The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 24, 1898, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, 25 24, 1898. thing to do in the way of repalrs were reliev- ing Incident: T me the daring feat of Hobson. aper, but The Call and Herald misunderstood the brilllant feat of the naval constructor. Why was the Merri- mac sunk? The others answered that the collier was sent into the harbor of Santiago to force a passage through which Sampson could go to reach Cervera. The Call-Her- ald’s men on its dispatch boats told the pub- lic that Hobson's entrance to the hell of Span- ish fire was made for the purpose of keeping the enemy'’s ships inside. They were right. Hobson, as we all know now was taken prisoner by Cervera himself. It was the Spanish Admiral who told that story to The Call-Herald for the first time when he was being taken as a prisoner to Portsmouth on the St. Louis. At that time, however, it was not even known that Cervera himself was in the bottle. Spanish ships were there, but was their commander? Spanish ships outside had been reported to the administration. The answer was sent to the navy and the public. A cablegram was dispatched to the Spanish Admiral, who promptly replied, giv- ing his assurance that Hobson was being well cared for. That settled it. Cervera was In the bottle. He signed the message himself. About this time came the movement of the troops that had been whipped into shape in the Southern camps. To Cuba with them went Richard Harding Davis, to add to his sea experience by closer work ashore. John C. Klein went along, too, and Alcides Betan- court, eager to see close conflict in which his people, the Cubans, would be witl the United States troops against the Spaniards. The Mindora went into cction with Leo L. Redding aboard, the Golden Rod with Hould- er L. Hudgins. A superb squadron there was when these boats joined the others in the news patrol between Santiago and Guanta- namo. Marines had landed at the latter place, where the Stars and Stripes now float un- disturbed over Fort McCalla. All along those fortified miles of Cuban coast between Santiago and Guantanamo the fighting went from that time almost cease- lessly on at sea and in the Cuban jungles. In front of Shafter's camp at Siboney Call- Herald boats were on station July 1L and they were ready to get to top speed in a few | minutes. That day the American forces made their first grand combined rush on the enemy and, leaving many of their number dead, dying and wounded in their trail, won. i That day Nicholas Biddle was with them \ through 1t all. He went through the battle ' on foot, and Siboney, where Brown awaited » him, was many miles from the Spanish posi- ¥ tion, where he saw the American flag planted \ when the enemy’s remnant retreated. Cour- Z i -om the morning Havana Harbor To do hun- veral any pape the Maine was blow last Febru up to tt this has been no light dreds of men and the cor dispatch boats. At present the entire e are Call c 5! up in present time. It has take tant use of is covered. ands the ports strateg! resu given the Herald, of that h the spl it found the Call v station in tes where anything in the 1 the struggle might hap- s might come. It had th the Cubans and of Spain. In the the Unit pulse of th itions that eceded by. laration of hostility, I\ K& \\ ¥ L.L.REDDING, in speeches and reso. C d not long ex and 1 Madrid and Caba were h at the prospect the Call-Herald pools of anger. e step- what on the honor men. »d to the verge of hed strict cens nanded all the ne ned and presented ervice at .;ufi‘}?a\ Y7 e (EH.SHEEHAAN hip. and But the publi the Call-He ? 1 obt fers of another paper—five of them—started for the shore on horseback. On foot, almost hopeless, he made a rush in the same direc- \ tion. Through awful jungles he traveled, and l in mountain paths and short cuts he had *h is owned by the pilots’ fon of that port, and is a craft so L, around the world. struggle of Gomez »d States could and ing i 1 the Cu g7, an f interest—Cuba— s by dispatch by ~curate, that Spanish eensor, le truth helpless in Havana. the e for the news they had no ¢ because They ch boats. THE CALL-HERALD Staff of Special Wal Cotrespondents at the Front, her one could make a trip In the few months of her :ncé before filibustering gave the United so much costly trouble the Smith had , many a night trip into out of the way harbors in Cuba, and had put ashore for the insurgents hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition that had helped to prolong the his men un take the burden ntil the The crisis was fast approaching, and watch- apital were Hamilton dy and Walter S. er day, when