The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-19


In attempting to force landing through hgl
sea, and that he was the victim of a reckless Oh
too daring enterprise. There Is no truth in thi'.
There was no trace of imprudence in tue
adventure.
On the 11th of January, 1868, the Admiral,
accompanied by his nsg-leuteDdnt (Reed), left
the Hartford and pulled for the bar, attem 1tlng
to enter the 0saca river, for the purpose OF
visiting the American Minister, General Van
Valkenburgh, preparatory TO the departure OF
his feet for home. A few days before, the Pa
cidc mail had brought him direct intelligence
from the Secretary of the Navy of the immediate
sailing Of his relief from the United States, and
he was to meet the new admiral at Singapore
early in March. He was full of hope and soirits
at the prospect of the termination of his cruise.
aud anxious to make Lis final visit to the
| japanese shore. For some days a heavy wind
bad set IN. and rendered the bar impassabe:
| but on the morning of the llth of January, the
WIND had decreased, 2pd the Admiral noticed,
| from ihe deck of the Hartford, that nun Der of
/ ,!apaDcse boats bad safely crossed the bar. He
naturally con.... ia playfullT "fIi M
tHIicSied toiea ie on his sword, he sa,.. "nd be
ready for On % sN, wren we are near the bar, a..
aIIy urn step, he strode TO the ganruyaa ,
bod diAeu N oyer the side of the noble old shin thai
tbrorSb stg iong and 90 often carried him SAFELY
y.prm aud battle
, as the boat approached the bar, the Admiral,
true TO his promise. threw off his sword, aud
Lieutenant Reed followed his example. The
danger was not, apparently, great; but, in
moment, three heavy rollers dashed, in quick
succession, over the boat, the last of which
broached her. and threw her bottom up. The
Admiral, Leutenant Reed, aud three of the
crew succeeded III regaining the boat, and,
clamberiug up on her. Clung to the keel. But
one survivor was taken from the trail wreck
lie lone OF the crew reported that the others
had fallen of, one by one, before relief could
reach them, and that the Admiral, from the
lnhrmities of his age, had been the first to quit
bis hold. 1t was intensely cold; the blast OF the
pillows was deaienTng, aud not q word was
uttered in the last vague aud benumbed
struggle of these men Tor life, The horse
below of death was constantly in their ears,
drowning every ut,erance but the irrenresslble
prayer to God--those fewest words, which no
storm, or cl%mor, or convulsion can silence or
intercept in their passage to the skies The
Admiral clung but .ew moments to the keel
OF the boat, and then ht3 brave form vanished
beneath the bilows, and was lost in the mist of
the storm. His body was afterwards recovered,
cold and stark, on on OF the low flats at the
mouth of the river. He was in his 77th year
when he died.
Thus perished dismGIly on an obscure coast,
in an indifferent adventure, aud, apparently, by
the merest accident, one OF the most useful
officers in our navy, one OF the brayest spirits
in the late war, and one OF the true Chris ian
heroes of modern times.
Mr.. Richard Grant White in his article en-
titled "Words and Their Uses" discourses
thus about "Words which are not words:"-
To know what are rds that are not words,
we must first know hat are words that are
words.
What is a word? Everybody knows. The
most ignorant child, II IL can speak, needs no
definition OF word Probably no word in the
language is so rarely rred to 10 dictionaries
as this. l a INIT that until began to write this
article, and had framed dehnlton OF word for
myself, | haG never seen or heard one that
remember. Yet let any reader shut this book
here, and Try to tell exactly what word
| is, and write down his definition before he
goes on with this article, and he may find
that the task is not SO easy as he
may have supposed it to DO. DIR. Johnson's
definition is "a single part OF Speech" at the
limited view and schoolmasterships style of which
we may be inclined at first to smile. Richard
told" But this applies equally to speech or a
| story, His second is ian articuate utterance of
the voice." which is really the same as Worces-
ter's "'an articula'e sound" But this will not
co; for baclonaiOtUa is an articuate sound, but
! ii is not word, and hope never will be one in
! my language; and and you are not artIcuate
| sounds, and yet they are words. WeosLer's
IAN artcula.e or vocal sound, or a combina.
! tion OF articulate and vocal sounds uttered by
the human voice. and by custom expressing an
Here plainly, fulness aud accuracy of
! definition have been sought, bug they
| have not been attained. The definition,
considering its design, is superhlous,
inexact, and incomplete The whole OF the drst
part OF it, making a distinction between articu-
late and vocal sounds, and between such sounds
aud a combination OF them, Is needless and
/ from the purpose. The latter part of the dei-
milton uses custom" vaguely; and in the word
idea fails to include aall that is required. My
own definition, above referred to, is--"Au utter
| ance of the human voice which in any COM
| munity expresses thought or a thing. If there
! is a village or a hamlet where ee expresses |
/ love, or any other thought, and kiklt means
bread, or anything else, then Tor that community
ee and kikat are words. But words generally
are utterances which express thoughts or things
to a race, a people. Custom is not an