respecting affairs of Europe, America is scarcely mentioned in the incident columns of English, French or German

papers. For this reason foreigners, who have not visited the United States, have a scanty knowledge of the extent or character of our country. Thus it is that when report is made to foreign journals of our losses in the Philippines, of how Smith of Texas was killed, and Brown of Montana was wounded, our English, French and German friends wonder how long this may continue before the United States will have no more soldiers to send over to take the place of those fallen.

Have they never heard the old poem:

"Thebes marched her thousands from her hundred gates,

We march our millions from our hundred States."

Most of the men who fought in Cuba were regulars, but most of the boys in Manila are volunteers, and are still reckoned by their State organizations. By the way, could anything be more splendid or give to a foreigner a more striking object lesson of the Republic's power? Imagine a foreigner watching an army of United States volunteers and asking natural questions. It would be something like this:

Foreigner-What men are these?

Answer-The Fourteenth Texas Infantry.

Foreigner-And what is Texas?

Answer-A State down on the Gulf of Mexico.

Foreigner--How large is Texas?

Answer-It has 265,780 square miles. It is somewhat larger than Austria-Hungary, a third larger than the German Empire.

Foreigner-What soldiers are these?

Answer-The Third Montana.

Foreigner-Where is Montana and how large is it?

Answer-It is in the Central West and close up to the Dominion line. It contains 146,080 square miles, or some 20 per cent more area than the United Kingdom.

Foreigner-And where do these soldiers hail from?

Answer-They are the Fourth Colorado, which is a Rocky Mountain State, with an area of 103,929 square miles, or say twice the size of England. Foreigner-And these?

Answer-The Tenth California, on the Pacific, with an area of 158,360 square miles, or a little more than three-fourths the size of France.

Foreigner-And these?

Answer-The Second Oregon and Third Washington, also on the Pacific, and containing together 165,210 square miles, or say a little more than twothirds the size of the German Empire.

Foreigner-And how many States have you in all?

Answer-Forty-five States and some territories; they fill all the space between the two great oceans, and at one bugle call last summer, in every one soldiers fell into line; the tread of the thousands was like the tolling of the bells of destiny, and the flashings of their standards reflected back the sunshine through one-eighth of the sun's daily round. And they all speak one language; all sing the same songs; all turn for inspiration to the same flag, and though each is a separate wave, when blended they make but one ocean, and when in full roar all the shores of the nation are shaken, for in majesty, in latent power, in unapproachable splendor there is no counterpart for them in all the records of the nations that have existed, since nations were first organized on earth.

A BRACE OF SPLENDID WAR STORIES.

Times When a Fellow Feels Like Running, and When the Enemy Becomes a Friend.

T

By W. W. BYAM.

HE squad of old soldiers whose acquaintance I had made was one that proved of more than usual interest, for while warm friends and generous neighbors now, time was, in the long ago, when these same men had met as enemies in fierce charge and countercharge on many a hard-fought field. But kindly time had healed the wounds and mellowed all the bitter past, and now, under the broad leaves of a spreading palm in the plaza of a little half-Spanish, half-American town in the Lone Star State, I sat and listened to the tales of a glorious past as told by these one-time foes. At times I was amused at the statements of comparative strength and losses-statements that would, no doubt, make the war records in the archives at Washington blush at their inaccuracies. However, these tales of unequal combat were common property, each.in his turn being as reckless as to those "superior numbers of the enemy" as the other had been extravagant before him, so that in the end I doubt not that the average would compare favorably with the official reports made at the time.