the world for the news from the nt dispatches v West, graph- r would have pas: they Correspondents of oth told could not use they could gather; p In Havana some of the time, in the fleld from papers The first engagement of the war was over and The Call-Herald's men, outside of officers and men on the fleet, were the only ones who knew about it. Off dashed the Sommers N. Smith for Key West, through a storm, carry- ing the Admiral's official report, and The Call the following day was the only paper on the Pacific Coast to tell the story. A few days®later, when the other side of the wond was hear from, The Call and Herald alone of all newspapers published in the world, told the full story of Dewey’s thence famous victory at Manila. Joseph L. Stick- ney performed that peerless feat. He was himself a part of the battle he so pictur- esquely and completely described. He is a graduate of Annapolls and had been a lieutenant in the navy. He was at Hongkong when Dewey started out to do his part In the humbling of Spain and was taken Y JMITCHELL. by the Admiral on his flagship, the Olymplia. In the battle he was a volunteer afd of the ‘Admiral, and on the bridge of the Olympia he watched the progress of glorious victory and took snapshots of the stirring scenes around him. The Spaniards, foreseeing downfall of Manila, had cut the cable, and to get the great news to The Call and Herald he had to go to Hongkong. He went and sent through the finest, most complete account of an actual paval fight that ‘ever has bheen printed. In Dewey's official report he was gommended for his services in the hetion. As soon as the news of the victory at Manila was told The Call at once dispatched a corps of writers and artists to the Philip- pines. Among these were Sol N. She dan, one of the best writers on the Coast. Plerre A. Boeringer, well known as an artist and T. A. Healy, a thorough newspaper man. . CAM PBELL" W.S.MERIWETHER. At Honolulu, Alice Rix will tell Call readers of whatever happens of interest. With this corps Call readers will be sure to be supplied with all the news. As an illustration of the completeness of 2 The Call's war service is the location of the fleet of Admiral Cervera at the Cape Verde Islands, and the exclusive information given at the same time to the authorities in Wash- ington and the rest of the public that it had sailed in the direction of Porto Rico. To ob- tain this news The Call-Herald had a ship follow the Spaniards for twenty-four hours, Later, when Cervera had been an unplaced quantity for days, Call-Herald men found him at Martinique and gave the first news to the President. To obtain a general idea of San Juan, the Tyr one day put close in toward that harbor and steamed slowly by. Suddenly out from MINDORA tion. next day. there.” ond fight. J.CIKLEIN the mouth at full speed came the Spanish cruiser Infanta Isabella IT and headed after the Danish ship, which made fast in the di- rection of St. Thomas. On crowded the Span- iard and on dashed the Dane, but the former had the better speed and would have pounced on The Call-Herald’s boat in a few minutes. On_the horizon ahead came a small smoke cloud. It grew and under it were funnels, then a hull. It was the Yale, American liner, American cruiser; it was salvation, too. The Spaniard saw it, turned and ran home. Spain’s fleet finally was located and The Call-Herald’s boats, as faithful as those of Admiral Sampson in sticking to a blockade, kept watch mnear the grim old Morro that marked the neck of the bottle into which Cervera had put himself, Lazy days followed each other for a while. Bombardments that gave the enemy some- GOLDEN ROD. never seen before. The mounted They were lost for many hours. V. Biddle was nearly to Kingston he struggled through his story. It was a ‘“beat,” and a_ Brown, cabling todNttew Xlork “Biddle trampe: wenty mounted couriers. Nearly dead, but got On the next day, each a magnificent exclusive story Thomas F. Millard thickest of it, and was first to reach the cable to New York. 3 When Cervera’s fleet was destroyed in its attempt to get out of Santiago The Call-Her- ald’s dispatch boat Golden Rod was the only newspaper lboa,; in ing spectacle of a Crgemly were on board, and the t of what they i?ans one of the best word pictures ever sent to a newspaper. He reached his destina- J courjers were heard from exhausted, but on the way glorious one, and about it said:— miles, beat five too, The Call-Herald had of the sec- 4 was_in the S sight of that most thrill- century. Brown and Mc- story they /) saw of glory and horror \ { THE CALL-HERALD Unsurpassed Direct System of Cables and Dispatch Boats to the - Seat of War.