Show written in powder marks every now and then I 1 see an old man walking down pennsylvania avenue with his head bent in thought paying little attention to the people he passes but stopping now and then to look into a store window or to look at the portraits ii splayed in front of the photograph galleries which abound on that street at birst glance there is nothing particularly striking in his appearance he is slender and not above medium height and dresses in clothes of a sort of brownish gray color A sandy ariy beard hangs in a point over his shirt front and he always wears a derby hat but if he turns his face full toward you your attention is at once attracted by a mass of blue spots thickly peppering his cheeks eyelids and forehead which indicate that he has literally smelt powder smelt it in close quarters big grains of the deadly explosive have been driven deep into his flesh it was a bursting shell from the nun merrimac that so marked him for life and the mouth of tho gun was not far from his face for they fought in close quarters probably not one person out of a thousand who pass him on the avenue knows who he is he is almost lost to sight and perhaps little thought of but he is among the very last of the great commanders of the war who still linger he is admiral worden who commanded the monitor defeating the mer grimau which threatened the destruction of the united states fleet at hampton roads the shot that scarred him was fired fairly against the peephole in the turret of the monitor at which he had his eye watching the course of the vessel he lives very quietly here in a fine house on K street it is difficult to get him to say anything about himself or about the battle in which he won distinction he eschews all articles of dress which would indicate his profession washington letter |