THE VERA; CRUZ
EIGHT TOLD BY
18061
U. S. Chester. Vera Cruz, Mexico'
: April 30. 1914. "
Dear Bud!-We rrrived here on
the morning of the 21,: at 4:00
o'clock from Tampico arid -landed
all available men at once- I didnt
land, owing to the factf that elec
tricians are not numbered among
the available.- ,: 7 :
The Mexicans began a rifle fire
at us as soon as we enter d the
harbor but didn't bother us on ac
count of the darkness nnd the tact
that we were showing no lights.
They could hear a ship coming in
but could not see us. However,
they knew it must be one of our
ships and began " firing 'at random
ana wasung dimimmuuii.
The Florida's battalion was al
ready ashore rnd was holding v the
the custom house when we got in.
The other ships landed men as soon
as we did. The real trouble began
at daylight, about 5:30 a. m.. .
I was called about 5:30 to go on
the quarter deck and take down the
stern light so that the flag staff
could be taken down in order to
make a clear gang-way for our after
five inch in case we should have to
use it. Mexican sharp-shooters had
already begun firing at ourc. men
working on the quarter deck when
I got up there. When we began
working on the flag staff we made
good targets for the sharpshQtersj
stationer in wa'. e b e -kei s; Tumbe
piles, buildings and tug boats." They
heran a continual "picking" as they
cflitoi it: that is trying to pick off
our nieu when they showed them
sehe ;. Tuey were either very poor
in .:men or else could not get the
raribe, us we were anchored at just
a nice rifle range from the beach.
As soon as the Greasers in the tug
boat began to fire we began to
worry though for they began to fire
through a seaich-light screen just
over our heads. When they started
that our captain ordered us tojnake
up a gun ere v and give the guns la
couple of shots. As most of the
regular gun's crews were ashore, we
had to use any one we could get
hold of. As a result we .tad guijs
crews composed of ' coal ; passers,
carpenters maes,; el
seamnen They did gbodT work j us t
the same. At Captain Moffett's
orders we put two threejnchj shells
through the tug that had been giv
ing us the most trouble She hoisted
a white flag and got. out of the way,
so did the rest of the tugs 'when
they saw what they would get if j
they continued finiatv
After the tugs were cleared r out
of the way we turned pur - attention
to the sharp shooters asipreSffiey j
tiipppd about 1werv nl
co had had trninmgll
Naval rifle, withnrles ; ani: ammu-
nition and ordered
firing from the-beac
take us long to stopa
firing and to drivelhemjfli
hut they continuM!
windows of builduS
were using smokeless! pdeif
could not locate themwp of our t
p men w e r er wounaea
from either the btii'lding of the ChiiP
Qonsulate or the Mexican v.Navai
A - . : T .
-uucuiy wmcn naa a Kea uross
M flying over it. - We,; couldn't
return the fire because we were not
COWARD
TAKE YOUR CHOICE, BQT GOf
1.847 A GREETING FROM THE PAST 1 91 4.
certain about where it was coming
from and it did not look: renable
that it could be coming from under
the Chilian or a Red Cross :
About this time a battalion of
our men marched out from t-the
CustonV House no dear ;cmt;these
few and seatter Mexi
giving us sS much trouble. They
out in the form of columns,
AcacemyIt looked toJrts tyatx&in
r,from the ship here tnat cne mm?
j battalion : would be murdered be-
Aik- nnld be done. We
V J wkuq- " ...... V - r J
began to get our guns reaay io me.
This took-us butew;iewnds and
while we were doing" this 'the two
y-
-Evans in Baltimore American.
--Carter in New York Evening Sun.
last companies of the battalion who
were not so greatly exposed to the
fire- as the rest of the battalion,
were retreating toward the Custom
House and the rest of the battalion
who couldn't retreat without undu
ly exposing itself to the fire of the
enemy, dropped out along the Wa-
ter front, adistance of at sever
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w. ? - - - : - ..... .; .- - j ivu i v j ip. -r . -
ty yards from the Academy in thefjjo
line of skinnishers forming a semi -
circle from the building and laying
flat, on the ground. ;The Mexicans
had also opened from 'many nearby
buildings: All of . tnil took but a
few seconds. We got tjbe word to
When
fire as soon . as we - were reaay.
our after iiye inch spoke you
could see parts f the' roof of -the
Navel Academy and mingled Greas
ers going up in the airj It i$" need
less 10 say that this; followed up by
many more just likeIt soon stopped day yesterday in town. . -allthe
aring-irom thi&'sectfon of ; ;rNl.,;
of the city. It was about like mur
dering rats in atrap but it had to
be done. Their act of ambushing
our men from under the Red Cross
flag was not an act of civilized war
fare and deserved more than the
treatment it got-v The ode: from
guns of this was; estinrated at more
than two hundred. .
