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66

And that is the point-will they? And have we the spirit to-day?

'And what did I think of the review? for good fighting, don't you think? You Grand-but fatiguing. I was one of those saw a good many of them to-day-what do chaps drawn up in line on the deck of the you think of it—will they?” Mayflower, and from trying to see the President when he was in the stern and one of those foreign attacheys with the golden yellow on his chest who was in the bow, I've got a lame neck. A pain in my very eyebrows--yes. And did you see that boat come alongside making a crack at the President's reformed spelling? I was in Kiel, Germany, once to a review, and if they'd tried anything like that on the Kaiser, he'd slammed 'em all in jail. I suppose it's the difference between holding a job for a time and holding it for all time. An' yes, maybe, too, the difference in the men. Still, those perpetual jobs in one family aren't the best thing for us fellows.

"It's ninety odd years since the American navy proved it could do a good job; for, of course, none of us count Spain, who wasn't ready to begin with, and wasn't our size, anyway. And yet, we mightn't make out so bad 'gainst a bigger enemy at that. Our fellows can shoot, that's sure. They talk of Percy Scott in the English navy, but there's a gun crew in this ship we're breasting now, and I saw them awhile ago put eight twelve-inch shot in succession through that regulation floating target we use, and it was as far away as the farther end of that line of cruisers there, and the target was bobbing up and down and we steaming by at ten knots an hour. Not too bad-hah? And a hundred crews like 'em in the navy. That's for the shooting."

He flicked the end of another fleeting cigarette over the rail. "Yes, the American navy has fought pretty well, and this navy, no fear, will fight too. There's more different kinds of people in it than ever before, they say though as to that I guess there were always more kinds of people in the navy than the historians ever gave credit for. Now it's all kinds like the nation itself, I suppose And that ought to make

As to that, no man having yet devised any apparatus wherewith to measure energy of soul and mind, it is difficult to prove to whomever will not believe, or does not in himself possess the germ, the existence of this thing that may not be measured by footrule or bushel basket. The belching of black powder and the roll of drum-head do not prove it. We can always hire men to do that, and to do it well. And yet, to be there that day was to experience the thrill that may not be measured, to note how the enthusiasm of the occasion seemed to be animating the crews, to share in the feeling of pride which mantled all cheeks, and ship after ship slipping past, to feel that pride of fleet intensify, until we echoed the cry of the Commander-in-Chief, whose enthusiasm for all that is good for the nation is unquenchable. As the President said, it was a glorious day.

No doubt of it. Men had met and there was kinship in the meeting. From that auspicious opening in the morning when the clouds seemed to dissolve for the express purpose of allowing a fresh-washed sky to enter into the color scheme of the beautiful picture-blue dome, chalk-white and seagreen warships, green and blue and whiteedged little seas-until that last moment at night when the last call on the last ship was blown and to its lingering cadence the last unwinking incandescent of the fairy-like illumination was switched off, leaving the hushed and darkened fleet riding to only the necessary anchor lights on the motionless, moon-lit sound-who witnessed it all might not doubt the existence of that spirit which in conflict makes for more than even thickness of armor or weight of shell.

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