Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip ot the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat There has been renewed effort in the last few dayo to dig up a Japanese war scare. This is based on nothing more specific than the temper of the people on the Pacific coast where it is said that there is an increasingly irreconcilable antiJapanese race feeling that is bound to break out afresh as soon as the battleship squadron arrives in the Pacific. In conjunction with this, it is said that there is being a night shift worked in most of the navy yards and that war material is being accumulated as rapidly as possible. There is just enough truth in these statements to warrant a denial. The most of the navy yards are working a night shift to try to get up work that has been long in arrears, War material is being rushed to the battleships preparatory to their cruise for they are not likely to start on such a cruise empty handed and there is not much time left to get them ready. Also there is a deep anti-Japanese ‘feeling on the Pacific coast that is liable to show itself in another outbreak sometime in the course of the next ten years.; But in the Navy Department there is about as little sign of activity as could be displayed. The President is off on a hunting trip, the Secretary of the Navy is out of the city on contract business, the assistant secretary of the Navy is away on an unusually late vacation and the chiefs of the Bureau of Navigation and the Bureau of Equipment are both away. It would take quite a gathering of the clans to put the Department in position to do business on a very active scale.

Just supposing there should be anything in the way of a war however to call forth the ability of the navy, it is a satisfaction to know that we have just made a record for straight shooting that considerably surpasses anything done bv any of the other navies in the world. In target practice off Cape Cod, the battleships have just made an average of 30.7 per cent hits under battle conditions. The target was the regulation navy target, a floating canvass frame 30 by 30 by 60 feet. The ranges were unknown to the gunners and varied from 5,000 to 9,000 yards, the latter a little over four miles. All the shooting was done while steaming at 10 knots an hour. These were as near service conditions as could be arranged in time of pease and lacked only the single disconcerting element of having some other gun crew shooting back. The greatest number of hits with the 10 inch and 12 inch rifles was made by the Maine which ran up the surprising string of 67 per cent. There were 50s and 47s made by some of the other ships. It was estimated that had the target been the size of an apposing warship, the Maine, would have registered over 100 hits in the space of eight minutes. Comparing this with the performance of foreign navies, it is wonderful shooting. The average of foreign squadrons in similar’practice has never run over 25 per cent and all the damage done by Togo’s fleet in the battle of the Sea of Japan was with a percentage of only four. The average with the secondary batteries aro not so high, but these guns, running from 7 to 4 inches are not supposed to be effective at such a range.

There was h surprise in store for most people who knew them by the marriage of one and the engagement of another of the retired navy veterans this week. The engagement was that of Admiral Seifringe of Civil War fame. He is 74 and is known to every school boy as having been immortalized in the poem "On Board the Cumberland.” Admiral Melville is 66 and fias been on the retired list for three years. He was m .rried to a lady he has known for forty years Admiral Melville is one of the most picturesque figures of the old navy and one of the originators of the new navy. He was for years the Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, and enjoyed the reputation among the jackies in his prime of being the “top notch scrapper” of the whole service. He is about five feet four inches high and about four feet five inches broad without any superfluous flesh. He was the chief engineer of the ill-fated Arctic brig, the Jeanette and was the hero of the fight between the Ohio and the Confederate vessel the Florida in the Harbor of Bahia during the civil war. The Confederate vessel had come into the harbor and refusing a challenge to fight, it was

proposed to ram her. It was almost a certainty that the boilers of the Ohio would not stand the shock, and Melville who was one of the engine room force said that he would go below and run the engines himself just before the collision so that there would be only one man sacrificed. One of the warrant officers vowed be should not take the risk alone and the two of them went through the adventure together, coming out with hardly a scratch. This is an official narrative, bnt there is another story of Melville that is told in the ward room with even more relish and does not appear in the official archives, He was on the old Narraganset when he was a lieutenant and had incurred the enmity of some of the toughest members of the crew. The vessel landed in Cuba for water, and Melville went ashore with the boatscrew when the casks were filled. Four of the sailors decided it was a good time to kill him and desert if they could get him alone for a minute, and Melville, getting wind of their plan, decided to - give them a good chance, As soon as they landed, he strolled off along up the beach and around a bend out of sight of the boat. Three of the four sailors followed him in the bushes and met him on the beach out of sight of the boat’s crew. After a short interval Melvillestrolled back nonchalantly as be bad gone, and remarked to the boatswain that there were three of his men up the beach lying around and acting as if they were drunk,” and he certainly did not see how they had managed to get the liquor. This was all the mention that, was ever made of the affair, but it established the lieutenant’s reputation as a man of his hands.

The four Central American republics of Honduras, Nicaragua, Gautemala and Salvadore have notified the State Department of their selection of delegates to the Central American conference that is to be held in Washington in November. ——.