In the first place the Brazilian hymn is so long that when you are playing it as a Brazilian warship passes the Brazilian gets out of hearing and almost out of sight before you finish. After a few struggles with the music the orders were given on some ships to shorten up if the other ship was out of hearing and save the wind of the players. Then too it is queer music. It goes hippety hop—it seems a combination of waltz and march, of anthem and jig. It may be music, but the writer of this is frank to say that the Japanese national hymn, with its weird swoops and dives, curls and twists, seems like a gliding Strauss waltz compared with the Brazilian hymn. One of the bandmasters on the fleet complained that his men could not play it properly.
"Musish no-a good," he said. "No Italian musish players. All come from Kalamazoo, bah!"
The Brazilians had hard struggles with the names of our warships. Minnesota, Louisiana and such were all right, but Connecticut staggered them. They made almost as bad as a mess of it as when they pronounced the name of the High Life Club here or the Light and Power Company. The Brazilian name for the High Life Club is Higgie Leaffie Cloob. That of the Light and Power concern is Liggety Poor Companee. Let it go at that. The reader must imagine how they pronounced Connecticut, for it can't be put down on paper.
The departure of the fleet bids fair to be even more spectacular than the one at Hampton Roads, only the powder and smoke, and the blare of the bands and all the rest of the show will be in honor of another President than our own. When the last gun has boomed it will mean not only good-by to President Penna and Brazil, but it will be the blackthroated response of 14,000 American sailors to Rio. The guns will declare Rio to be not only the City of All Delights but the City of All Hospitality.
[CHAPTER VI]
NATIONAL SALUTES AT SEA
Unique Meeting of United States and Argentine Ships 300 Miles From Land—Grand Naval Spectacle—High Honors for Admiral Evans and Cordial Greetings for All His Men—Fine Display of Seamanship on South American Vessels—Picturesque Incidents of the Voyage From Rio to the Most Southern City in the World—Nature Put on Mourning as the Farewells Were Said and Signalled at Brazil's Capital—The Man-o'-War Mail From Home.
On Board U.S.S. Louisiana, U. S. Battle Fleet,
Punta Arenas, Chile, Jan. 31.