Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Th# BmrawH People-SenUntU BaniwlL S. C- Thursday, April 8, 1937 ‘AMERICA’S MOST-KISSED MAN 5 DIES ' ! * Richmond Pearson Hobson, the “Man Who Sank the Merrimac,” Was Strange Paradox of Hero and Public Heckler. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY R ear admiral Richmond pearson hobson prob ably was kissed by more women than any other man who ever lived, and now he is dead. Admiral Hobson, from the time of his youth, was a para doxical combination of Frank Merriwell and Sissy Bly. He was to one generation the perpetrator of what may be the most ro mantic, adventurous and heroic deed ever performed in the service of the American flag. Yet he was to be remembered by the last American generation that knew him as a blue-nosed reformer, a trite flag-waver who nursed a penchant for frighten ing little children with staggering accounts of foul oriental evils lurking in wait for them at every school corner. When, in 1889, Hobson was grad-« ““ uated first in his class from the United States Nav. 1 academy at Annapolis he was cheered enthusi astically. He was leaving. Most of his classmates hadn’t spoken to him for two years. It was one of his duties as a cadet to report the mis demeanors of other cadets; this he had done so expertly and consistent ly that he was easily the most un popular cadet in the academy. He was a crusader from the start. In his post-academy days he at tempted to convince the country, through scientific journals, that there was inevitably to be a World war, but he failed to arouse America enough to begin arming for it. The outbreak of the Spanish- American war found him a naval constructor with the rank of Lieu tenant, aboard Rear Admiral Wil liam Thomas Sampson’s flagship, the New York. Hobson Volunteers. Aboard the New York, young Hob son was crusading for the construc tion of five unsinkable vessels, and told Admiral Sampson they could be used to sweep the mines from the entrance to Havana harbor. When Sampson told him that he was far more interested in sinking one American ship than building five unsinkable ones, the lieutenant was astounded but offered to do the job anyway. It was in the line of duty. Sampson had ordered Admiral Schley, who was off Santiago de Cuba, to sink a collier in the narrow channel at the harbor entrance and thus bottle up the Spanish fleet in side. Schley, not believing in the wisdom of the act, ignored the order. Sampson still favored the idea and, on their way to Santiago, he and Hobson discussed plans for sink ing the collier Merrimac on a night in early June when there would be sufficient moonlight for the navi gator to place the ship in position, yet there would be an hour or so of darkness between moon set and daybreak. Torpedoes abreast the bulkheads and cargo hatches were to be fired by an electric primer to sink the craft. The entire American fleet received the call for volunteers to accom pany Hobson. This was no child's play. With the exception of Admiral Sampson, there was hardly a soul aboard the New York who believed the emergency crew would return alive. Yet hundreds offered to go. Seven were taken: George Char- ette. Daniel Montague, Francis Kel ly, Randolph Clausen, Osborn W. Deignan, J. E. Murphy and George F. Phillips. Hobson also took along an American flag, to be unfurled at the proper moment, just as the Merrimac was starting her dive to ward Davy Jones’ locker. A Motley Crew. The flag was never unfurled, for Just about come time for the un furling, there were shot and shell popping all around our hero's ears and there was little room for tradi tion. Even at the outset, the odds were perhaps against the Mer- rimac’s ever getting to the narrow part of the channel. She had to steam right under the nose of the Morro Castle fortification and the great battery behind it. The Spanish gunners’ aim y/as notoriously rot ten, but at such close range! . . . A weird looking crew they were as the collier got under way at 1:30 a. m., June 4, 1898. Their apparel consisted of long underwear, two pairs of socks each, life preservers, cartridge belts and revolvers. Just as if a Hollywood scenarist had writ ten it, there popped from nowhere the inevitable stowaway. It was Clausen, who had not been chosen, but came of his own accord. It was a brave gesture and Hobson, after reprimanding him, permitted him to continue. Hobson’s plan was to cruise to within 2,000 yards of the.channel, then order full speed ahead (for here they were almost certain to be discovered and fired upon) until there were only 200 yards left to go. Here the engines would be shut off and the Merrimac allowed to coast into the channel, where it would be sun i. Any of the crew who survived the sinking were to swim ito a life boat astern or to a catama ran (raft) brought along as a last resort. At the outset Hobson, speaking in the dime novel hero fashion which was to characterize his countless public orations in later life, ex claimed, “Charette, lad, we’re go- . ing to make it tonight! There is no power under heaven that can keep us out the channel!” He was talking through his hat. The Merrimac proceeded, apparent ly without the Spaniards’ notice, to 300 yards from the channel, when a Spanish picket boat began firing ^t^its rudder without success. Then the first of the land batteries opened and as the collier neared its ob jective more batteries joined the firing. Aid from the Enemy. One projectile tore the pilothouse completely off the Merrimac. By some miracle, no one was injured, although Hobson and Deignan were inside it at the time. But the steer ing gear was gone and they could no logger control the ship. Explod ing shells destroyed the connections with the torpedoes and they were unable to sink it where they wanted to. They began to realize that the Spanish gunners might accomplish their purpose for them, and sure enough, after a few direct hits and after striking a few mines, the Mer rimac began to settle to the bottom. But it was not sinking fast enough to go down before it had drifted past the narrow channel where it would have trapped the Spanish fleet. Unable to pursue his plans for the flag, young Hobson decided to amuse himself by feeling his pulse, and despite the shot and shell he found it normal. “If anything, more phlegmatic than usual,” he later wrote. In another few minutes the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes and the destroyer Pluton let fly with Admiral Hobson Shortly Before His Death. two torpedoes at such close range that even Spaniards couldn’t miss, and down went the Merrimac to a hero’s watery grave. The eight men, two of them wounded, went down, too—and came right back up again. Rescued by Spanish Admiral. Their lifeboat had been shattered, so they swam to the catamaran, hanging on with only their heads above water so^hey were less likely to be spotted. But they were, after an hour and a half in the cold water, found by a launch containing no less a person than Admiral Cervera of the Spanish fleet. They were treated gently. Cervera himself helped Hobson aboard. The latter and his men were given hot coffee and dry clothes. Hobson •was even then melodramatic in speech. “Oh, God,” he exclaimed, perhaps twirling his mustachios which curled romantically two inches from either side of his lip, “has life ever gone through such a fire and never a man lost!” The Spaniards, hearing that not a man was lost, and having rescued only eight, were dumfounded and were doubly dumbfounded when Hobson told them that he had been trying harder than they had to sink the Merrimac. Hobson and his men became heroes, even to the Spaniards, and were treated with every courtesy, although they were imprisoned in Morro Castle. When Cervera visited him in his cell, decked out in an admiral’s full dress splendor, Hobson struck an attitude and declared, “All chivalry is not yet dead!” After a few weeks Hobson and all of his men were traded back to the American navy for the release of an equal number of Spanish prisoners. Their welcome was one which be fitted them as heroes, and from that moment until his death, Rich mond Pearson Hobson was to bask in the reflected glory of his adven ture with the Merrimac. His seven aides were soon given the congres sional medal of honor, but Hobson, being an officer, could not receive UNCOMMON AMERICANS By Elmo Scott Watson • WMtera Ntwtpapev Union From Perfectly Cut Patterns Hobson as a Young Officer. it. He was finally presented with it by President Franklin D. Roose velt in 1933. Arriving back in New York, Hob son was mobbed by hero-worship ers. Wherever he went, they sang after him: “Mr. Hobson, Mr. Hobson, You’re a dandy, you’re a peach, And the brightest blooming pebble That is shining on the beach.” One woman threw her arms about him and kissed him. This started a craze which greeted him wher ever he went, for he was a hand some devil and a hero. One news paper reported that in Kansas City alone 417 women kissed him at the railroad station. At Topeka it was reported that at least 200 women kissed him, indicating that perhaps the prairies are not so dry, after all. He didn’t object much. Hobson Becomes Reformer. But women soon began forgetting to kiss him, and the newspapers began to forget he existed. After rising rapidly in the ranks of the navy, his eyes went bad while he was serving in China. He applied for retirement on a pension, but did not get it, so resigned from the service. Here began the second phase of his life. He became a crusader in earnest, first to make America mis tress of the seas by getting congress to appropriate funds for a navy equal to the combined total of all the other navies in the world. He used as his principal excusg the charge that Japan was preparing to attack us, and was one of the first to bring up the Japanese war scare, trying to get both political parties to acknowledge it in their platforms in 1912. He was exquisitely vague in the evidence he presented, and prone to exaggeration as he was in later campaigns against the demon rum and the drug evil. He made over 1,000 speeches in behalf of his naval building program. He was continually worrying con gress for legislation prohibiting the sale of alcohol, and as a representa tive from Alabama, he was the first to introduce a prohibition amendment into congress. He soon became the most prominent figure in the pro