Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  

COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS.

DEWEY IN OHIO.

During the month of June guests of international fame were voy-

agers through the State of Ohio. The peculiar features of their

respective visits are deserving of permanent note, not only because of

the prominence which the guests occupy in the his-

tory of our day, but because of the significance

of the events which they represent. The first of

these in time and importance was the three days'

stay in Columbus, his only stop in Ohio, of

Admiral George Dewey, hero of Manila, and

perhaps the most illustrious figure of our genera-

tion. The Admiral with his wife, secretary and

servant retinue, arrived in Columbus on Wed-

nesday afternoon, June 6, and for three days was

the honored and delighted guest of Ohio's Capital.

The weather was propitious and the streets in gala

attire, and the period of his stay was to his party a "continuous per-

formance" of banquets, dinners, receptions, parades and entertainments.

Vast throngs of people, not only from the city, but all parts of the state,

crowded the streets in order to catch a glimpse of the incomparable

victor, who on that memorable May day morning (1898) steamed into

Manila Bay and almost in the "twinkling of an eye" sunk Admiral

Montojo's ten Spanish ships with hundreds of sailors to the bottom of

the sea, and this too without the loss of a single American sailor and

with scarcely any damage to the American vessels. The suggestive

feature of the Admiral's visit was that, although he was received with

the greatest courtesy and respect due his office and his unparalleled

achievements in the annals of the country, there was still lacking a spon-

taneity and heartiness of enthusiasm which is usually accorded to mili-

tary and naval heroes by their fellow countrymen. Dewey upon his

arrival in New York, in October, 1899, was greeted with perhaps the

greatest demonstration of honor and pride ever accorded by any country

to a national idol. His trip the past months, by invitation, extending

from New York to Chicago and St. Louis, and a few cities of the South,

(137)