The loss ofthe battalion ashore
was not nearly so great as we
thought. They only had four killed
and seventeen wounded. It was
only their coolness and Quick wits
r mam ra a a ' m jm -zm a a m w li
in such a heavy fire. . -
It was only the work of this ship's
guns that saved from complete de -
struction the whole battalion of
men. We have ben compliment
ed on our quick work and accuracy
of fire by all of the higher Naval
officers. ,
The only thing that has got us
guessing now is: how in the thunder
did the Prairie, San Francisco and
Florida ring in on the honor qf sav
ing that bunch of men from de
struction? We and the Prairie
were the only two ships inside of
the harbor where wecould fire.
The Prairie did gpqd work but her
position was behind the Custom
House from this trouble so that she
could not fire a shot into this dis
trict. All of her firing was further
up in the city and occurred later
in the day. The . 'Frisco hadnt
reached this port from Tampico at
this time. So you seeit has got us
puzzled.
We can understand how the news
papers t gay 'the Florida part of the
cretSi
her ,firing a sh6t She brought a
bunch of newspaper reporters down
from the States.
""What I have told you is only the
part the Chester played in the bat
tle. I wont attempt to detail the
the rest of the fighting, as I pre
sume you know about as much
it as I do. from the the newspapes.
I have just gotten my last pro
motion for this enlistment. I signed
my last second class petty officers
appointment yesterday. It is how
waiting for the Captain's signature.
He has probably signed it by this
time. I successfully passed the ex
amination for second class elec
trician. As a second class on here
was just promoted to first class; it
left a second class vacancy, and as
my year as third class was up, and
my marks were good, I was recom
mended to fill it. It pays $44.00
dollas per month.
We are all praying to: be sent
back to the States odxfi f We are
getting ve ' tired and disgusted
with thisoicry
gave us S5metlng interfesting to do
down liettimd tosjrvali
"peace conference.' It makes things
quieterdown here than they - were
before. They gave us a taste of
excitemciihd now the only they
ft0 put up a good ght, too.
M. R, Coward, B3ec U, S. N.
1 J. N. Reed of Beta was here yes
terday - and j advanced his sub
scription to to Journali : , v
Kelly Keever was here yesterday
on business ': r -, --
Oscar IeiJaW as -in town on
business yesterday from Co warts. ;
' Troy Rogers of Willets spent the
INJURE!
Ill
FALLING TREE
Ance Parker, was seriously injur-'
ed last Thursday while peeling bark
in the Moses Creek section. He had
fallen one tree which lodged against
another and thinking it safe was
peeling the bark when the second
tree became uprooted and fell, a
! lare limD striking Mr. Parker. Whi
. .- a m m-m m ma w w m m
thought that it will prove fatal.
- '
In hn rri I ftUO PCI C
UUU rLLLU If U UlLl"
Black Rock Lodge no. 247, of
Sylva, will hold an annual cele
bration on the Fifth Sundajr in May.
Immediatery after the Asheville
train passes, the Odd Fellows will
march in a body to the Fair Grounds
where they will be addressed by
Prof. O. S. Detm of Cuiiowhee.
After dinner is served, they will
be addressed by Hons. Tom Green
of Waynesuille, ahd Zeb F. Curtis
of Asheville. .
The community knows something
of the abihty of Prof Dean "and Hon,
Mr. Green as speakers; The com-,
mittee will vouch for ejability of
Mr. Curtis. He is a prominent lawyer
of Asheyille, We request the Jadies
ot the community to bring baskets,
this" will be highly appreciated by
thebrderr 1 "' v "" '
-Signed. ,,..- , ...
J.J.Gray, R. A. Painter,
T. F. Dillard, C. W. Warren,
NOTICE TO TEACHERS.
There will be a Summer School
held at Cuiiowhee thia year begins
ning Jiine 16th, and continuing for
six weeks. All teachers of the
county are urged to attend the en
tire session if they can possibly da
so and all teachers who did not. at
tend an Institute or Summer School
last year are required to attend this
year for at least two weeks.
An opportunity will be given for
those who desire to do so to take
the regular examination for a teach
er's certificate at r the Summer
School. - "...
The Theory and Practice exami
nation will this year be based on
O'Shea's "Everyday Problems in
Teaching."
All teachers holding a First Grade
certificate who- have kept , up tne
entire Reading (urse work are; en
titled to have their: ceficates re
newed wiiout exanation. 'r
NdSeconi'GraB or
any grade on 4 Second" Grade Cer
tificate can" be renewed; but all
Second Grade teachers, who this
year took and : passed successfully
the entire Riding Courae will nor
be required to take tnaexamination
on TTieory and Practice.- -
.ResDwtfully yours, i
David; H. Brown,
County Superintendent q Public In
. struction. . - - -
rKapolean
to
the
PtoiheheSwM
next few months -:
s
. J. L.- Ballard :of, Willets was
town yesterday: " - , ,
int.
BRaTION at sylva
r
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