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

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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. are in with all from the lake front. The hills and intervening trees of close proximity to the administration building. made it necessary to increase the enlistments During centennial in Philadelphia there was nat- possible opened many the the neighborhood almost completely screen the large The larger of these have been completed and are prac- rapidity, and stations were at dif- urally a demonstration, and no less a person than tically ready points country. was notable buildings from view. for occupancy. It would be possible for the ferent in the It found that the Dom Pedro, emperor of Brazil, sat among those who to opened fall, young men of the middle west responded greater Extending from the fence which separates the main institution be this so great has the prog- with cheered the sentiments that had sounded the downfall ress been upon it, alacrity to the call of recruiting officer than from the main thoroughfare are . made but it is likely that the formal the did of monarchy in country, finally to enclosure the smaller opening Chicago naval this and were take his buildings applicants for will not take place until July 1, 1910, when Rear those of the east. At the present, time the throne from the of Brazil. brick in which will be housed the recruiting in size in point of the num- ruler to pending the when their Admiral Albert E. Ross, who has been in charge the office is the second admission the station time of years representative a foreign construction since its inception, says it will completed. ber of enlistments in the country. In later another of qualifications and general health are examined into. be was figure Independence square. It is planned to care for between 2,000 and 3,000 The Chicago recruiting office averages about 20 en- country the central at There are some half a dozen neat two-storied brick cent, Wu Ting-fang, minister, spoke with tine recruits for the navy at the new training station, and listments a week, this being about 20 per of the Chinese there buildings, admirably lighted and finished, in which the applications. eloquence, made one the speeches many more than this number could be taken care of in The requirements for enlistment are ex- and of best credited recruit will be housed as comfortably as at any average to him his many utterances this country. an emergency. Several thousand well-drilled sailors can ceptionally rigid, and a large number of those who apply in felicitous in Chicago hotel. They extend in a row toward the lake physician, being rejected be turned out each year, and the result will be a greatly never reach the examining as The anomaly that he was the envoy of one of the front, where the larger buildings are located, in which unfit Bight. However, those who are increased efficiency among the rank and file composing at accepted are most absolute of monarchies did not prevent the celestial the regularly admitted members of the will be housed the United States navy. sure of a thorough training and a living which is theirs painting most graphic phrase long from In what the venerable institution. Bids were recently opened in Washington for new as as they live up to the requirements of the naval building stood for. The structure which one approaches at the main on regulations, while the chances for advancement are first work the Naval institute which will aggregate half a con- During his first administration, Grover Cleveland, entrance grounds is the general office building, million siderable more than they have been in years gone by. of the dollars. James Corse of Racine was awarded the president of the United States, came to Philadelphia one occupied by the government inspectors, con- for the which is contract construction of the officers' houses, which Fourth of July, and standing on a platform raised in the and engineers in charge of the work. This is a a $30,000 tractors include commandant's house for and six Junior Independence Day is Near square, appealed to the young manhood of America that compact two-story structure and is situated in proximity houses at $78,000. officers’ the great lessons of 1776 be not Ignored. trolley line, which was built into the to the electric The principal work of the coming year, Good fortune and solicitous care combined have pre- transportation of the however, will Judge Kelley, Grant, grounds to facilitate the construc- be on the medica? department buildings, served to Americans the most sacred building in the Samuel J. Randall. Gent. Lewis which will in- Cassidy, have also figured prominently In Fourth of July tion materials. volve an expenditure of $313,000, and will be the finest of United States, Independence hall. 2,000 men were celebrations there. All last summer and fall more than their kind in the west. They include a hospital which It is possible to hold Fourth of July celebrations in station, as it desig- engaged upon the great-lakes naval is will cost $234,000; senior medical officers' house, $24,000; the the very structure saw During the administration of Mayor Warwick, him- reports secretary the navy. shadow of which the birth nated in the official of the of Junior medical officers’ houses, $38,000, and hospital iaun- and signing of the declaration of independence, the most self an orator of genuine gifts, every year was made the The result of their efforts is seen in the practical dry, $17,000. The Noel Construction Company of Balti- potent doctrine for freedom in the history of the world. occasion of notable demonstrations, to which were in- which is more was awarded Important men of fame. completion of the 24 buildings of the station this last contract. The nution has not ignored the chance. vited national spring see the now composed, and this and summer will Before the station is completed the gunboat Nashville There are many patriotic Americans who make it a most large structures. One of the commendable features about all completion of several more will have arrived in Chicago, which will be utilized as o duty on July 4 journey to Philadelphia, a pilgrimage prominence given inspectors' training by to these affairs has been the *o children. Proceeding toward the lake from the vessel the Illinois naval militia. Great prep- to the shrine of liberty, there to raise their voices in In fact, they might almost Children's-day on are being >9 called offices one gradually descends a deep ravine bordered arations made for the reception of the Nash- thanks and rejoicing for the great deed that was there events. It has been the wise thought of the men in exceedingly ville, likely each side by large trees. Nature has been but it is that the vessel may be used in con- accomplished. charge that no better use could be made of new the nation'a generous to the neighborhood about Lake Bluff, and it is nection with the station when it Is completed. Siqce that day, now distant 130 years, when Charles natal day than by impressing on the younger mind the anywhere ancient doubtful if a more picturesque region about The man-of-war Wolverine, formerly the Thomson, rising in his chair, read for the first time the great truths that had their bs*£ development with Ind* Chicago could have been chosen. At the bottom of the Michigan, the oldest iron vessel In the United States final (fraft of that momentous document which Thomas pendence ball.