hibition drive. He told congress, “1 cannot look upon the saloon other wise than as an assassin” and “the result of all averages and estimates known showed it (alcohol) to be the greatest single cause of death.” Congress Turns Him Down. Once the prohibition amendment was passed, Admiral Hobson took up “dope”—that is, he took up the fight against the drug evil. He as serted that there were a million addicts, many of them children. He tried to have congress print and dis tribute 50,000,000 copies of a pam phlet warning children of the unut terable tortures that might await them if ever they took the invita tion of a stranger to “eat, drink or sniff” anything. A federal expert, called in, testified that there were at the very most, 150,000 addicts in the country. Practically none of them children. He testified: “I think the direct effect of the article would be to create a certain number of cases of severe neurosis aijd insanity and* a certain number of cases of addiction by reason of the psychopath will want this new sensation . . . Some of the state ments about the number of addicts are simply absurd; the opium does not exist to supply them.” Congress refused to print the pam phlet. But Admiral Hobson continued his crusading, and at the time of his death from a heart attack on March 16, 1937, at the age of sixty-six, he was still starting associations to prohibit something or other, or to secure some sort of legislation. Among them were the International Narcotic Education association, the World Conference on Narcotic Edu cation, the World Narcotic Defense association, the Public Welfare as sociation (and Americanism Clear ing House), and if that one doesn’t stop you, the Constitutional Democ> racy association. • Western Newspaper Union. Christmas Flower \I7HEN you buy one of those ▼ ▼ scarlet-petaled flowers called the. poinsettia to add to the festive appearance of your home at Christ mas time, you are helping perpetu ate the fame of an American who little realized that his name would become associated with one of the symbols of the Yuletide. For Joel R. Poinsett had so many other claims to distinction that it seems curious he is best remembered be cause a flower bears his name! Born in South Carolina in 1779, he studied both medicine and military science abroad but his father in duced him to abandon his intention of entering the army and to be come a student of law. Poor 1 ealth forced him to give that up and he asked President Madison for a com mission in the army. He was about tc be appointed quartermaster-gen eral when the secretary of war ob; jected. Instead he was sent on a dip lomatic mission to South America where he mixed in the politics of Chile, and fomented revolution un til he became known as “the scourge of the American continent” and was recalled. Next he was sent to Mexico. Always interested in botany, he brought back from that country the flower which was given the scientific name of “Poinsettia Pulcherina.” Just as he had been a stormy pethel in international politics, so he was a disturbing element in the politics of his native land. During the Nullification controversy in South Carolina he organized and led the Unionist forces. By doing that he won the esteem of the nation al government and President Van Buren made him secretary of war. Poinsett improved and enlarged the army, organized a general staff, built up the artillery, directed the Seminole war and managed the re moval of some 40,000 Indians to In dian Territory. In the midst of this activity his scientific interests were not neglected. He experimented with scientific agriculture, sent out the Wilkes expedition into the Ant arctic and was largely instrumental in founding the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts which later was merged with the Smithsonian Insti tution. His busy career came to an end in 1851 while he was living in retirement as a plantation owner' in his native state. 1122 • ( Brooklyn Bridge Jumper D ACK in the eighties the Brooklyn bridge was one of the wonders of the modem world. Its dedication on May 24, 1883 was an event of nation-wide interest but three years later it was even more in the news because of a man with whose name that great span has bee{xJihked in popular memory ever since. He was Steve Brodie, bootblack, street car conductor, sailor and worker around the docks who be came a professional walker as a means of earning some easy money. But he was never better than a sec ond-rater and none of his walking matches ever benefited him great ly. In the summer of 1886 he was nearly “broke.” One day in July he heard tome of his friends talking about the lat est casualty among the men who had tried for fame and fortune by diving from the Brooklyn bridge to the river, 135 feet below. Seven of them had tried it and all of them had been killed. “Huh, I bet you I could do it and not be killed,” boasted Brodie. “Bet you $100 you can’t!” replied a friend. “You’re on!” was Brodie’s answer. But he was evidently none too confident that he could make good on his boast for he took out a life insurance policy for $1,000 as a protection for his wife, just in case • • • On July 23, 1886 Brodie jumped off the bridge