May 1st should be found out in any American theater he would
be taken on the stage by an irresistible call and a muscular committee
of enthusiasts, and the play could not go on without "a few words"
and the "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle,"
"Dixey" and "My Country, 'tis of Thee"; that the hallelujah note
would be struck; that cars are chalked "for Deweyville"; that the
board fences have his name written, or painted, or whittled on them;
that there are Dewey cigars; that blacksmith-shops have the name
Dewey scratched on them, also barn doors; and that if there are two
dwelling-houses and a stable at a cross-roads it is Deweyville,
or Deweyburg or Deweytown; that there is a flood of boy babies
named Dewey, that the girls sing of him, and the ladies all admire
him and the widows love him, and the school children adore him. The
Admiral says: "I hear such things, and altogether they amaze me--the
newspapers, the telegrams, the letters become almost unreal, for I
do not comprehend what they say of my first day's work here. There
was not a man in the fleet who did not do his duty."

The Admiral is told that he need not think to stay away until the
people who have him on their minds and in their hearts are tired of
their enthusiasm; that he cannot go home undiscovered and without
demonstrations that will shake the earth and rend the skies; that
the boys will drag the horses from his carriage, and parade the
streets with him as a prisoner, and have it out with him, giving
him a good time, until it will be a hard time, and he might as well
submit to manifest destiny! His country wanted another hero, and he
was at the right place at the right time, and did the right thing
in the right way; and the fact answers all questions accounting for
everything. Still he has a notion of staying away until the storm is
over and he can get along without being a spectacle. Why, even the
ladies of Washington are wild about him. If he should appear at the
White House to call on the President, the scene would be like that
when Grant first met Abraham Lincoln.

One rough day on the bay I took passage in a small steam-launch
to visit the Olympia, where the Admiral's flag floated, to call on
him. There was plenty of steam, and it was pleasant to get out a good
way behind the breakwater, for the waves beyond were white with anger,
and the boat, when departing from partial shelter, had proceeded
but two or three hundred yards w