The Story of the Philippines: Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions, Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their Early History; The Eldorado of the Orient; Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey, General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila; History and Romance, Tragedies and Halstead, Murat
History
The Story of the Philippines: Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions, Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their Early History; The Eldorado of the Orient; Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey, General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila; History and Romance, Tragedies and
Halstead, Murat
Cuba -- History -- 1810-1899; Dewey, George, 1837-1917; Philippines -- Description and travel; Philippines -- History -- Revolution, 1896-1898; Philippines -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Puerto Rico -- History -- To 1898; Spanish-American War, 1898
They say--that is, some people seem to
want to say it and so do--that Dewey is a strange sort of man; as was
said of Wolfe and Nelson, who died when they won immortality. Dewey
lives and is covered with glory. It has been held that there were
not enough Americans hurt in the Manila fight to make the victory
truly great. But the same objection applies to the destruction of
Cervera's fleet when he ran away from Santiago. General Jackson's
battle at New Orleans showed a marvelously small loss to Americans;
but it was a good deal of a victory, and held good, though won after
peace with England had been agreed upon. The capture of Manila is
valid, too. Spain surrendered before the town did. If Dewey had been an
every-day kind of man, he would have left Manila when he had fulfilled
the letter of his orders, as he had no means of destroying the Spanish
army, and did not want to desolate a city, even if the Spaniards held
it. He remained and called for more ships and men, and got them.
"How is it?" "Why is it?" "How can it be?" are the questions Admiral
Dewey asks when told that the American people, without exception,
rejoice to celebrate him--that if one of the men known to have been
with him May 1st should be found out in any American theater he would
be taken on the stage by an irresistible call and a muscular committee
of enthusiasts, and the play could not go on without "a few words"
and the "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle,"
"Dixey" and "My Country, 'tis of Thee"; that the hallelujah note
would be struck; that cars are chalked "for Deweyville"; that the
board fences have his name written, or painted, or whittled on them;
that there are Dewey cigars; that blacksmith-shops have the name
Dewey scratched on them, also barn doors; and that if there are two
dwelling-houses and a stable at a cross-roads it is Deweyville,
or Deweyburg or Deweytown; that there is a flood of boy babies
named Dewey, that the girls sing of him, and the ladies all admire
him and the widows love him, and the school children adore him. The
Admiral says: "I hear such things, and altogether they amaze me--the
newspapers, the telegrams, the letters become almost unreal, for I
do not comprehend what they say of my first day's work here. There
was not a man in the fleet who did not do his duty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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