Army and Navy Review 1915 Panama-California Edition - Balboa Park

the time-worn walls of the hoary old fortress. But ill blows the wind that
profits nobody. Scarce had our foaming wake ceased to vex the calm waters
of the harbor, and our reeking funnels to desecrate its upper air, than a
courier hastened over mountain, moor and dale, bearing to the waiting
Huerta at the Capital, a moving tale of desperate attack, and heroic defense,
and recounting how the discomfited foe had fled after his repulse,
and menaced their sunlit shores no more. For this, the patriotic defender
of his native heath was summoned to the capital, decorated with honors,
entrusted with a large part of the nation’s wealth, and dispatched on an
important mission abroad to purchase supplies and munitions, even as the
brethren of Joseph went into a far country for corn when there was famine
in the land. And, who shall say that republics are ungrateful!
The unwieldy and defenseless collier, carrying two and a half companies
of the regiment, had been ordered to seek the shelter of the guns of
Admiral Howard’s Squadron while the South Dakota pursued her profitless
voyage to Acapulco, and now the latter vessel sought to rejoin her consort,
and re-unite the regiment. Arriving at Mazatlan, where the flagship of the
commander-in-chief lay at anchor, the wreck of the Mexican gunboat
Morales piled on the rock of Cranston Island, and the barricaded hillsides,
bristling with guns, which ever and anon spoke, as the besiegers of the city
exposed themselves to the watchful eyes of the defenders, told eloquently
of the spirit of war that reigned in the land. In the foreground of the
picture, its proud towers converted by sacriligious hands into radio masts,
and its chimes, immortalized by Longfellow in the “Bells of Mazatlan,”
silent now, stood the Cathedral of San Blas. And in the harbor, a zenith
sun looked down on the fighting ships of five nations as the Guerrero, fresh
from her victory over the ill-starred Tampico, came in and added the flag
of Mexico to those of America, Great Britain, Germany and Japan.
Another week of weary waiting, relieved by the sight and sound of
daily skirmish, and blessed by the occasional arrival of the newspaper that
satisfied the Mazatleno’s hunger for news, and that, perforce, had to satisfy
ours. And now a night voyage brought us to La Paz, where the barren
hills, burning in the blazing sun, brought forth nothing but the thorns and
thistles of prophecy, and the whole landscape, glowing like a furnace,
seemed to have felt the blight of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the nightwind,
sweeping across the harbor, carried with it a coolness and comfort
not to be expected in that land of desolation, and the sleep that knits up
the raveled sleeve of care, again became possible. Here, at last, landings
were made, ship-cramped men allowed to exercise, and such opportunities
for recreation as the joyless desert afforded were made the most of.
Back to the beleaguered city of Mazatlan again the South Dakota took
her way, and the news was received that a welcome, but needless re-enforcement
was added to the regiment, in the form of the 28th company
from Bremerton, and the 36th company from Mare Island, who were proceeding
to join us on the West Virginia. The spectacle of the finest regiment
that carried the stars and stripes, disintegrated and scattered among
three ships, out of communicating distance with each other, their impedimenta
inaccessible, and their movements as aimless as the meanderings of
the Israelites in the desert, was one to depress the most buoyant spirit.
But time, the great regenerator, restores the equilibrium of things in
his own way, and the sands in the hour-glass of our wanderings were running
low. And then came the memorable day when orders were received
directing the regiment to proceed to San Diego, California, mobilize and
encamp. A fitting close to their companionship with their comrades of the
deep was the series of boat races between the marines and sailors of the