The World's Greatest Naval Training —T H R Station HICAGO
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The World's Greatest Naval Training —T h r Station HICAGO. e e thousand embryo BY Howard S.Colter Jackies daily ma- neuvering on the c_ lake front on the far north shore. Half a hundred officers, commissioned and non - commissioned, engaged in trans- forming raw recruits into full-fledged sail- or men. Half a dozen trim gunboats and practice vessels stationed in the vi- cinity of the good- sized city that Uncle Sam has been silently engaged in building in the last five years. That is what another year will bring forth up at Lake Bluff, when the greatest naval training station in the world will be opened and ready for business, if all continues to go well. It will be completed July 1, 1910, total and \JT outla y UP to that time willY*)proximate $3,500,000. Of this 42.600.000 is the cost of 39 buildings. $250,000 the cost of 182 acres of PPACT/CF^,TOPPFDCPSm CADET'S Jefferson wrote, but which underwent many changes before meeting with the final approval of the delegates to the continental congress, not an Inde- pendence day hus been permitted to pnss without a proper celebration in the public square back of Independ- ence hall. >» — Pros * navy, nsna well asan Presidents of the United States, senators, representa- the first vessel of tives, Justices of the highest courts, and even foreign am- its kind to be bassadors. have poured forth their eloquence at liberty's used on the great cradle. The municipal authorities of the city of Philadel- tiOWTtiE lukes. will also phia are careful to see to it that some distinguished mnn probably be seen is always on hand ns orator of the day. ground, $500,000 the cost of equipment and furnishings, and more frequently The pomp of military circumstances has sometimes $250,000 the maintenance cost during the course of construc- in the vicinity of been called upon to lend prestige to the occasion, and the tion. Chicago than for- best musicians in the land have been proud to play patri- The first legislation for the station was passed by con- merly. But just otic airs in the shadow of the steeple where hung the gress in 1902, authorizing the appointment of a board to secure what the plans of bell that rang out independence. a site on the great lakes. Lake Bluff was selected, and then the navy depart- The first reading of the declaration was that by to jyt2,4 the work was begun. Included in cost o/ buildings are ment are for the Charles Thomson, the secretary of congress, when he an- Blf* of road at $50,000, five miles of walks $30,000. sea equipment of the nounced the completed paper to the men who had framed wijufand harbor $130,000, and walls and fences totaling $40,000. station with prac- it. Thomson did not, however, read the declaration from The total cubic contents of the buildings will be 12,000 000 tice vessels are a the balcony of Independence hall to the people crowded feet. secret at present, outside to hear for the first time in what terms the colo- The approximate cost of the buildings follows: and it is unlikely nists should tell King George that his control of the thir- Administration building, $200,000; instruction building, $400,- plans teen was at an 000; that their colonies end. drill hall, $200,000; four dormitories, $500,000; mess hall will be made That privilege was reserved for John Nixon, a promi- 1130,000; power house. $115,000; guard house, $20,000; some of the committee of safety. In honor of the ing building. receiv- known for nent member $26,000; six receiving dormitories and one receiv- time to come. occasion delegates to the congress filed out in the July ing gallery, $200,000; general store, $70,000; boat house, $60,000- It was the work sunshine to listen to the sacred words. btables, $25,000; brig (prison), $25,000; commandant’s house. of the Illinois na- Nixon has been described as a master elocutionist with $30,000; ten houses, officers' $133,000; five hospital buildings, a voice so clear aud distinct that it was heard clear to including medical val militia dur- officers' houses. $313,000. Fifth street, one square distant. He took Since the United States took its place in the ranks his place on the balcony, which was then of the powers following the Spanish-American A TRAIN/HQ CRAFT world war the favorite rostrum of the day. Crowds the navy has been growing at a rapid rate. comple- The ravine runs a boisterous stream of water, which is had assembled to hear him, gathered by tion of each battleship meant the employment at least of pretty well swoflen inthe spring of the year, but which is the ringing of the liberty bell. It was a 600 additional seamen, occasionally It was necessary and nearly dry during the summer. celebration, the to resort to strong measures to get memorable and first in sufficient recruits. At the bottom of the ravine one would have a hard The heads of the navy department took problem the history of the nation. the in time to imagine himself in the center of so large a gov- hand, and, recognizing great-lake in years after, Forrest, that the district had ernment following the Later, long Edwin past a large institution. But it toward lake, the furnished number of seamen to the navy, you are brought to the point where the ship the most noted of American actors, it was to a vast at basin decided establish naval station the begins. A sort of landlocked harbor has been dug out, whose love for patriotism and the insti- most favorable be site that could obtained. Accordingly, in which several good-sized gunboats could be sheltered his country was deeper even after a dozen sites had been submitted and examined, the tutions of in safety during the worst storms on the lake. A large and for the stage, stood on Lake BlufT site was selected as the most centrally than his regard located well-equipped boathouse has been built at point possessing more the the same spot, and on a Fourth of July and as natural advantages than any the basin connects with Lake Michigan, other. whers and morning read the words of Jefferson as there are abundant facilities for housing the of cutters them before or since. The site of the new institution is about an hour and and other craft which will be used by the embryo no man has read a hairs ride by railroad train from the center of this city sailors in their practice maneuvers. A great crowd was present, perhaps the the actor and a little more by electric line. The ride is through An artistic bridge has been constructed across the # largest ever assembled, and the aristocratic suburbs of Evanston, Lake Forest, High- ravine about 50 feet above the stream- of water, during and after the reading was cheered Park, which land Wilmette and Winnetka. The station is lo- connects with a road running directly into the center again and again. cated about a mile and a half beyond the station of Lake of the reservation. The high bluffs on each side of the on DECK After the evacuation congress re- Bluff and is marked by a trim little depot of the electric basin give a stately effect to the general view of the July 2, 1776, a grand celebration line. You are first apprised of the fact that Uncle Sam reservation from the lake. At the top of the highest ing the Spanish-American war that first called attention turned from New York of the declaration is engaged upon some project from the signs which plenti- bluff, overlooking the lake and commanding the widest to the possibilities of the middle west as a recruiting sta- of the recurrence of the promulgation population fully adorn the boundaries of the reservation warning the view of the entire surrounding country, is the administra- tion for sailors. The naval militia of the several states was held, in which nearly the entire of Phila- passerby that he is in the vicinity of government prop- tion building, a handsome structure of pressed was assigned to the vessels of the navy and the many delphia Joined. Chevalier Conrad Alexandre Gerard of built brick. States erty, and that he should keep off. In the center is a high tower at auxiliary that the emergencies of the war called France, the first minister accredited to the United with windows various cruisers spectator. The larger buildings of the station are so completely stages. At one side of the administration building are into service, and acquitted themselves like veterans. from any power, was an interested hidden by trees that the general public passing by on the three smaller buildings, which will probably be used for Many of them showed ability that afterward enabled Chief Justice John Marshall spoke in the state house trains on the way to Milwaukee or Waukegan would have officers’ or instructors' dwellings. them to obtain commissions in the navy that were then yard at one of the celebrations in the early part of bis no Idea of the extent of the institution were it not for the The main instruction buildings, lecture halls and open to enlisted men. tenure of office, and later Daniel Webster delivered a tower of the administration building, which rears itself dormitories for the regular members of the institution The sudden impetus which the war gave the navy notable address there.