and came up without a scratch. Officials of the life in surance company were furious be cause he had risked $1,000 of their money to win $100. They returned his premium and .cancelled his poli cy—which was foolish, for he lived to a ripe old age! His successful jump was widely publicized. It won him an engage ment in a melodrama called “Blackmail” in which he had to dive off a great height into a net- a feat which, he declared, was even more dangerous than his jump from the bridge—and his performance in this (at $100 a week) made “Bro die, the Brooklyn Bridge-Jumper’ famous all over the country. His achievement encouraged imitators and during the next few years no less than 11 others tackled the na tion’s most spectacular high dive. Although the first seven had per ished in their attempts, Brodie seemed to have broken the- jinx, for every one of the II survived. By that time the novelty of sueh a feat had somewhat worn off. But Brodie’s fame as the first to make a successful jump was secure. Moreover, he contributed another picturesque phrase to the Ameri can language, for “doing a Brodie” is still a synonym for a spectacular jump or plunge from a haight I ’M GLAD I’m not on the serv- * ing committee this week,” muses Mrs. Smith of Walnut street, as she takes stock of her self in the mirror preparatory to leaving for the church supper. “I look entirely too swell for me— why, I’m almost excited! I al ways knew surplice waists were becoming, but how becoming I never knew till now. That little deceptiveness is just what I need, and these sleeves are the most comfortable things! If about half oui circle wore dresses like this it would be better for all con cerned; so many of us have out grown the tailored streamlined styles. Now, Mrs. White for in stance—” Enter an Admirer. “Why Mother, you look de-love- ly in that shade of blue! And you look real stylish, too—you ought to be going to a Coronation.” ‘Oh, I’d much prefer the church supper, dear. I’ll be a somebody there in my new dress but at a Coronation I would be little po tatoes. By the way, what did they say about your new jumper at school?” ‘Mother, I meant to tell you. Mary Jane and Betty are both go ing to coax their mothers to make one just like it. I said maybe you would loan them the pattern, would you?” ‘Why of course. Did you tell them it took me only two after noons to make yours including two blouses?” Enter “The Dnchess.” 'Sis, you’re pretty young to be talking about clothes so intelli gently. When you get n figure that clothes really count on— ahem, like Yours Truly’s for in stance; then it might be different —oh Mother, how nice! I’m crazy about it. Gee, such smart lines! Remember, you promised to help me with a new party frock next week if I did well with this shirt- waister. I wish all dresses were as easy to sew and as swell to wear as it is.” “Perfectly cut patterns spell success for any frock, Kay; your party dress is as good as made right now. • But I must be on my way or I’ll be more than fashion ably late for the affair. Bye, byo —be good girls and see that Dad dy gets something to eat.” The Patterns. Pattern 1268 is for sizes 36 to 52. Size 38 requires 5Vt yards of 39 inch material. Pattern 1966 is for sizes 6 to 14 years. Size 8 retires IV4 yards of 39 inch material for the jumper ana 1ft yards for the blouse. Armscye and neck edges of jump er require 2ft yards of 1ft inch bias facing. Pattern 1226 is for sizes 14 to 20 (32 to 42 bust). Size 16 ro- qpires 3ft yards of 35 inch ma terial. Send for the Barbara Bell Spring and Summer Pattern Book. Make yourself attractive, practical and becoming clothes, selecting designs from the Bar bara Bell well-planned easy-to- make patterns. Interesting and exclusive fashions for little chil dren and the difficult junior age; slenderising, well-cut patterns for the mature figure; afternoon dresses for the most particular young women and matrons and other patterns for special occa sions are all to be found in the Barbara Bell Pattern Book. Send 15 cents (in coins) today for your copy. Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept. Room 1020, 211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, HL Patterns 15 cents (in coins) each. C Bell Syndlcstt.—WNU Servic*. The Nationally Known ASPIRIN at the Nationally hpular lOprico St.Joseph GENUINE PURE ASPIRIN PLEASE ACEEPF yf THIS ^ ^1.00 GAME CARVING SET 1 for only 25c with your purchase of one can of B. 7*. Babbitt's Nationally Known Brands of Lye » This is the Carving Set you need for steaks and game. Deerhorn de sign handle fits the hand perfectly. Knife blade and fork tines made of fine stainless steel. Now offered for only 25c to induce you to try the brands of lye shown at right. Use them for sterilizing milking machines and dairy equipment. Contents of one can dissolved in 17 gallons of water makes an effective, inexpensive sterilizing Solution. Buy today a can of any of the lye brands shown at right Then send the can band, with your name and EAR OUT TH address and 25c to B. T. Babbitt. Inc., Dept VtJLf 386 4th Ave^ New York City. Your Canring Set will reach you promptly, postage gud. Send today while the supply orris oood with any labia •MOWN BILOW