People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1893 — READY FOR REVIEW. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

READY FOR REVIEW.

Great Gathering at American Warship* ta Hampton Hoads—ror slpi Vessels Arriving: to Take Part Are Noisily Welcomed. Fortress Monroe, Va., April 17. After a week given over to tedious preparations and maneuvers it may at last be said that the naval rendezvous is under way. Almost a score of great ships lie at anchor in Hampton roads. The flags of four nations are whipping from mastheads, the guns of the old fort boomed their national salutes throughout Sunday. An assorted squadron of big foreign warships is expected at once to bear in to the fleet and join the French and Italian arrivals of ‘’Sunday. After that the armored guests will foHow each other in irregular order and next Sunday the roads will

show forty big ships strung along in columns and ten nations will be represented in the mighty show. The forty vessels will be manned by pearly 12,000 officers and seamen. The cost of the entire fleet will represent a sum not far from $30,000,000, and the vessels themselves will show all the advancement that the world has made in the building of war cruisers. The foreigners which came in Sunday morning were the Italian cruiser Giovanni Bausan and the new French cruiser Jean Bart. There was a brisk breeze stirring when the Italian appeared over the horizon between the capes shortly after 7 o’clock. It was the Bausan who conveyed the Columbus statue to New York recently and lay for a long while in the harbor. Again and again the big guns at the fort roared until the stone point was lost in smoke. Then Giovanni's black port bow let out a puff of smoke,’and four seconds later the crash shook the glass piazzas at the hotel. Never was a Sunday morning so shaken by friendly bombardment. The fort fired the salute of twenty-one guns to the Italian flag and the Giovanni Bausan returned the salute with the same number. Then, as soon as she dropped anchor, her officers were pulled over to the American flagship to present their compliments, and as they departed the Philadelphia fired a salute of seven guns. By that time the high, black hull, clustered turrets and sharp bow of the French protected cruiser Jean Bart showed themselves in the very pathway taken by the Italian and once more the storm broke loose. The fort fired twentyone deafening shots, the French cruiser replied with the same number and the Philadelphia paid its tribute of seven to the French commander. The whole fleet seemed to take part in the noisy reception. As soon as the foreigners dropped anchor the barges and launches began their visiting back and forlh between the vessels and kept it up all day. The Giovanni Bausan dropped anchor at a point marked out by a buoy about 1,000 yards southwest from the Philadelphia, the two Russian cruisers being between it and the flagship. The Jean Bart anchored about 320 yards west from the Giovanni Bausan, thus bringing it almost opposite the mouth of the Elizabeth river to the south. The British squadron of five vessels, under command of the vice admiral, is believed to be lying off the Virginia capes preparatory to entering the roads