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Show Old Masters Farragut Do C. C. G. WHEN the roll of the great names of our country is called, close up to the highest, in the front rank, the name of Admiral Farra-gut Farra-gut will always be conspicuous. No matter what heroes and patriots are yet to be, not one will dim the fame of Farragut. For more than a thousand years Great Bri tain has possessed a navy. The list of those who, in storm and battle, have maintained the honor of England on the sea is a long and brilliant bril-liant one. It is with reverance that Englishmen repeat their names and rehearse the story of their deeds. But all the rest are but subordinates subordi-nates in the minds of Englishmen when the name of Horatio Nelson is called. He is the only one who fills perfectly their thought, as an incarnation incarna-tion of old Neptune himself; whose trident called down the thunder, directed the hurricane and ruled haughtily the great deep. "Wjliat Nelson is to England, Farragut is to our country, though outside of handling a fleet in battle Farragut had a far higher soul than Nelson. Farragut was born far in the interior, in Tennessee, Ten-nessee, but he early sought the ocean, and his home was upon it for nearly forty years. The ruling thought in his mind seemed to be that there was no other land that at all compared com-pared with native land and that in its defense, or in defense of its honor, the call included all that a man could give 'life, fortune everything. every-thing. He was but a boy of twelve, with Porter when at Valparaiso, that fighter, in his little "Essex," made his uneven battle with two British frigates, and he there caught upon the idea that a heroic fight would not be forgotten, even if brave men fought in vain and brave ships were sunk. He was in the fleet that took General Scott's army to Vera Oruz in the Mexican war, and chafed exceedingly because he was not permitted to try to take the castle of De Ulllou. He sailed every ocean, he knew all people and was an Insatiable reader, hence knew the history 'O of all times and how the different peoples had maintained themselves and why so many nations were but wrecks on the bleak shores of time. iHe founded the naval station of Mare island in San Francisco bay, and was commander when the vigilance committee in 1856 took possession i of San Francisco. He was the ranking naval of-fleer of-fleer on the coast and ordered the little sloop of war "St. Mary's" that was moored at the island to drop down and anchor in front of the city, and as affairs began to look dangerous he went in person in the ship. There he was waited upon by a committee of the vigilantes who did not approve of, the presence pres-ence of the ship so near the city. He received the committee with perfect naval courtesy, patiently pa-tiently listened to their statement of the situation situa-tion which closed wih a request, that the ship should be returned to Mare island. Then he gently reminded his listeners that he was but a servant of the government, entrusted entrust-ed with certain responsibilities which he could not evade, even if .he desired to, and ended by expressing the hope that in a few days events would so shape themselves that no trouble would lollow. At this one of the committee made a flippant and half defiant reply. Something in what he said or in his tone aroused Farragut upon which he sprung to his feet and for fifteen minutes he explained to the men the duties of an officer, and '.fa citizei under the benign ! ws of our country coun-try with such an eloquence of invective as that committee had never listened to before, and when they left the ship they every one had new ideas of the duties of citizenship. If any of that committee lived long enough to read the story of how Farragut passed the forts in the lower Mississippi, and sailed up beyond be-yond Fort Hudson and Vicksburg, or of how he fought liis way up into the upper bay of Mobile, Mo-bile, they were not surprised at the result. The fighting in the lower Mississippi had directed di-rected the eyes of the world to Farragut. In the northern states his name was always spoken with those of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas, and the other who, amid the smoke of battle, had shone out as the nation's defenders, and when Farragut's fleet approached Mobile, all eyes were directed there. There never had been such a fight as that at Mobile. More lives were lost at Salamis, more at Actlum, vastly more at Lepanto, but most of the fighting In all those battles was hand to hand and the ships engaged depended upon sails and oars, mostly the latter for maneuvering. At the battle of the Nile and Trafalgar, only sail ships were used and the guns were the crude affairs of a hundred years ago. But at Mobile, steam was the moving power and modern cannon, solid shot, shells and torpedoes tor-pedoes were the instruments. There was nothing remarkable in the plan of attack except the care to provide against all contingencies and the audacity au-dacity of it. Before Farragut were two forts, Morgan and Gaines, some shore batteries and beyond an ironclad believed to be impregnable against attack at-tack and irresistible in assault, with some other little ships as attendants. The forts were fully armed with the finest artillery that England could produce, Fort Morgan having eighty-five guns, mostly 100-pound rifles. Farragut was in his old wooden Hartford. He had three first class Monitors and two or three of Eads "tin-clad" Monitors, the rest were wooden wood-en ships which went into battle in double column. The Tecumseh, Craven's Monitor led the ironclads, iron-clads, then came the Brooklyn, she was given the place of honor because she had double deck guns and also an apparatus for picking up torpedoes, tor-pedoes, and a special order was made by Farragut Farra-gut to keep to the east of the buoys where the channel was clear. But Craven drove his ship straight on to the west of the buoys. He fired the opening gun, then loaded with a steel-pointed solid shot. His ambition was to drive straight at the great iron clad Tennessee to grapple with and capture her. H Farragut expressed the belief after the battle H that Craven would have succeeded, but sudden- H ly beneath his ship's keel a torpedo exploded. For ' a moment she reeled from side to side and then l went down. H A week later divers found nearly all the 'H Tecumseh's men at their allotted stations and the dead chief engineer who had been married in H New York two weeks before, was found one hand M upon the lever of the revolving turrett, the other M holding an open letter of his two-weeks' bride. When the Tecumseh went down, Alden of the Brooklyn stopped his ship and signaled back M asking for instructions. At the same time his ship fell off athwart the channel. In the mean- M time the forts were hurling their flro upon the fleet, the brunt of which was centered upon the flagship. Farragut was lashed in the rigging, t and when the signal came from Alden, the ques- M tion was, "what is best?" The shots of the H enemy were playing havoc with his ship and M men. The fleet was waiting orders. He said, lat- jH er, that a voice seemed to say to him "forward." He shouted down to his fleet captain, "Four bells Drayton, go ahead," and to Jouett on the Hart- fl ford's consort, "full steam ahead, Jouett!" So they drove on over the wreck of the M Tecumseh, the fleet following and when all tho M guns got in play the gunners of Fort Mlorgan M were driven from their guns by the appalling jH flre. The rest of tho .battle was but a series of H incidents all pointing to one end. The fleet sur- M rounded the Tennessee and compelled her sur M render and the great victory was won. M The fleet was filled with great souls, but tho H masterful one was the grand old man, then sixty- H three years of age, who in the rigging of the H Hartford watched over and directed the mighty tragedy. M The key of his mind was made clear when he wrote a friend from his squadron in the Missis- H sippi: "I am not prepared for defeat. The man H who would be prepared for defeat would be half defeated before he commenced." M And again: "I mean to bo whipped or to whip my enemy. I hope for success and shall do all H I can to secure it, and trust in God for the rest." H Next Wednesday will be the fiftieth annlver- H sary of that fight in Mobile bay. It is a sacred B day in our country's history. H |