18

Other historical features are the Court House, containing valuable records of the Colony, and Pilgrim Hall, a museum of interesting relics.

Lexington and Concord claim their portion of attention. Electric cars from Boston traverse the route followed by the Colonial troops on the morning of April 19, 1775. Every part of Lexington is of historic interest. The Soldiers' Monument, on the Common, was erected in 1799. Near it is a large boulder, marking the line of the Minutemen. Many of the houses which were in the town at the time of the battle are still standing. Among them are the Munroe Tavern, headquarters of Earl

Percy; the old Clark House, where Adams and Hancock were awakened by Paul Revere on that memorable spring morning; Buckman Tavern, the rallying place of the Minutemen the night before the battle, and which bears the marks of British bullets. Just beyond Lexington is Concord. The old North Bridge was the scene of the Concord fight. On one side are the graves of the slain British, on the other a large statue of the Minutemen with the familiar inscription:

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

A

S "Bob" Evans is to the

men of his fleet, so is

66

Bob" Burdette, the beloved Pastor-Emeritus of the American Press Humorists to every soul that has passed under the Sunny rays of his helpful fellowship. Lucky Los Angeles to have him there for such an occasion as the welcoming of the fleet! Lucky fleet to have the privilege of basking in his happy and wholesome humor!

What he said is thus chronicled in the Los Angeles Times:

66

In replying to the toast, "Our Guests," Rev. Robert J. Burdette said: "Our Guests!" and ours till death us do part." Like a good conundrum, you have kept us guessing a long time, but having been guest, we have never given you up. Under the Oaks of Mamre, when the world was young and wicked, Abraham entertained angels unawares. Now that the world has grown old and good, as is the manner of some people who become religious when they are too old and tired and weak to be bad any longer, a whole "City of Angels'' gladly, joyously, ha-hala-riously entertains sixteen shiploads of fighting men whose business and pleasure it is to make angels of the people who dislike us and show it too plainly. Of all the wondrous, mighty, glorious spectacles that ever drifted over the seas to our coasts, we never saw such a fleet before. You, our guests, meet us with equal wonder and admiration, for in all your Ulysses-like wanderings over many seas you never saw such a town before. We admit it. So far you have sailed along the California coast, and thus far you have not seen a fort; you. have not seen a shore battery. We do not need them in Southern California. We do not want any fortifications. We do not try to keep people out. We strive to draw them in. Once in, they are ours. Come they in peace or in war, they lie down with the bear, and are gently, sweetly, wholesomely assimilated. They become Californians. Whether the invader comes in red war paint or perfumed freckle-and-sunburn lotion, in private car or tourist sleeper,

we do not say as he disappears, "one Bostonian less; we say, one hundred and seventy pounds more bear.". And then we turn the bear's open countenance toward the next incoming train, or fleet, and set him again."'

(Loud laughter and applause.)

Thus we grow, nourished alike by foe and friend. Everything is fish that comes in our net in Lent; whether it wear scales, wool, bristles or feathers. When the first great labor disunion struck work on the Tower of Babel, because they couldn't agree on a dictionary, all the delegates came to California. And we have been speaking harmoniously all the tongues of all the world ever since. That's why sometimes our enemies accuse us of talking too much. But we have so much to talk about. We had just fairly begun discussing a plan for establishing a liquor zone with restricted and unlimited boundaries, so arranged that a prohibitionist couldn't find it and a whiskey man couldn't miss it, when you came along. And we shoved the jug under the bed, behind the saddle, till we learned your habits. That's why we put the price of sherry up to $50 a pint for this banquet. For we said, "If a man doesn't drink, a teaspoonful will be enough to souse him. And if he is liable to drink too much, he can't afford it. And if he has already had too much, when we tell him the price it will sober him before the shock can kill him."

(Laughter.)

66

"Bob,"

As the admiral remarked to mehe says, the simple fact is you've had vocal target practice. Talk is cheap where climate's free," says he.

Beloved and honored guests of ours, you will never know, for we can never tell you, with all our rich and varied California vocabulary-and we've spilled a great deal of the English language over you tonighthow welcome you are. We of California know a good ship when we see it. We are all salts ourselves. We have whole deserts of salt in our most productive territory. We use it in the mining business. We may be new but we are not fresh.

20

Oh, the seas, how they roar, how they roar.
Breezy promoters, how they blow;

We, we jolly sailor boys, are working on the tourist, And the landlubbers lying down below, below, below

With the landlubbers lying down below.

Three times to sea went our jolly, jolly ship-
Three times out went she,

And a stout little tug towed her back into the slip, with a hot box, melted journal, jammed screw, broken shaft, slipped eccentric, collapsed flue, broken shaft, choked mud valve, cylinder heads blown out, governor thrown off, safety valve clogged, rudder unshipped,

And her bob-stay hanging where her spanker ought to be,

Back aft, where her spanker ought to be.

(Laughter.)

We built a ship on this Coast, one time, and she made her trial trip with guns and men aboard. Like Job's warhouse the Oregon "smelled the battle afar off," and the white foam gleamed about her bows as she reeled the coast lines off like a trailing log line through the thousands of miles of blue water, going "to meet the armed men," and lo, when the battle broke at the appointed time, lo, amid "the thunder of the captains and the shouting," the Oregon roared "among the trumpets, ha, ha!" How the world shouted its applause at her wonderful run. Other ships, under other flags, had run nearly that far and nearly that fast to get out of the fight, but the Oregon carried full steam ahead to get into the fight. And while men admired the sailor men

said, "Any ship in the fleet could do it." And when men doubted the great Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy said, "We'll just show you foreign-born Missourians," and lo, here you are -"sixteen ships on the old ship's log, yo, ho-ho, and a bottle of milk'-all the multiplied leagues on a schedule timed by chronometers, and Theodore Roosevelt is justified in his boast. (Applause.)

The President knew his ships, and he knew his admirals, and his captains, and all of his sailor men. I have heard a naval maxim, "The speed of the squadron is the speed of the slowest ship." We face the world now, shouting, What the best of our ships can do well the poorest can do better." I don't know where the armor belt of a battleship should be I can't draw pictures whether it should be high as upper C or down to G below; but I believe this that the ship that tries to find out, at any range, will never learn. We have lowered every flag that ever fluttered a battle signal at us on the seas, when the only armor belt on our ships was a sailor's shirt, and that was open at the breast! Welcome, you! Welcome to the landsmen as was the sea, with the sun kissing its